Day 32 – Snacking on the oars

It is still pretty grey and miserable on the Pacific today. However the wind has started to turn North East and so despite being cold and wet we are at least starting to move a bit faster in the right direction. Last nights film choices for Laura and me were Top Gun and The Holiday interrupted only by Laura stopping me to check I hadn’t turned the water maker on! I definitely think that our team values of SPIRIT (strength, perseverance, integrity, resilience, inspiration and trust) need to have an extra H added for humour as the ability to keep smiling (or laughing hysterically) is definitely very important for ocean rowing and something that our team is very good at.

One of the things that keeps us busy and cheers us up a bit whilst on the oars is snacking. Saving choice items from our snack packs for eating at low points during a rowing shift is something all four of us do. Since rowing usually requires both hands there are a number of different techniques for eating on the oars. Fortunately being women we are able to multitask.

1) The fly by – this technique involves opening the desired item and leaving it on the deck next to the rowing seat. As the rower rolls up the slide they quickly place both oars into one hand and swipe said food item up with the other hand, shoving it into the mouth and grabbing the second oar again before reaching the front. The best rowers can do this in one stroke. Others miss out a stroke during the process. This works best with open packets of sweets or cereal bars.

2) The seal – for this method the rower places an entire chocolate bar or cereal bar into their mouth and balances it with the lips and tongue while munching their way through it. This is only for experienced rowers and LP is definitely the best at this. Hazards include sneezing and this is a particular issue if you are in the back rowing position.

3) The one handed approach – this worked particularly well during the extended period of right armed rowing which we had to do. The one handed sweet unwrap is a particular skill which I’m sure will fare us well back in the real world. Holding a ziplock bag full of fruit or nuts in one hand leaves no hands for eating. This is solved by burrowing ones face into the bag in a particularly attractive manoeuvre. The previously under appreciated protein shake has become a favoured early hours of the morning snack and is particularly suited to the one armed technique.

4) The pause – this involves a pause in rowing to eat whilst the second rower holds the fort. This also allows time to take on water which is important. In rough weather when it is hard to hold course this must be done quickly. Indigestion is a consideration for this method. The pause is often necessary to open and prepare food for the other techniques.

Day 28 – Boat Tetris

There have been many occasions in recent years where I have attempted to fit all of my worldly possessions into my very small car and move to a new house either for work or studying. I thought I had become pretty good at packing a lot of stuff into a small space. However packing up Doris with everything we will need for the row was a whole other challenge. As well as physically being able to fit it all in there are a few other considerations when packing an ocean rowing boat:

1) Some of the hatches where everything lives are very easy to access e.g. the large deck hatches where most of our food is stored. Other hatches such as those right in the nose of the boat under the cabin mattresses are very difficult to access. Therefore when packing we had to figure out the things we were least likely to need and try to fit them in the most awkward places.

2) Doris is a boat and therefore if the weight is packed unevenly she will list at an angle making it both difficult and uncomfortable to row. This means that we had to try to match the weight in opposite hatches. We carry 150 litres of ballast water which lives in the middle bottom hatches which helps to stabilise the boat, aides her ability to self right if we capsize and also acts as an emergency water supply for us should our water maker and it’s backups all fail. Our water maker lives on the port side of the boat and is pretty heavy so our anchor, para anchor and lines live on the starboard side to balance this out. Equally our food lives half on each side of the boat.

3) Certain bits of equipment we use get wet e.g. the para anchor (a parachute which is deployed from the boat to slow us down and hold us in a better position relative to the waves when necessary) and its lines. Therefore we need to have a designated wet locker for this. We also have a wet locker in the aft cabin for our wet weather gear on the rare occasion we aren’t wearing it.

4) Anything which is not in a hatch or secured in some way will either fly around the cabin or be lost from the deck in big waves. This means that consideration must be given to where things live and it is important to replace them once you have finished using them. This is especially important for heavy objects such as pelicases which will hurt if they fly into you!

5) We eat food from the hatches and create rubbish as a result. The empty food packets, dead snack packs, wet wipes etc need to be placed outside in a hatch once the bin bag in the cabin is full and the food needs to be moved around to maintain the weight distribution. This means that approximately once a week we need to do some hatch admin. Not the most fun job when up to your elbows in a deck hatch trying to get the remaining food from under the rubbish snack packs. Sadly in the last week we have seen more rubbish than wildlife in the ocean though and we don’t want to be responsible for making this problem any worse. The last 2 days we have also done a full food audit on board. Since we are making slower progress than we would have hoped we wanted to make sure that we aren’t going to run out of food before we reach Hawaii. We are starting to ration ourselves just to make sure this doesn’t happen. As well as only eating one main meal per day this mainly means we are having to eat the meals that have so far been unpopular, such as the freeze dried beef curry which is nobodies favourite (some following the taste test and some not). Yum!

In other news Izzy made a discovery yesterday which has revolutionised my wet weather gear enjoyment. Previously I have had to wear a buff to prevent the Velcro on the neck of my wet weather jacket from chaffing my chin but it turns out there is a little flap which folds down and covers it up. Ingenious – Crewsaver you think of everything and I can’t believe it has taken us so long to notice it!

Day 24 – Claw Hand, Wet Socks & More Lessons Learned

Last night we put a line out and let Doris drift along as she was holding a good course over ground and the waves were a little large for night rowing. Izzy and I were in the aft cabin whilst Nat and Laura were in the fore cabin. It was nice to get a little more sleep than usual although in the aft cabin we still had the alarm every 2 hours so that we could check our course and speed. However this did mean that every 2 hours we had the chance to stretch a bit and move our hands. Even so I woke at 5.30am with a swollen right hand with fingers unable to bend properly and no grip strength. Izz was the same but with both hands. We have named this phenomenon ‘claw hand’ and it has been happening more and more recently as we spend more hours rowing. Luckily after a session of tendon gliding whilst waiting for it to get light we both regained enough movement to go out, get the line in and start rowing again. It’s been another day purely of right arm rowing with some terrifyingly large swell and a lot of crashing waves. Back to permanently wet socks. However we have been holding a good westerly course and Tony’s weather forecast this morning is promising showing the wind speed dying down over the next few days and then turning North East! We’re looking forward to that.

I am going to finish this blog with a few important things that we have learned over the last few days:
1) Always put the hood of your wet weather jacket up when there are big waves even if the sun is out and you start to overheat. Failure to do so is guaranteed to result in a huge splash to the head causing a cold head and water to run down the neck and most importantly salty hair is even more difficult to get a brush through than windswept hair.
2) If two rowers are on the oars and one of those rowers are Nat then the majority of the big waves will break over Nat leaving the other rower safe and dry. Equally if Nat isn’t on the oars then the one getting wet is likely to be me.
3) When using the bucket facilities ensure that the surrounding area is clear of items which may fall into the bucket at an inopportune time.
4) No matter how wet and cold you are getting on the oars happiness can always be achieved by singing at the top of your voice to cheesy music on the speakers. Whitney, Backstreet Boys and Bewitched all made an appearance yesterday!
5) I hate to admit this as it is another example of how Tony is always right but don’t package mints that smell like deep heat (in fact just don’t buy these as they are basically inedible) or teriyaki beef jerky in zip locks into snack packs. Deep heat and beef jerky infused chocolate and dried mango just doesn’t do it for me. We made up some new snack packs in Santa Barbara and have been mainly eating them and thus avoiding the problem but are now back onto the contaminated ones.
6) A dry bum is a happy bum. Now that we are back to permanent sogginess the angry bums are making a reappearance for some people.

Day 20 – Inspiration

This morning we received an email which totally made my day. It was from a wonderful woman called Linda (the auntie of our lovely Meg) who is running a fundraising event at her swim school in Broadstairs. The children in her school are swimming one length for every mile of our journey to raise money for our charities in a dedicated slot once a week. They are doing better than us and have already made it to Hawaii! The email talks of the children who have been pushing themselves further than they thought they could, inspired by our journey across the Pacific. What they probably don’t realise is that they are the ones inspiring us to keep rowing when it’s cold, wet or the currents are pushing us round in circles. Stuck in our little Pacific bubble it is amazing to hear that people back in the real world are following our story and being inspired to take on challenges of their own. Getting messages from home is one of the highlights of our days. We can’t wait to go and visit the swim school when we get home.

If there are any other schools who want to get involved in our schools project and help us to fundraise for our charities then please get in touch at schools@coxlesscrew.com and get some more information on our schools website www.schools.coxlesscrew.com. We are hoping to make some calls to some of our schools project schools live from Doris on the Pacific.

In other news we received our first weather forecast from Tony this morning containing a North easterly wind. Very excitingly this means we will hopefully start making some more progress towards Hawaii soon. There has been plenty of dancing from LP and Nats and singing of power ballads from Izz and I today, the wind has picked up but the sun is still mainly shining. Last night the moon was the most beautiful we have seen so far followed by a stunning sunrise. All is well in our little corner of the Pacific.

Day 16 – Social Time

Due to our shift pattern where we row and rest in pairs it is very rare that the 4 of us all get to spend time together as a full team. On a normal day our interaction with the other pair is limited to good mornings and good nights, making faces through the hatch and a handover of the current steering and sea state as we swap over on the oars. Keith our awesome psych support (who incidentally has been sending us a quote a day since we left from San Francisco – I’m interested to see if he has enough to last us all the way to Australia!) had stressed the importance of including some social time for the 4 of us while out on the ocean. Yesterday afternoon we were struggling with the wind and current and after finding that we were drifting faster than we could row and in a better direction decided to all retire to the aft cabin. Those of you who have been following our blog will know that we have been singing a lot of ‘The Sound of Music’ soundtrack during our rowing shifts. Whilst in Santa Barbara Laura downloaded the film on to her iPad so we decided what better way to spend a couple of hours than having a sing along. Cue laughing til we cried, some terrible singing prompting Izzy to suggest ‘Shall we just listen to her (Julie Andrews) sing?’, a lot of dead legs (the aft cabin is a bit cozy for 4!) and a couple of hours break from the reality of being ocean rowers.

After the film Laura and I heading back to the oars and made some good progress west during a peaceful first night shift. During our following off shift I was woken up just after midnight by our AIS alarm letting us know that a cargo boat was within 2 nautical miles of us. I got on the radio to check that they had seen us (they had) and had a nice chat to them before being told off by the coastguard for using channel 16 for idle chit chat. They then had a chat to Nats on the handheld radio on deck. The boat was called Maunda Willi and the conversation went a little like this:

Nat: ‘We’re a 29ft ocean rowing boat, what kind of boat are you?
Maunda Willi: ‘we’re a 1000ft cargo ship’
Nat: ‘you’re… big!’
Maunda Willi: ‘you guys have balls’
Trust me in a sleep deprived state it was hilarious!

Happiness is a dry pair of socks

Despite the cramped conditions, constantly being soaked by waves, sore bums and sleep deprivation, life on Doris is actually beautifully simple. Eat, sleep, row, repeat! The smallest of things can brighten up our whole day. For example having a dry pair of socks. Having to put on wet socks every 2 hrs to go out on the oars is probably my least favourite thing about ocean rowing (it was also my least favourite thing about spending a few months in the Belize jungle). I can’t remember the last time I put on totally dry socks. I do have a pair stashed away in my pocket in the cabin safely in a ziplock bag but I haven’t got them out yet as everything is always so wet that even just wearing them to sleep in during leg 1 part 1 ended up with them getting damp. But I know they are there waiting for a special occasion. My second least favourite thing is that with a disturbing regularity we get soaked by a big wave within the last 5 mins of every shift on the oars. This is regardless of which pair is rowing and what time of day it is and means that along with the wet socks we also have to put on soggy wet weather gear to row.

However there are a lot of moments in every day where being on our little boat on the Pacific is the most beautiful place in the world and makes me stop and appreciate how lucky we are. The sunsets which paint the whole sky in colours I can’t even describe. Sunrises which set the horizon on fire and can make you forget that you were falling asleep on the oars minutes before. A clear sky at night filled with stars which give me a crick in my neck from trying to row whilst looking up. The deep and bright blue colour of the sea and sightings of whales, dolphins and the twice daily visits from Albert the albatross. The peace and calming tranquility of the sun on the water and being self sufficient while leaving behind most of the stresses of the real world. Before we left the UK we put together a plan for our time on the ocean with Andrew from New Level Results using the Best Year Yet program. We set our major focus as ‘Enjoy the journey! Live in the moment.’ and despite all the challenges we’ve faced already and our current painfully slow progress west we are still remembering to appreciate what an incredible experience this is.

As my friend Katy reminded us this week ‘ the only way to eat an elephant is in small pieces’ So true and we’ll keep eating up the miles one at a time. Katy you gave me the same advice when I was writing up my PhD thesis and if I could manage that this should be easy!

Day 4 – Take 2

After a night on the para anchor we were back on the oars at 6am this morning and have spent the day trying to go west. If you’re watching our tracker you’ll see that we are (very) slowly going south west in the right direction. It’s hard work out on the oars and we are mainly rowing with our right oar trying to hold our bearing in the unfavourable wind. First thing this morning I was finding it quite hard to enjoy life on Doris but after some fresh air on the oars with a cuppa I’m feeling a lot happier about our slow and steady progress. Our team is still strong and regardless of the situation we find ourselves in we always find something to giggle about. Laura and I spent a lot of our last shift on the oars singing all the songs we could think of which contain a reference to the weather. In the last 24hrs we’ve had sunshine, rain, rainbows, clouds, wind of varying strengths and a beautiful sunset and sunrise. It’s funny to think of everyone back home going about their normal lives while we exist in our little 29ft bubble.

Today’s meal of choice: mild chicken korma
Today’s condiment of choice: tomato ketchup
Today’s favourite snack pack content: dried mango
Today’s podcast of choice: the best of Nick Grimshaw
Today’s song of choice: Walking on Sunshine
Today’s beverage of choice: tomato soup
Today’s fashion accessory of choice: pink beanie

Frustratingly we are now rowing against the wind and current and struggling to make ground west but we are powering through with the help of some power ballads and the Backstreet Boys and we’ll see where we are in the morning.

Farewell Santa Barbara

Our stay in Santa Barbara, although unexpected, has been a good one. We have fixed up the issues we had with charging our batteries and also had time to deal with a few other little niggles we had after 16 days at sea. With all the DIY completed in the morning and Doris ready to go we were able to take the afternoon off and have a well overdue chance to relax and enjoy a rest before heading back out on the ocean. Nats and Laura headed to the beach whilst Izzy and myself went for a walk up to inspiration point to enjoy the beautiful views which stretch out to Conception Point which we’ll be heading towards when we set out later. We also enjoyed a very tasty last dinner in the clam bar at the marina. Today we are off to pack our personal kit in the boat and then meet Sarah before heading off ensuring that our departure take 2 is recorded for the documentary. A blog post isn’t enough to thank all the incredibly kind and supportive people who we have met here and we’d love to visit again when we have more time to appreciate it. We have been overwhelmed by the support and following we have had from home whilst we were at sea. If you want to get a message to us while we are rowing then send an email to doris@coxlesscrew.com and it will get forwarded on to us. Receiving messages of support and the happenings of the real world brings a smile to our faces in our little bubble on the ocean.

Signing out from the shore. Next stop Hawaii!!!

Day 15

Last night we came back into sight of shore. During the early night shifts we were speeding along at over 2.5knots but then the tide changed and as we are now close enough to shore for this to affect us we slowed to a painful crawl. I also spent most of the night with ‘there was an old lady who swallowed a fly’ going round and round my head thanks to Izz! There was some late night DIY needed on our seats and then first thing this morning we crossed the main shipping channel into Los Angeles. Fortunately despite our slow speed we made it across without getting mown down by any of the container ships passing by. Laura discovered a new winning breakfast combination of apple and custard mixed with porridge and I found a beef and potato hotpot for lunch after a week of rummaging the hatches for it. Now that we are close to land there are a lot of birds again. Our favourite penguin birds are back and there are lots of crazy little white birds as well who make a lot of noise.

We now need to row another approximately 50nm along the coast line to Santa Barbara where Tony will meet us to do some work on Doris before departure on leg one part 2. The sun is shining again today and Harry the humpback whale visited us briefly this morning. The wind has picked up and we are surfing the waves into land. Spirits are high and now we have come to terms with the disappointment of having to turn back to shore we are looking forward to a shower and some tasty food before getting back out on the ocean with Doris.