Archive for August, 2015

How is it only day 6!?

I am exhausted already. Every shift on the oars getting soaked by huge waves and battling in the wind wipes me out and every shift in the cabin I can barely force myself to do the essentials like washing or eating before falling asleep. I am more tired after a week on dry land where we managed to get less sleep than we do on Doris than I was after 68 straight days at sea. The mighty Pacific has been throwing everything she has at us with big swell and strong winds. We spend all day and night crusty wih salt from the waves breaking over our heads which makes the skin sting and the scalp itch. I am too scared to attempt getting a brush through my matted and salty hair. When we’re in the cabins the exertion of eating or trying to wash off the salt leads to profuse sweating. I can’t believe we’ve only been out here for 6 days and haven’t even covered 200nm yet!

However despite all of this the ocean seems to know when we need a pick me up too. Last night’s sunset shift was one of my favourites ever. Nats and I were on the oars together. We had Nat’s chill out playlist on the speakers, there was the least splashing that had happened all day and the sunset lit up the sky in orange and fluorescent pink. The colours reflect off the water turning the ocean more colours than you would think possible. We spent most of the 2 hour shift with grins on our faces and I fell in love with ocean rowing all over again.

For now we are still pushing South trying to get free of a westerly current in the hope we will pick up some more speed once we are out of it. Samoa still seems a long way off so we return to our trusty chunking routine taking each day one shift at a time and trying to stay in the moment and appreciate as much as we can of our time at one with the beautiful Pacific!

Leg 2, Day 4

It’s day 4 already and I’m not entirely sure how we got here!

There has been a stark contrast between the chaos of preparing to leave your life behind for a few months, and the gentle rhythm of our daily lives out on the ocean. The past few days have blurred a bit for me as I try to gain some sea legs, but already we are queens of routine and together we might know every lyric to the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

I’ve always been very respectful of the power of the ocean, but I’ve never seen so many sides to it. Predominantly there has been big swell and waves coming from all angles. For me these splashes have been welcomed because it’s a brief break from the sweltering heat. Ps. We cover up really well and pack on the sunscreen.

The two aspects of the row that I was most curious to find out how I would react to was the tight routine schedule and the night shifts (mild fear of dark water). I am happy to say though that these have become two favourites of mine. The routine adds an aspect of certainty amidst an ever changing ocean, and the night shifts are cooler and currently lit up by the moon (I still wouldn’t swim in it though!)

The amazing things we’ve seen so far: huge fluorescent blue Mahi Mahi fish escorting our boat away from Hawaii, swarms of birds appearing from nowhere for a fish feeding frenzy, a night-time rainbow, the sunsets and sunrises lighting the sky in a fluorescent pink, and lots of shooting stars.

Doris is currently riding the waves beautifully, and is truly like a little cork bobbing on the surface of the ocean. She has gained my full trust in proving herself to be a sturdy stallion to get us to Samoa safely

Love Lizanne x