Day 56 – DIY

I have learned lots of new skills since becoming involved in the Coxless Crew project both in the journey to the start line and the journey across the ocean. One of my favourite learning curves has been my DIY apprenticeship with Uncle Tone. Before we reach each stopover I make a list of the maintenance jobs which need doing which aren’t so easy to do whilst riding the waves. When, in leg one we had to return to land after 16 days to fix our electronics we also had a long list of maintenance jobs which we had compiled while getting used to life on Doris. These weren’t things which affected the integrity or safety of the boat but which would make things more efficient, easier or tidier on board. For example we fitted bungee between the pockets in the aft cabin for extra storage and a new cover for our vents in the fore cabin to stop leaking when big waves flood the deck. Now when I say we did this, what I actually mean is that Tony worked and I assisted and learned. I have come to realise that almost anything can be fixed with epoxy putty, that araldite will glue anything and that I love taking things apart and putting them back together again better than before. On land we have modified the seat setup, shortened the oars, installed storage in the aft cabin roof, fixed leaks, installed fans and replaced various items. I can now be trusted to wield the cordless drill, saw and marine sealant unsupervised. I have also learnt a lot about electronics, solar panels, boat setup and how Doris was put together through the different maintenance jobs we have needed to do since we left San Francisco.

DIY has become one of my roles on Doris while out at sea as well as on land, probably because things that squeak, rattle, flap, grate and creak annoy me before they annoy anyone else. Now when anything breaks I am the first port of call for the girls. The DIY jobs on Doris are ongoing while we are out on the water and mainly involve WD40, gorilla tape (I don’t believe you can have too much of this stuff on board, Tony thinks that three rolls is too much!), and our trusty screwdrivers and spanners. The salt water makes things rusty and squeaky and the different rowing fittings loosen over time. Recently I’ve had to tighten the rowing riggers, fix the oar collars, clean and lubricate the seat bearings and WD40 the wind vane and go pro camera fittings, regularly tighten the grab rails and adjust the hatch handles. I love the satisfaction of a job well done and am looking forward to taking my new found DIY skills and the drill back home and getting started on some new projects.

UPDATE: Last night was probably the most beautiful of this leg so far. When Megs and I came out onto the oars for our first night shift it was pitch black, the inky darkness enveloping us, the ocean silent around us. As we pulled our oars through the water the sparkle of phosphorescence glittered. Over the two hours the clouds slowly thinned and then dispersed leaving a sky filled with thousands of bright stars which were reflected all around us in the mirror flat water of the mighty Pacific. We then heard some splashing along the side of the boat and I thought I saw a fin. It disappeared but about 10 minutes later a fin glided up alongside us and we saw a huge shark swimming beside Doris. It was Eduardo, back with us after heading home to spend Christmas and new year with his family! He came back a few times through the shift and then again to visit Nats when she came out to row. Our second night shift started with the same magical star filled sky, followed after an hour by the moon glowing red on the horizon. As it rose up a shining path reflected on the water lighting the way to Cairns. We wished on a couple of shooting stars and felt incredibly lucky to be experiencing what few people will ever see. Our final night shift found clouds gathering on the horizon and as dawn began, the sky lit up a bright orange. As it faded away we thought the show was over but as the sun peeked over the horizon the sky glowed once again before giving way to a clear blue sky and sunshine as day 56 began.

Day 52 – 2015: A year of ocean rowing

If you had told me at the beginning of this year that I would be waving goodbye to 2015 from Doris still out in the middle of the Pacific I would have laughed. This adventure was supposed to be all done and dusted by now and I thought I would be toasting the new year on dry land while reminiscing about the magical days on the ocean.

However best laid plans and all that, and to be honest if you are going to reflect back on the past twelve months and clear your head ready for the new challenges of the year ahead then I don’t think there’s any better place to do it than while staring out over our blue bubble of rolling waves with birds flying and clouds scuppering overhead. 2015 has been a year all about the row. The first few months busy with the final preparations and heading off to San Francisco and the start line and the months since then filled with two hours on, two hours off in the dance of life on board a 29ft rowing boat called Doris. 2015 has been a unique, special and exciting year and 2016 has a lot to live up to but the journey is not finished yet and I’m sure there are plenty more adventures and challenges to come both before and after we reach Cairns. The possibilities for this new year are endless. I was thinking about my highlights and lowlights for 2015 and unsurprisingly they all involved experiences from the Pacific so I thought I would share with you the things I have grown to love and hate about ocean rowing over the last nine months.

HATE:
1) Waves which crash over your head leaving your skin crusty with salt.
2) The constant battle to dry my towel.
3) Hot and sunny days where the sea state is rough and the only option is to keep the hatch doors firmly closed and sweat it out in the sauna which is the aft cabin.
4) Moonless nights when you can’t see the waves before they crash over your head.
5) Being on para anchor. Rather than being a well earned rest from rowing this is an uncomfortable ride involving being thoroughly shaken up in a small, hot cabin while our muscles stiffen up making us feel like old women.
6) The alarm which wakes me from a peaceful sleep after a far too short 90mins.
7) Eating rehydrated food every day. Now don’t get me wrong, as rehydrated expedition food goes it isn’t bad but after 233 days I would kill for some fresh vegetables and an apple.
8) Being slapped by flying fish at night
9) Battling adverse currents and winds and travelling at speeds of less than 1kt despite rowing as hard as possible.
10) The lack of green. We have seen every imaginable shade of blues, greys, pinks and orange but I miss the colour green and the sight of trees and rolling hills.

LOVE:
1) The days when the ocean is silent around us and the mirror flat surface reflects the sky, stretching out like an endless infinity pool.
2) Clear nights where millions of stars shine above us and the Milky Way stretches across the sky. These are the nights where I feel our insignificance and how small we really are.
3) The company. We have shared our tiny home and our life stories, laughing, singing and crying our way across the Pacific and formed a bond which will stay with us forever.
4) Being part of a strong team who come together utilising each other’s strengths and working with each other’s weaknesses to achieve something far bigger than any of us would ever have achieved alone. I count this as different to number three and feel lucky to count these five girls as both my team mates and my friends.
5) The feeling of being on top of the world as you ride up to the top of a huge wave and can see around you for miles before rolling down the other side back into the trough.
6) The whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles, fish and birds we have shared our journey with. When travelling so slowly on a level with their watery home these wildlife encounters are up close and personal.
7) Days when we are flying along with following winds and favourable currents and surfing the waves towards Cairns hitting top speeds of over 5kts.
8) Swimming in the crystal clear ocean with mahi mahi cruising around below and the space to stretch out in all directions in the cool clean water.
9) Having the time and space to think, share stories and ideas and really listen to each other without the distractions of real life with its constant connectivity to phones, emails and social media getting in the way.
10) The way the waves transform into misty mountains during a heavy rainstorm which when it clears leaves the brightest rainbow in the sky which reflects on the water making us think we are headed towards the pot of gold at its base.
UPDATE: Last night, in massive swell and after a few huge waves hit us out of nowhere beam on, we had to put a line out and retire to the cabins during the dark hours. LP and I had a slumber party in the aft cabin complete with a film and snacks while Megs and Nats retired to the forecabin which was fortunately less like an oven than usual. Some of Megs ability to sleep through anything must have rubbed off on Nats as they both managed to get some shut eye and were looking amazingly chirpy this morning. It is New Year’s Eve so obviously we have some festivities planned for later. The party poppers and yellow pants are ready to help us welcome in 2016 from the Pacific in another celebration we will never forget.

I have always had very vivid dreams and there are often nights in Doris where during our all too short sleep shifts I will fall into a dream and wake up not knowing where I am or what I’m doing. My dreams on the boat often involve my teammates but we are rarely on board Doris. We have been on snowy mountains, grassy hills, on ferry boats and in school and awaking from these adventures to a small cabin squashed against another person is not always a nice surprise. Sometimes friends from home will turn up on Doris in my dreams and confuse me completely.

Rowing the Pacific also provides plenty of opportunities for daydreams. Whilst on the oars (and ideally not whilst responsible for steering in big seas) and staring out across the ever changing ocean it is easy to allow the kind to wander. Thoughts of returning home and what I’m going to do for work, the friends I’m going to see and the future adventures I might have fill my head and I can take these imaginings in any direction I choose and live out my dreams in my head in practice for doing it for real.

There are some days on Doris which feel like a dream. When the ocean is mirror flat and stretched out around our boat like an endless infinity pool, when a haze over this mirror means you can’t tell where the water ends and the sky begins or when we row along the glittering path of the moon. Even when the swell is huge and the waves are crashing I still get moments where it seems so ridiculous that we are out in the middle of the Pacific and have spent 228 days and counting in our two hours on, two hours off routine. So ridiculous that maybe I’m dreaming.

However there are other days where dry land feels like a dream. Doris feels like our home and rowing for 12 hours a day feels normal. Our departure and stopovers feel like they happened in a different life and I think our return to reality when we finally hit Cairns is going to happen with a fairly large bump.

UPDATE: At the end of an amazing Christmas Day the rain started to fall and it fell fairly torrentially for the whole night. Flashbacks to leg one where we spent many a night being freezing cold and soaking wet and waking up to put on soaking wet kit every two hours. Fortunately every night has its end and as the morning arrived the rain stopped. We are now hoping that the sun puts in an appearance so that we can dry some of our wet things before tonight. A 180m cargo ship called Newlead Albion passed within a mile of us this morning. We spoke with Captain Son and Carlos and to raise our spirits we asked them to blow their horn for us. They obliged and we cheered in response.

Day 41 – Christmas

Before now I have only ever spent one Christmas away from home when I was visiting a friend in Singapore. Meg has also only spent one Christmas away from home and Laura two so it will be strange for all of us to be so far from our normal celebrations come the 25th December. Christmas to me means spending time with my family, getting them all together in one place and enjoying a whole day of festive fun. The day starts with singing Christmas songs with my sister, the afternoon always involves playing board games which get ridiculously competitive and a lot of good food is eaten. This years Christmas is going to be a unique one! The toughest part about it is definitely going to be not being able to share the day with our families and loved ones. It is hard to feel festive when it is so hot here and we are so far removed from the normal Christmas shopping chaos, Christmas tunes on the radio and lights up everywhere. It seems a little surreal that we can possibly have reached this time of year anyway after leaving the UK at the beginning of April.

However our little ocean family has come to terms with missing Christmas at home and we are getting very excited about our festive season. We have put up the decorations, started singing Christmas songs as an alarm to wake the other pair up for their night shifts and have the Christmas hats ready. We even have a tiny Christmas tree in the aft cabin. Our parents sent out a whole load of surprises to Samoa for us so we have presents, games and Christmas pudding to go with our rehydrated Christmas lunch. The best thing about Christmas so far has been the fact that it has given us something to count down to that isn’t affected by how fast we are travelling or what direction we are going in. Thinking of ways to mark each of the 12 days of Christmas has filled time during our night shifts and given us things to look forward to. The amazing support that we have been receiving from everyone back home also means that we feel like everyone will be with us here on Doris. We also have some radio interviews planned for over Christmas and new year which will hopefully help us to connect with the celebrations at home.

UPDATE: Last night Nat and I were on the oars enjoying the clear night sky and the increased speed that has arrived along with some stronger winds when we noticed a shape slinking through the water. It was a fin reflecting in our red port side nav light and it belonged to Eduardo. He looks even bigger than normal in the dark and he stayed with us for the full two hour shift. This morning, although the swell has picked up, Eduardo is still tracking Doris.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a striped cane of candy.
On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two boats a passing.
On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three sharks a circling.
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me four Christmas hats.
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, five Tupperware
On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six boobies flying
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven belly flopping fish
On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eight waves a crashing

Day 36 – Choose your attitude – Ems vs. Ems

Leg two of our journey between Hawaii and Samoa was a tough one. The painfully slow progress and battling hard every day against adverse currents frustrated me massively and led to a spiralling of negative thoughts and a dislike of being on the oars. Over the last couple of weeks we have had a bit of déjà vu as we have been again fighting negative currents and after a racing start our progress became frustratingly slow. I was worried, as I’m sure was the rest of the team, that I would struggle with this and give in to the frustration again. However thanks to the amazing Keith, our sports psych, who I had spoken to often during the last part of the second leg and who I spent time debriefing and talking through coping strategies with while we were in Samoa, and my lovely team mates who have supported me in the tough times and also while testing out different techniques this leg has been very different. I feel like I have dealt pretty well with the challenges which the ocean has thrown at us over the last few weeks.

One of the main fuels for my frustration in leg two was constant calculating of how long it was going to take us to reach our destination depending on the speed which we were currently travelling. This combined with adding extra time with every current which took us in the opposite direction to Samoa was enough to drive anybody crazy! This leg I have made a conscious effort not to do this. Even when we were making amazing progress I never allowed myself to get carried away with excitement about an arrival date. I have been making a huge effort to stay in the moment, to take the time every shift on the oars to appreciate where we are, the beauty of the water, the waves and the endless skies. Despite still not exactly loving the rowing I have been able to remind myself every day how lucky we are to be out here.

The frustration felt with our progress also led to my trying to row my heart out to fight the currents and winds on my own on the boat. I ended up aching, exhausted and dreading each session on the oars. I needed to have a plan for this leg to prevent the same thing happening again and in Samoa with Keith decided that when conditions were tough I needed to define success for that shift for myself. Whether that be a target speed or direction, holding position or just rowing at a sustainable pace for two hours or keeping up conversation with my rowing partner as a distraction. I have also been determinedly not paying too much attention to the speed reading on our deck repeater and only worrying about keeping the heading on the required degrees. I also worked in Samoa to put together some positive imagery surrounding rowing for using on the oars when I was struggling to stay in the moment and enjoy a shift. I have always used imagery surrounding racing to put myself in a ‘power up’ or ‘game time’ state with a lot of success as part of the performance enhancing strategies we put together with Keith before we started the row. However this required something a little different. Images of peaceful rowing below the lock at Marlow, a calm summers day on the Bristol docks, freezing cold sunrises out at Ely when training for the boat race and weekends spent in the sunshine on the canal in Stroud all made the cut and are helpful for chilling out on the oars.

This row is proving to be more than just a physical journey across the ocean and I am learning a lot of skills which I’m sure will be transferable to life when we return from the row. When I first joined the Coxless Crew team and first met Keith I was a little scared by how accurate my NEO personality profile was but impressed by his insight and the strategies he gave us to develop skills individually and as a team. I’m not going to lie though, I found our initial team sessions a little stressful. However throughout the journey to the start line and in particular since we’ve been on the boat Keith has proved to be a great sounding board, giver of good advice and general legend. Thanks Keith! Thanks also to everyone who has sent supportive messages and encouragement to Doris and on my blogs. It is a massive help to know that I have so much support back from so many people.

UPDATE: Last night after Megs and my crazy rain storm LP and Nats saw a family of sharks circling the boat. There was little Alonzo, his older brother Juan and dad Eduardo. Meg and I have taken it upon ourselves to become the Christmas fairies and are providing little festive treats for each of the 12 days of Christmas. Day one was candy canes and then yesterday we made hot chocolate and baileys for our middle of the night shifts. It was the tastiest drink I’ve had in a long time. Today we created goodie bags with some festive games and an invitation to the Coxless Crew Christmas party. Early this morning Megs and I were woken from our slumber by an approaching fishing boat. LP had contacted them on the VHF but a language barrier meant that they thought we might need help so they headed over to check up on us. They called us small boat and as they approached we told them we were ok and they said bye bye small boat and headed back off on their fishing trip. Today it is hot hot hot and the towels and sleeping sheets are drying nicely. Yay!

I’ll leave you with the start of our very own Christmas song…. To be completed.

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a striped cane of candy.
On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two boats a passing.
On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three sharks a circling.

So ‘The Coxless Crew ‘have told us about their sad losses, mugs, sporks, Tupperware dishes and the like well, Emma, as a child, was well known for her ice cream parlour that collects all the kitchen bits that seem to have no home. Let me explain, as a little girl our first port of call when anything went missing was to ask Emma. It was always when she was washing up as a child that things disappeared they were never to be seen again so the family joke was that they were in her ice cream parlour. So girls, all your sad losses just ask Ems about her parlour!

So what is Ems really like? Well, quiet (except when in dispute with her siblings!) strong, thoughtful and always up for a challenge. Her idea of a gap year was to do a Three month Jungle survival course which included living in the jungle for three days alone. Her idea of a marathon was to do this up Mont Blanc or one being a lonely number, a double marathon in Berlin or triple in Pembrokeshire; She rowed with Marlow Rowing club but strived to be an Olympian, sadly her family genes were vertically challenged , you may have noticed she is on the short side for a rower! So we are often asked ‘were we shocked when Ems told you that she was going to row an ocean, the answer is simply No!. What about the Pacific Ocean, well still No!, It sounded just the sort of thing Ems would think was a good thing to do. Having rowed for England and been in the Cambridge boat race team, in one of the few years that they won, rowing across the Pacific was no surprise at all.

So what has this journey been like for us…Well there is the obsessional need to follow the pink dots. First thing in the morning no matter how early we get up we look to see, ‘where is Doris?’. Has Ems sent an email yet? And what is the weather like on The Pacific? I go to the stables both morning and night before and after work. I guess I feel closest to Ems at this time as when I watch the sunrise or sunset, see the moon and stars or clouds I often wonder what can the crew see now? Does it look the same from where they are? The evening is spent waiting for the blog to come in! Do we feel anxious, well yes every day and all day but the bright moment comes with cartoons from ‘The freaky wave’ (check these out on twitter) The humour given to every situation shared from Doris through their blogs cannot fail to amuse and make you laugh out loud! Another part of life that gives me both comfort but also never ceases to astound me is how many people ask after Doris and her very special and inspirational crew. I thought it was just me and the other Mums who look forward to reading the blogs but it seems there are so many people out there and you all do the same. We all live in the small town of Marlow on Thames and so many people are following this epic journey. I would like to say thank you, for supporting me and my family, but more so for supporting the team and their charities. This is a team who are so amazingly close and tight that even I feel left out when we are all together. They have an astounding bond linked by the passion to support, inspire and raise money to help their two charities, Breast Cancer Care and Walking with the Wounded, specifically the support of female soldiers who have been injured in war. I don’t think the Coxless Crew realise how amazing and inspiring they are to so many people who are watching their journey.

So my final thoughts are to share the huge pride that I feel, I have always felt for Ems. But to end this little glimpse of Ems and her family, Gramps would like to quote a poem from John Masefield:-

“I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow ro(w)ver,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trip’s over”

Dry socks and fluffy towels would certainly help too!!!

UPDATE: We are finally less than 100nm to go to Vanuatu. The
last two weeks has definitely been a case of stroke by stroke, mile by mile and shift by shift as we have made painfully slow progress. We are all getting excited though because tomorrow we will be decorating Doris for Christmas and breaking out the Christmas tunes for the first time.

Day 31 – Aft cabin evolution

Being a team of six but only having four of us together at one time is an interesting thing. However, the two girls who are not physically on board Doris with us at any one time, are still with us in spirit to such an extent that it seems strange to think that they are not really there and are just on the oars/ in the cabin/ in the forecabin when you are elsewhere. Izzy, Lizanne and Meg have all brought something unique and special to the row and each leg seems to have suited perfectly the fourth team member. With three such different people, each leg of our journey has felt like an entirely different experience. It seems crazy to think that Nat, Laura and I have been living on Doris for 212 days now sharing a cabin the size of a small two man tent with three other people. Although we are only rarely all in the cabin together we do all keep our personal belongings there plus communal stuff. We cook, eat, wash, change, blog, film, sleep, all in this tiny space so it is not surprising that there is a tendency for some mess to occur. The state of the aft cabin seems to have been an evolving process as we have progressed along our journey.

In leg one Izz was our glue. As she did in the journey to the start line, on board Doris she kept us all in line. She instilled our routines, nagged us to tidy our pockets and check the hatches and cleaned the footwell (her least favourite place on the boat) regularly. Often she’d even tidy up after us when she couldn’t handle the mess. Frequently since Izz left the boat in Hawaii we use the phrase ‘Izzy would be having kittens’ in relation to the state of the aft cabin. In Santa Barbara we installed some bungee behind the pockets in the aft cabin so that we could store a water bottle and our snack pack securely next to our individual pockets. In Izzy’s time this is what they held.

During leg two it was obvious that among the four of us Lizanne was the one most affected by the messy and cramped conditions in the aft cabin and the hair and other dirt that collects in the nooks and crannies on the deck. We drove her crazy by leaving the washing up sponge outside and not rinsing our tuna packets. She made a valiant effort to keep things under control, making us a bin and a pen holder which we still have. However without the experience Izz had of organising us in the months leading up to the row, Lizanne was ultimately outnumbered three against one and had to learn to embrace our slightly messy existence.

For leg three our fourth team member is the lovely Meg. I can’t decide whether Meg isn’t bothered by the mess or whether she just thinks that this is how life is on an ocean rowing boat but either way she seems happy with the state of our living quarters. Our autopilot shelf has never held quite so much stuff (Izzy really would be having kittens) and the gaps between our pockets have never been piled quite so high. This is slightly perilous during the rough conditions we’ve been having and we often find that the alarm clock is missing from the shelf when it goes off and we have to hunt for it among our sleeping sheets as it gets more and more angry.
UPDATE: Today I am a little bored of looking at the ocean. A little bored of the blue and grey colours, the regular soakings with salt water and our slow progress. I would like to see some trees, some fields and hills and go for a walk. Yesterday we had a sudden, exciting, increase in our speed and in 8 hours covered 12nm which is more than our daily progress recently. Sadly it didn’t last the night although we are hopeful that it is a hint of what is soon to come. Last night was black with no moon and a lot of clouds. The wind picked up again and we were subjected once again to regular salt water showers. However the huge bonus was that the flying fish don’t seem to like the rougher conditions and stayed away from Doris in the most part. Our beautiful mahi mahi nightly escort is back again and they surfed alongside us in the waves all night and regularly leaped out of the water with a big bellyflopping splash.

Day 26 – Ode to the Flying Fish

I was on the oars with Izz one day,
When a flying fish came out to play.
While talking of cabbages and kings,
We watched as on its outstretched wings,
It soared like a dragon small and blue.
Further than we could imagine it flew.
That very first time I saw it fly,
Between San Fran and Hawaii under a bright blue sky,
We watched it with excitement and wonder,
Some more wildlife to name and ponder.
We saw them in shoals, fish big and small,
We’d point and gasp and to the others call.
The mahi mahi and birds were no match,
And only occasionally would the fish they catch.
As time went by they increased in number,
And started to disturb our peaceful slumber.
Nights on the oars we started to dread,
As flying fish hurtled towards our head.
Coming at us from the darkest night,
Streaking towards our navigation light.
The worst is hitting us in the face,
In their rush to escape from those who chase.
We needed the protection of our wet weather gear,
As fish scales on bare skin we began to fear.
Each one we rescued and returned to the sea,
But in the end between you and me,
Sadly we couldn’t save them all,
When so many on Doris’ deck did fall.
When the sun above the horizon began to peep,
Dead fish strewn all around in a heap.
The evidence of a night of carnage lay,
Cleaning of fish guts to start every day.
We left from Hawaii and to our delight,
No flying fish to disturb rowing at night.
We were doing so well but the tables have turned,
In the last few days the fish nightmare’s returned.
I’m terrified a fish will land in my hood,
I have to tell myself there’s no way that it could.
In and out of the hatch we go at great speed,
Scared the cabin light will require a fish to be freed.
Dead fish behind the oars and every small place,
Before they decompose its a hide and seek race.
Fortunately our trusty bbq tongs mean,
We can clear the decks and keep everything clean.
Despite the magic of their elegant flight,
They still have the power to give us a fright.
So there’s one thing that you all should know,
I won’t miss the flying fish at the end of this row.

UPDATE: We are still stuck in a northerly current but have been making slightly better progress over night despite the attack of the flying fish, and our top speed today has been 1.5kts. This morning the sun is shining and the seas are the calmest they’ve been in a long time so we are enjoying a peaceful time on the oars without the constant soakings we’ve become used to. I still haven’t re-found my happy place on the oars but on a day like this it is easy to stay in the moment watching the fluffy white clouds wander across the sky and enjoying the warmth of the sun on unsalted skin. We are still waiting for some wildlife to appear but the calmer conditions are set to last at least another day so we are keeping our eyes pealed for any movements in the water.

Day 21 – Crewsaver

The wind is still blowing at 21kts and the waves are still crashing over Doris on a regular basis in each rowing shift. In conditions like these our Crewsaver wet weather gear and life jackets are our constant companions every time that we leave the cabin. Crewsaver came on board as sponsors of our safety kit at the London Boat Show in 2014 where we met the lovely Greg O’Brian and they have been a huge support to us ever since.

Our Crewsaver life raft sits under the front rowing position and is there only in case of emergency. We were trained in its use at the Crewsaver office by the lovely Guy Page and also practiced our life raft drills as part of the sea survival training we completed in Plymouth with Survival Wisdom. Here we also ran through all of our risk assessments and what if scenarios and learnt that the life raft is really only a ‘slightly better than death raft’ and that if we follow all our safety procedures we should avoid ever needing it. Unlike the raft, the rest of the kit that Crewsaver has given us is used frequently on board Doris.

Initially we had Coastal Ergofit 190 life jackets for our training on the water off Christchurch before our departure. Laura and I tested these out during our 12 hr row at the boat show and were really surprised that it didn’t really feel like we were wearing them. These were upgraded to the extreme Ergofit 290 life jackets which we have been wearing since our departure from San Francisco. Luckily they are super comfortable to row in as we wear them during anything other than super flat conditions. They are activated by a hammer which means that they will inflate if we go overboard and into the ocean but won’t inflate when we get a wave to the head, which is lucky given current conditions. Attached to each life jacket we have a small knife – one of the survival gear units, a laser flare donated by Greatland Laser, personal locator beacon (PLB) and a personal AIS beacon from our other amazing sponsors McMurdo. We were lucky enough to visit Crewsaver and see how the life jackets were made which was fascinating and we were trained in all their special features and how to rearm them.

Crewsaver also provided us with the leashes which attach us to Doris at all times when we are moving about on the boat. Being leashed on at all times when on deck is our number one rule and the Orange leashes clip on to the front of our life jackets. When actually rowing we switch to an ankle surf leash but the orange leashes are reattached at changeover for our return to the cabin.

Our wet weather gear is red and black and makes us look a little like astronauts. It isn’t off shore gear so isn’t really made to deal with the extreme conditions we are currently experiencing, but it does a great job of keeping out most of the water and all of the wind and is our standard night time wear. The wonderful Hannah sent out a brand new set to Samoa for us so we are currently looking very bright and smart in our new kit.

By far our favourite Crewsaver kit is our thermals. They are the warmest, softest and most comfortable clothes any of us have ever worn and make us look like ninjas. We literally wore them every day in leg one and now that the nights are getting pretty cold again they will be making a reappearance. They are beginning to look a little worn now and I’m not sure they will ever smell the same again so we are hoping that Santa might bring us a new set for Christmas to help us survive the British winter we will be returning to in January (wink wink)!

UPDATE: Same same but different. We still have the strong winds and big swell but now our speed seems to have disappeared in an unfavourable current. If you see it please send it back to us. It is a lot harder to maintain a sense of humour while getting repeatedly soaked in cold salt water when you are only travelling at 0.3kts but we seem to be managing it with hysterical laughter often filtering into the cabin from the pair on the oars. Progress may be slow but we have our advent calendars ready for the countdown to Christmas tomorrow. Doris has also now covered 7000nm!!