If this row has taught me anything it is to appreciate the small things. There are many uncomfortable things about living on a 29ft ocean rowing boat in the middle of the Pacific with three other people and a lot of salty ocean waves, but the worst thing in my opinion is the state of my towel.Never again will I take for granted a soft fluffy towel when I step out of my fresh water shower at home. Now it’s bad enough that for 9 months I will have had to dry myself with a travel towel. Despite being quick drying and lightweight and perfect for the odd expedition or holiday they are no real substitute for a proper towel. But even worse out here my towel always seems to be wet, whether it’s from drying myself every time we come off the oars after being splashed, drying after a shower or from sweating in the cabin. At the moment the problem is particularly bad due to the conditions and the heat and the saddest thing about getting in to the warm cabin after a cold night shift is trying to dry myself with a towel wetter than my wet weather gear. In my eyes there are not many things worse than a soggy towel so often I take mine out with me on to the oars, peg it to the grab line in the sunshine and hope for some drying action.Now I don’t know what it is about my towel in particular, but it seems to be like a red rag to a bull. Every time I hang it up waves come splashing over Doris and it gets soaked in salty water – it’s another of Doris’ laws. I can hang anything else up and it only gets splashed as much as anyone else’s clothes but my towel is a different story.Now, once the first splash occurs there is a dilemma. Should I leave the towel hanging up in the hope that the splash dries, or should I bring it in before it gets any worse? Needless to say I always opt to keep the faith and leave it out. Almost every time, just as I am thinking that it is definitely drier than before and considering bringing it in, another wave will come along and the dilemma will begin again. Now it’s sometimes hard to keep your sense of humour when the waves are soaking your towel once again.Yesterday in the pre-sunset shift Megs and I were in this position. We decided that our towels couldn’t get any wetter after two hours in the sweat box cabin so we hung them out. The sun almost instantly went behind the clouds and the splashing began. The sense of humour thought about failing but we kept the faith and left the towels hanging. We had a chill out playlist on the radio but a change of mood was required so we cracked out a cheesy playlist and began to sing. Surely, we thought, with all this wind the towels are sure to at least be drier than before by the end of our shift. Our two hours ended and we returned to the cabin. The towels were still soaking. Another night with a wet towel. Oh well there is always tomorrow…. This morning dawned and it was another sunny day so out came the towels again. Distracted by good tunes on our iPods we didn’t see the big wave coming until it hit us. Then there was an incident which resulted in Meg’s sleeping sheet and sarong coming unpegged from the grab rail and one end of each ending up in the sea. “I don’t want to dry stuff with you any more” she said. Oh dear maybe next time I should keep the towel inside.
UPDATE: We are still experiencing some big weather out here on the Pacific. With the boisterous trade winds up to 24 kts the waves are the size of four story houses and we have to take care not to end up beam on to them. However the crashing waves are mesmerising and turn the most beautiful shade of turquoise and sparkle in the sun. The big bright moon has been lighting our way at night and Megs and I have been sharing our life stories so the time passes quickly. We are less than 400nm from Vanuatu and are managing to hold a better course in the wind and waves today. The salt sores are multiplying by the day so the talc and sudocreme are having to work harder than ever.