Social time with Sarah

Emma Mitchell By

Today we spent the morning packing our snack packs. With the help of the Coxless Crew parents who worked like troopers we packed 264 bags of goodies to sustain us on our way to Samoa. Entertainment was provided by the arrival of a couple of the Transpac yachts finishing the race and arriving at the Yacht club to celebrate. When the Hawaiians host somebody they certainly do it in style providing freshly barbequed food, drinks and music for their crews. Fortunately the sailors couldn’t eat it all and we were invited to enjoy the leftovers.

snack packs

In the afternoon we ran through some of the routines on the boat with Lizanne and ran through the process for deploying the para anchor. We also packed up some of the hatches on Doris so she is slowly getting ready to head back to the open ocean. Our freeze dried food delivery has been delayed until Monday by customs and the FDA so we will now be leaving early doors on Tuesday.

This evening we had a well earning date night with the amazing Sarah Moshman. Food, a hilariously funny rom com film at the cinema rounded off by frozen yoghurt. It was fab to spend some time with her not behind a camera and reinforces how perfect a fit she is into our little team helping us tell our story.

train wreck yoghurt land

Finally our evening was completed with a Skype with the lovely Kirsten who keeps us connected with the real world while we are out at sea. Over and out for another day!

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Day 65

Emma Mitchell By

As I lie back in our sweat pit of a cabin to write this blog we are 151nm from Honolulu. So near and yet so far! For Izzy this is the end of the journey and for Lizanne it will be the beginning but for Laura, Nats and I it is only a short stop off as we are only a third of the way through our row. We always said that getting back in the boat in Hawaii would be the hardest part of our journey and it is at this point that what we are doing is so different to any other ocean row. Most ocean rowers as they approach land will be excited for celebrations of their success whereas we have a week to unpack, clean, repair and repack Doris before setting off for another at least 60 days at sea. And even after that we won’t be finished! I can’t speak for the other two but for me not getting back on board is not even an option as we haven’t completed what we set out to do yet but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a busy and challenging week on land ahead. Although reaching Hawaii is a big milestone, celebrations will be short lived as we have so much to do to get Doris and ourselves ship shape for the Samoa leg. As part of our weekly sit rep for Keith yesterday he had us include our hopes and fears for our time in Hawaii so I thought i’d share mine with you.

I hope that we take the time in Hawaii to celebrate what we have achieved as a team so far. We are going to miss Izzy. She sings us songs, tells us endless stories, is always there with a comforting word when you’re having a bad day and has the best dawn dance of all of us. Besides who is going to teach me poems or eat Nutella with a spoon straight from the jar with me (Lizanne I have you pencilled in for this role!) Importantly we also have to integrate Lizanne into the team and get her up to speed with everything she needs to know before we set off. The four of us have spent a lot of time together getting this project to the start line whereas Lizanne has spent minimal time with us and all of our recent contact has been via Skype. This will be both a challenge and a joy. Familiarity with each other and how we react to things is important however spending every waking and sleeping minute together will soon sort this out. We are all excited to have someone on the boat who hasn’t already heard all our stories and who hasn’t already told us all of theirs.

I also hope that we are able to use the time on land to share our story further. We are aiming to raise £250k for our two inspiring charities Breast Cancer Care and Walking With The Wounded and there is still a long way to go so we hope our arrival on solid ground will kickstart our fundraising. Another way we will tell our story is through the amazing Sarah Moshman, director/ producer of a documentary about our journey called ‘Losing sight of shore’. Sarah is coming out on a boat with the ever helpful Steve Dixon from the Hawaii Yacht Club to meet us about 5nm from our destination to capture some footage of our arrival. We can’t wait to see you Sarah!

I hope that we have time to recover and regroup both physically and mentally. For the last 65 days we have been rowing for 12 hours in every day and living with three other people in a space shorter than the men’s long jump world record where there is no space to stand up of stretch out without being pressed against another sweaty rower. We all have niggles and aches and pains. I feel lucky that physically I feel ok but after 16 days at sea walking on solid ground in Santa Barbara made me ache and I felt drunk and wobbly the whole week so I’m a little scared what I’ll be like now it’s been 65 days and counting. Hopefully a week will be long enough to heal and fix us up ready for the next leg.

I fear that we have so much to get done whilst on land that we will not take the time to have some rest and time to ourselves. My family won’t be out in Hawaii but I will want to spend time on Skype with them getting to have a conversation longer than 10mins on the sat phone. Laura and Nat’s parents will be there and it is important that they get to spend some time with them. We could all do with a bit of personal space after being cramped together for what has already been 81 days at sea. We also need to thank all the many people who have been sending us funny, motivational and inspiring messages while we’ve been out here. With another at least two months at sea before we reach landfall again there is also a lot of personal admin to get done.

So we are counting down our miles left to go and hoping to arrive on Sunday but we can’t relax too much as for the three of us rowing the full Pacific Ocean we mustn’t get too used to the comforts of land remembering that our beautiful 29ft pink boat Doris is still our home for at least another few months.

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Day 61 – An electric blue escort and a flyby from a friend

Emma Mitchell By

Day 61 – An electric blue escort and a flyby from a friend

Yesterday was a rather frustrating day as we had about 24 hours of painfully slow progress with mixed up winds and sea state following tropical storm Ela. We spent far more time than we would have wanted travelling at 0.1kts and in one four hour period we covered only a single nautical mile. It means that currently we are about 36 hours behind where we had expected. With favorable winds forecast for the next week we should be able to make up some ground but it is looking likely that our arrival into the Hawaii Yacht Club will be delayed by a day. All character building stuff as we’d been having it quite easy surfing along for a few days previously.

However in the evening things started looking up on board Doris. Firstly our speed picked up enough for us to switch the autopilot back on. Then Nat and I on our first dark shift were joined by a huge shoal of the electric blue mahi mahi fish. They were swimming along the boat on both sides, their bodies shimmering silver in the beam from our nav light. They are really inquisitive and were getting really close to our oars as we were rowing. So close in fact that both Nat and I managed to clip one as we were paddling. The fish stayed with us all night over a period of 8 hours and there must have been hundreds of them passing us in total. It was a pretty awesome experience and we spent a lot of time chatting to them as we rowed along.

Then this morning we had another visit from our friends the cargo ship Mokihana. They had emailed us to let us know that they should be passing us around 6pm UTC and so we had been excited about seeing them all night. They were a little bit later than expected and so Nat and I were out on the oars when they made contact on the VHF radio again. Laura had a good chat with them as they approached. Apparently among their current cargo is a couple of hundred head of cattle and a circus petting zoo. The petting zoo includes a donkey called Mokihana who was born on board the ship last year! Since it was daylight this time we could see them approaching and they are HUGE! A call came through on the radio from captain Tom ‘we’re going shaving, don’t worry we won’t nick you.’ They came for a proper flyby this time passing around 450m in front of us altering their course so they could get a good view. They were close enough that we could see them out on deck waving at us as we had a great time waving and whistling back. They are going to send us some photos so we can see what Doris looks like from that perspective. It properly made our day again and we are really grateful for them taking the time out to come and see us again.

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Day 57 – Three things…

Emma Mitchell By

Day 57 – Three things…

In the last couple of days there have been a couple of exciting occurrences on board Doris. Firstly, last night we passed the 500 miles to go to Hawaii mark according to our chart plotter (and our guesstimate of exactly where the Hawaii Yacht Club is). In celebration we had a ceremonial changing of our watches on to Hawaii time having left them in San Francisco time since our departure. The winds have picked up substantially and we are surfing some big waves at speed in the right direction with even stronger winds to come. Tony and Lizanne have booked their flights to come and meet us and so it looks like we might actually be nearly there!

The second exciting occurrence also happened last night. You may remember from one of my previous blogs 8 days ago that we spoke to a cargo ship called Mokihana who had come to look for us and say hello on their journey between Honolulu and Long Beach. Well last night they passed us on their return journey and this time came close for a proper greeting. They started chatting to Nat on the VHF and then after our changeover I took over on the radio. Very kindly they wanted to deliver us a care package of fresh fruit and vegetable and candy. However we had to explain that we can’t receive anything on board without losing our unsupported status so they settled for coming alongside us with all their lights on, signaling to us with a torch and giving us a blast on their horn. It totally made our night and we feel like we have made some new friends. The Mokihana will be passing us again on Sunday on their way back which is something to look forward to but even more excitingly Katie the second mate is being left behind in Hawaii and has promised to deliver our care package in person when we arrive at the Hawaii Yacht Club. It’s amazing that even out here in the middle of the ocean we can still find new supporters and we’re really grateful to them for taking the time to come over chat to us and follow our journey.

The final incident of interest happened 2 days ago when Izz and I were rowing in the late afternoon shift. We have seen a lot more birds in recent days and had been enjoying watching a frigate dive down to the water to fish and then chase a flying fish as it flew and catch it in its beak. Then I suddenly heard a cry of ‘to the right’ from Izz and turned to see what can only be described as a flock of at least a hundred large flying fish soaring through the air towards us. It was a pretty amazing sight all with their outstretched wings although there was only a second to appreciate it before we had to duck to avoid being hit round the head by them. Amazingly only one landed on the boat and I managed to save him quickly and get him back in the water. Although I’m glad we experienced the flock of fish moment I’ll be quite happy when we are out of flying fish territory as having them land on you at regular intervals throughout the night, having to clean the deck and the smell of fish in the morning is getting a bit old!

Spirits are high on Doris and we are all looking forward to reaching land in about 10 days time when we can have a shower and some real food. However we are also being careful not to wish away our final days as a crew before Lizanne replaces Izzy and to continue to enjoy and appreciate our time on the ocean. Here’s to a fun and fast final (hopefully only) 10 days!

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Day 52 – Rowing with SPIRIT

Emma Mitchell By

Day 52 – Rowing with SPIRIT

We have mentioned our team values in many of our blogs as they are something that we work to on Doris on a daily basis. Strength, Perseverance, Integrity, Resilience, Inspiration and Trust make up our team SPIRIT. Before we left the UK we blogged about these values and what they meant to us, however I have been reflecting on exactly how we are living these values and what they actually look like on board a 29ft ocean rowing boat.

image1 (2)

Strength – The strength of our team and supporting each other in those moments when we are feeling less strong is key to life on Doris. Physical strength is also obviously important when rowing for 12 hours a day and committing to this rowing in a positive way when we are feeling tired and achy is another type of strength. Physical strength has extended recently now that we have started to develop bums,session claw hand and loose our grip strength. It is getting harder to open and close the hatch handles, Nat can no longer get the SD cards out of the cameras or open the charging port on the iPad and my responsibilities on board have extended to the important job of opener of Laura’s chocolate pudding.

Perseverance – We have had to channel a lot of perseverance since we left San Francisco with unexpected stopovers, adverse winds and currents and over 30 days of rowing at less than 1knot. We are all pretty good at never giving up and searching for a solution to the problems we encounter. Perseverance also rears its head in other day to day activities such as the daily snack pack rummage. Nat is the queen of the rummage pulling out more and more packs from the hatch in the belief that somewhere in there is the snack pack of her dreams. We are also persevering on a nightly basis in our mission to save as many flying fish as possible. During the night we end up with literally up to a hundred small blue dragon like fish landing on our boat. Sometimes you hear them flapping around and you rush to try to pick them up and drop them overboard in time. The other day in one two hour shift 4 fish landed in my lap, one hit me in the head and another on the shoulder. I think I managed to save 3 of them. After the distress of the first morning seeing Doris look like a flying fish graveyard we are all working hard on our fish saving skills. Alan our autopilot also deserves a mention here as he is currently persevering at trying to hold us on a bearing now that we have slowed to a painfully slow pace again stuck in a northerly current.

Integrity – Out in the Pacific when sharing a 29ft space with three other people there is no room, for being anything other than your real self. It is refreshing to be completely open and vulnerable with the rest of the team and see how this contributes to our effectiveness as a team. Likewise there is no room in our cosy home for any unsaid pebbles in shoes or hiding your feelings about things. The work we did with Keith before leaving the UK got us used to giving feedback to each other and receiving this feedback in an open manner. In our occasional moments of annoyance things are aired in the open and then we move on straight away with no hard feelings or grudges, trusting that our team is still strong. It makes life so much simpler and is definitely something I will try to carry over into the real world. On a weekly basis we complete a situation report to send to Keith where we rate things like physical, mental, health and sleepiness as well as reflecting on anything that is keeping us up at night. This gives us the opportunity to discuss any issues we are going through either as a team or individually.

Resilience – When discussing before the row what resilience meant to us as a team we came up with reliability, a can do attitude, never giving up and a belief that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Again we have had plenty of situations so far which have required all of these characteristics. I add to these the ability to keep our sense of humour no matter what the ocean can throw at us. I’m sure I’ve said this before but I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much, as consistently as we have out here on the Pacific. It is obvious that the mood in our team remains positive and we are all committed to completing what we have started.

Inspiration – During our journey so far we have all drawn inspiration from a number of areas. Our BAM wall is one of these and in any low moments a trip to the fore cabin to lie back and look up at the hundreds of names of people who are supporting us inspires all of us to get back out there on the oars. The work of our two amazing charities Breast Cancer Care and Walking With The Wounded and the resilience of the people who they support is also a huge inspiration to us and we are proud to be able to give something back to them through our fundraising efforts. Similarly our ambassadors have all inspired us through their achievements and leave us knowing that you can never achieve anything without hard work, dedication and a belief in your end goal. We hope that by sharing our journey through these blogs and later with our documentary we will be able to show people that you can achieve anything that you put your mind to and inspire them to take on whatever challenges are thrown at them.

Trust – Out here on the ocean we are each other’s main support network and together are our own little ocean going family. For our team to work so well it is important that we trust each other fully to take responsibility for our roles on the boat and to take care of ourselves. On a purely safety basis this is obviously important but equally we trust each other enough to know that endless help and support is right there if needed and that we can rely on each other to do what we say we will. Other forms of trust on Doris include the trust in our boat that she can surf the waves and take care of us in big seas. Trust that the jet boil will work and allow us to cook our meals every day. Trust that all of our electronics and communications equipment will continue to work. Probably most importantly, trust that there are some things that happen on Doris that will stay on Doris, for example photos of shower time!!

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Day 48 – Rowing is my happy place (and the answers to the quiz)

Emma Mitchell By

Day 48 – Rowing is my happy place (and the answers to the quiz)

I started rowing at Marlow Rowing Club when I was 15 and have pretty much been rowing ever since. Before starting this row I declared that rowing was my happy place and I would enjoy being on the oars more than in the cabin. This has almost always been the case. It is regatta season back at home right now and for the first time in many years I am not spending my weekends competing at Dorney lake or Henley and am instead rowing a very different kind of boat in very different conditions. Yesterday I was wearing my Marlow rowing Lycra on the oars and thinking about the differences between river rowing and ocean rowing….

emma.skulls

The first and very obvious difference is in the boats. In river rowing we race in nice light sculls which you can pick up and carry on your shoulder. Doris weighs over a tonne and requires either a travel lift or a slipway and some careful trailer manoeuvring to get her on the water. Doris moves slowly and feels heavy when in still water and only comes into her own when surfing big waves. After rowing in waves the size of 4 storey buildings and being constantly soaked in sea water I will never again complain about choppy water on the Bristol Docks, wind over stream on the river at Marlow or Henley or getting splashed by a certain doubles partner! Having said that a sculling boat goes fastest on flat water and I’m excited to get back in a boat where it feels like effort put in results in more boat speed rather than being at the mercy of the tide, currents and wind.

Technique gets you a long way in river rowing. Getting your catches in quickly and perfectly in time can win you a race and posture, balance and finesse are the aims for every session. On Doris especially in big waves like those we are experiencing today technique is some what overrated. Sometimes the water is there and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes you manage to stay in time and sometimes a wave grabs your oar and either almost ejects you from the front of the boat or jams you in the stomach, knee or shin. In ocean rowing keeping your oars as high off the water as possible is a good thing. I think I am well suited to ocean rowing. Several coaches have previously told me my slow catches make it look like I stop for a cup of tea. In Doris drinking tea on the oars is one of life’s pleasures especially on a night shift.

Emma.happy

Steering a river rowing boat can be done by two methods. The easy one for the rowers is to get a cox to steer. The harder option is for one of the rowers to steer either using the oars or a rudder connected to one rowers shoe. There are plenty of nightmares to be had about not hitting the booms at Henley or hitting the cross harbour ferry on the Bristol docks. On Doris we also have two steering options. The first is our Raymarine autopilot which can either hold us on a bearing or navigate us to a waypoint we have entered on our chart plotter. This is the very easy method and all we have to do is row and keep an eye on our course over ground to ensure we are travelling on the course Tony has set. When rowing in adverse winds or currents as happened for the first 35 days out of Santa Barbara and moving too slowly for the autopilot we move the rudder using a hand held line which we can jam in place. This works well but can sometimes lead to levels of frustration similar to bouncing around your lane at Dorney rather than holding a straight course.

When you want to communicate with other boats on a river you tend to shout at them. When turning the boat around at the end of a lake or section of river there is the chance to sit next to another boat for a chat and a following coaching launch can shout instructions to you. However on the Pacific we talk to other boats using our VHF radio. At 3am this morning I was woken up by a call from a boat called Mokihana who had been following our journey and wanted to say hello. They had hoped to cross paths with Doris but ended up 13 miles away so couldn’t actually see us but it was amazing to speak to someone when we are 900 miles from the nearest landfall who knew who we were and what we were doing. They’ll be making the return trip from Long Beach to Hawaii in about 8 days time and hope to get a bit closer then.

So far since we have left San Francisco we have rowed over 2000nm and each rowed for over 700 hours. I reckon this adds up to at least one summers worth of rowing already and we haven’t even made it to our first stopover yet! Here’s hoping that rowing will still be my happy place by the time we get to Cairns!

Answers to the Coxless quiz below…

1) Nat is the one with many accents although a lot of them are very silly. I find it really hard not to end up speaking back to her in my own ridiculous accent every time we are on shift together.

2) I have to admit that it was me who lost my Tupperware overboard in a butterfingers moment. I also managed to throw Laura’s mug away when trying to be really nice and wash it up for her.

3) Laura and Izzy are the two who can’t dress themselves at night. At any low moment I only have to think of watching through the hatch door as Laura tried desperately to get her head through her leggings while Nat watched and it makes me giggle.

4) Nat is the one with the bizarre food tastes. In the last few days she has taken to adding protein shake to almost everything she eats.

5) Izzy is definitely both the one who sings the most and the most tunefully. The prize for the least tuneful rendition of a song probably goes to Miss Penhaul and Miss Cohen’s version of Titanium!

6) Laura is our biggest wildlife fan and I haven’t ever heard someone use the same noise you would associate with calling a cute puppy to calling a 45ft whale or a shark.

7) Laura – Freddie, Emma – Shaun, Nat – Sally and Izzy – Bono

8) Izzy is the team member who is most offended by the footwell.

9) Nat has the most ridiculously tanned hands although all of our arms are catching up now that we have some sun so we are slowly looking less silly.

10) It was Nat and I who got a faceful of water through the port hatch. We are now both too scared to open it and just suffer the sweatiness. LP is still the bravest with opening it so I predict she will be next!

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Day 44 – The Coxless Quiz!

Emma Mitchell By

Day 44 – The Coxless Quiz

It’s Coxless quiz time!

Life on Doris is mainly very repetitive interspersed with moments of pure hilarity, complete peace, grinning happiness and exhilaration. Excitingly we’ve had two consecutive days where we have travelled our furthest yet miles in the right direction. The sun is out and in comparison to the first half of this leg we are flying along towards Hawaii with high spirits amongst the team. We’ve been writing our daily blogs for over two months now and have hopefully given you a bit of an idea of what it’s like to live on a 29ft ocean rowing boat as well as an insight into our different personalities. As such I have put together some ‘who dunnit?’ questions for you our followers. See if you can guess which of us was involved in each of the situations described below. A mystery prize might be in store for the first person to get all 10 questions correct. Answers to follow in my next blog.

1) We get variety and entertainment in our day in a number of ways on board Doris. One of us has taken to speaking in a ridiculous accent at all times? Depending on the accent of the day this can either be hilariously funny or slightly annoying. Who is the one with many voices?

2) There are many perilous jobs on Doris especially in rough conditions including washing up but which one of us stupidly managed to throw their Tupperware overboard on the calmest day we’ve had?

3) Sleep deprivation is a funny thing and getting up for each night rowing shift is like being woken unceremoniously in the middle of the night and it takes us a while to wake up properly. Which two of us have got their heads stuck in the leg of their leggings when mistaking them for a top while getting ready for the night shift?

4) Food is a hot topic on Doris and when on the oars we are always checking what the other pair are eating on their off shift. It’s been a while and we’re starting to get a bit inventive with our meals. Which one of us mixed an all day breakfast with a beef curry for dinner but thought it was disgusting when another of us ate toffee pudding with apple and custard?

5) We all love a good singsong on the oars and are working on Coxless Crew the musical with a few hit numbers such as ‘Glamorous’, ‘ Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me’ and ‘I see you baby talcing that arse’. Some of us are more tuneful than others but which of us sings the most?

6) We are really lucky so far on our journey to have seen a lot of different wildlife. Which team member has a generic call she uses to attract all animals from household pets to whales, dolphins, birds and turtles?

7) We all have a piece of sheepskin to put on our seats while rowing and have each named them. They are called Bono, Shaun, Sally and Freddie. Can you guess which belongs to each crew member?

8) The footwell in the aft cabin has many uses including washing, jetboiling, making water and storing our kit at night to name a few? However the area also tends to collect water, hair, sweet wrappers etc which particularly upsets one team member. Who is it that hates the footwell the most?

9) Until a few days ago for the majority of the time the backs of our hands were the only parts of us exposed to the sun while the rest of us was wrapped up in wet weather gear, hats, buffs and glasses. We all have very brown hands but who has the most tanned hands?

10) The last few days has seen a shift in conditions on Doris from cloudy and cool to hot and sunny. As such our cabin has turned into a very sweaty sauna. One way to let in some air is to open the port hatch a little. In the last couple of days two rowers have ended up with a faceful of seawater whilst doing this when an errant wave washed over the stern. Which rowers are in trouble with the hatch monitor? For a bonus point who is the hatch monitor?

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Day 40 – Row time, nap time, row time, nap time…

Emma Mitchell By

Day 40 – Row time, nap time, row time, nap time…

Beep beep, beep beep! Beep beep, beep beep! Probably my least favourite sound on Doris is the sound of the alarm waking us up after a far too short sleep ready for another shift on the oars. So much so that I regularly hear it in my dreams and wake up in a panic thinking we are late getting ready. Sleep deprivation seems to confuse me a lot and I have woken all of the other girls up multiple times thinking we need to rush and get ready only to be told to go back to sleep. Poor LP got woken up by me twice last night and is probably glad we have swapped pairs again today.

The alarm triggers an automatic reflex to put our heads back under the sleeping bag and fall back asleep and it is with great reluctance that we start getting ready. Trying to leave the lights off for as long as possible and dress by the glow of the chart plotter we attempt to put as many clothes on as possible without sitting up or leaving the sleeping bag. Putting on leggings in a sleeping bag is a skill we have all developed. Once thermal layers are on it is time to take a deep breath, extract ourselves from the sleeping bag and reach for the wet weather gear. This usually requires switching on the lights to identify who’s is who’s and therefore is accompanied by squinting and groaning. If the wet weather gear is dry this is not too painful. When it is sodden from the previous shift it makes me want to cry. Finally socks, shoes and life jackets have to be put on before exiting into the cold night air. The person in the front rowing seat gets a 10-15min show at the end of their shift watching this performance. It is comical to watch as what seems like getting ready quickly inside the cabin looks painfully slow from outside. Often a person will sit looking at an item of clothing or shoe for a good 10 seconds before figuring out what to do with it. Conversation is usually limited to ‘here’s your jacket’, ‘can you pass my socks’ and ‘thanks’ as we drag ourselves slowly into wakefulness. Occasionally exhaustion gives way to mild hysteria as someone gets stuck in their jacket or gets their head stuck in the leg of their leggings trying to put them on as a top.

Once on the oars we have a variety of strategies for staying awake. On a clear, starry night 2 hours passes quickly with the beautiful scenery. When we are battling with wind and waves this acts as a distraction. However there are also plenty of shifts where I struggle to keep my eyes open and stare longingly into the cabin where the other two are sound asleep. I swear I have actually sleep rowed before waking up with a start with no memory of the previous 20 minutes. The dawn dance helps as does telling stories but the best part of any night shift is re-entering the warm cabin and getting into the sleeping bag ready for another nap. Remembering to set the alarm before we snooze, the cycle starts again.

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Day 36 – That’s Ocean rowing!

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Day 35 – That’s ocean rowing!

I am writing this blog in a small and smelly cabin on Nat’s mobile phone as our iPad is having a few issues. I’m trying to rewrite the blog post about night shifts which I spent ages typing on the iPad while eating porridge with the other hand. However I keep getting disturbed by climbing out on deck to see a pod of whales which are passing the boat. They are massive and seem very interested in Doris as they keep coming really close to say hello. That’s ocean rowing for you! We are still finally making good progress in the right direction and Hawaii is getting closer by the day. We’ll keep you posted on the wildlife, iPad and weather situation and stay posted for the night shift blog coming soon.

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