A strange thing happens when you start to get close to your destination after a journey like this one; a bittersweet taste of excitement in reaching our goal, yet sadness for everything that will come to an end. My days on the Pacific are numbered as we draw ever closer to Samoa. In Samoa I will pass the baton onto Meg who will complete the circle and push the girls onto Cairns, Australia. A full reflection will be done closer to the finish line, but for now I will share with you things that I will miss, and the things I won’t miss.
I will miss…
– Swimming in the big blue!! This has been and always will be my highlight. Suspended in a gigantic body of water, with curious fish coming to say hello. (And by fish I don’t mean shark. Fernando has luckily been MIA recently) – Having a 360 degree view of an ever changing ocean, and no, surprisingly it doesn’t get boring at all. It’s like watching a bonfire; something so repetitive and intriguing you can’t keep your eyes off it
– No make-up. Getting ready in the morning takes 4 minutes. Plain Jane wins! – The simplicity of life out here. Our biggest decision for the day is what we’re going to have for lunch. This is becoming a little more distressing of late as our options are very limited now
– Our routine. So much so that I might incorporate a sneaky 2hr nap into my life when I get back
– Eating all my meals with a spork. Not sure I remember how to use a knife…
– The wildlife. It’s possible that we’ll never get as close to Dolphins and whales like we have on this trip
And….
– Last but not least, the girls! I suspect there will be an empty void in my life for a while. On the other hand, it will be nice to see different faces and have different conversations. There’s a lot of repetition on the boat
I won’t miss…
– Attending to my bum every 2 hours with a Sudocreme or talc application. Don’t get me wrong, this strict routine has (quite literally) saved our derrières from turning into horror stories! Prevention is better than cure! During times where the winds are high, the waves constantly splashing us and the rain soaking us, we are especially attentive as these are prime conditions to cause ‘angry bum’ – Having only 2 shorts and 2 t-shirts to rotate in and out of. Yet again, not having to spend any time thinking “what am I going to wear today” has been a treat!
– Being able to lie next to someone without any part of your bodies touching… Especially when the cabins are ridiculously hot. This is usually helped by a piece of sleeping sheet used to create a gentle partition between you and team mate to prevent that layer of sweat forming between you
– Hearing or asking the question “is it gonna rain” before heading out on the oars. Looking forward to not even caring if it’s due to rain… Umbrella, a warm, dry living space and hot chocolate will do the trick
– Having food that resembles baby food consistency. We look forward to solid food, like Steak!!
– Moving faster than 2knots, which is pretty much strolling pace
– Informing someone of how hot you are by including the mention of a sweaty upper lip. “Oh my gosh I’m so hot I’ve got a sweaty tash!” It is certainly going to be an adjustment when I get back to my normal life… Then again, will it ever be normal again?
UPDATE: after a night spent on the para-anchor we have been rowing hard today to try and keep a course over ground (COG) of 235*. LP and I slept in the Forecabin. Ems made our dinner and Nat came and delivered it right to our hatch door. LP and I proceeded to watch The Sound of Music on her iPad. It was magical.
It was my first Forecabin experience with two people in there, and yes, it was cosy, yet the worst nights sleep I’ve had in a while. Liz x
I think the last section of a journey is always the longest. Ticking off the same miles that we have been counting since day one now seem to take longer. Our destination is so close the sense of accomplishment is tangible, yet not realising how this last bit might stretch and moulds us to new proportions; as always the ocean seems to be challenging us by keeping our expectations in check. We have found that suddenly we are allowing ourself to project; mentally parts of us are already at our next destination.
Over the past few days, we have loved asking each other questions like “what are you looking forward to most when we get to Samoa?”, “what is the first thing you want to drink when we get to Samoa”, “what do you want for dinner the first night in Samoa?”. Alas, it’s a dangerous game to play as anything can still change… We know this all too well.
As I mentally start to prepare for life back on land, I found that during some reflection on the oars recently something struck me…. There is a striking similarity between the three ladies I am currently spending every waking and sleeping moment with, and the three guys that I live with in Cape Town. I am incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by people at home who inspire me and adds copious amounts of flavour to my life.
On the boat we have always said that the key to the success of this team is the diversity of its counterparts… Everyone brings something new and different which means that the total is always going to be greater than the parts added together separately. This also rings true for my housemates and I. Just like on the boat we have become each other’s family. Laughter and jokes are prevalent and when one person is down the others will pull them up. So without further ado, meet the male versions of my three rowing sisters:
Emma = Grant aka Future man. An adventure racing machine. If you ever do a race with Grant he will ride up alongside you on the mountain biking section and push you up the hill; you will subsequently feel like you’re riding on clouds, flying up that hill. There are hills out here on the ocean too, and Ems has pushed us up all of them. Both of them also have a smile that will light up a room.
Natalia = Dan aka Avatar man. Dan and Nats both have a contagious amount of energy. The thing that bonds these two is their interesting minds, the ability to make anyone laugh and they can lift the mood in any situation. They are the “games master”; a sure winner to have at your dinner party.
Laura = Bast aka 5th Gear. Bast is called 5th gear for a reason, full speed ahead… all the time. These two are the powerhouse of the team, I sometimes wonder where they get their stamina from. Perhaps because they both eat more than anyone I know…
Along with another friend of theirs; Travis, aka Comfy, these four guys started a non profit organisation called No Danger Diaries that is based on a progressive principle; making a difference in their community by sharing the joy (imagine taking chocolates to grannies in retirement homes on Valentine’s Day). They aim to create an inspiring way of giving back in the 21st century. They have an ever growing “Living list of Tasks” (as opposed to a finite “Bucket List”) which is the foundation of NDD. They want as many people to get involved as possible, to #sharethejoy while making a difference. Examples include;
– Cycling the Argus cycle race with a blind child
– Take a homeless person to a sit down dinner
– Find a dog a home
– Abseil down the Red Cross Children’s Hospital dressed in superhero outfits
– Grow an organic garden
All of the tasks are recorded and made into a short video. They are not bound by borders, and have developed the organisation over the last year by seeing where the need is and thinking outside the box. The No Danger Dreamer Project for example supports people by helping them achieve their dream if they do not have the means to do so themselves. Amazingly a group of students In the UK were so inspired they got in touch with the boys and started No Danger Diaries Manchester. A question I have been asked on the boat was “if you could choose three friends, other than us to row an ocean with, who would it be?”. Without a doubt I would choose these three.
Needless to say, with people like this around me I can’t help but have fun and be inspired; They were paramount in my decision to do something different and row across the Pacific. My advice to anyone would be to surround yourselves with your own Grant, Dan or Bast, get involved in making a difference in your community and remember….. Always #sharethejoy
UPDATE:
As we ate dinner tonight Nats and I mourned the absence of Shepherds Pie, so we composed a tribute song to the tune of “Bye Bye Miss American Pie”
Bye bye Shepherds Pie
I’m gonna miss having you on the menu tonight
And as I look at my options I sigh It’s gotta be Beef Curry and rice
Any other option would have been nice….
“There’s no business like show business” is what comes to mind after the excitement we had this morning. We appeared on National UK television, featuring alongside Caroline Flack on The One Show.
We’ve been in our little pink bubble for so long and we’ve hardly spoken to anyone apart from each other and our families, and suddenly we found ourselves speaking to the nation.
Yesterday afternoon we received a message from Tony telling us that our ‘test call’ for the One Show would be at 5am. ….errrr, sorry what?? A few messages back and forth confirmed that we had not been receiving emails from our PR company who had sent us a few questions in preparation for the show, so in the early hours of the morning Nat called the lovely Megan from Carver PR to speed things up and get our questions.
We have done very little other than eat, sleep, row, repeat for the past 80 days, and suddenly it felt reminiscent of my uni days where we were up sacrificing sleep to answer our allocated questions for the show like studious scholars. What did we want to say? What was the message we wanted to get across?
We sent in our answers as a back-up for the show to use incase our satellite phone signal was bad. Ems and I woke with the loud ring (we set the sound on its loudest setting like old grannies in case we slept through the call…) and I answered. A lovely lady, Sinead, from the One Show proceeded to explain the lay-out of the show. I then spoke briefly to Matt and Alex (the presenters) to test the call quality. It was all a bit of a sleepy blur before I passed the phone onto Ems for a quick chat. Right, everything set; they’ll call us again just before 8am and will hold us on line for the whole 30min show.
It was amazing to know that Izzy and Meg were there in the studio with them. It was essentially the first interview all 6 of us had together, they were so close, yet so far.
Ems and I then managed to get 45min kip before joining Nat and Laura outside. The weather was kind to us and allowed us to stay outside for the entire call rather than wind and rain forcing all 4 of us to cram into the cabin.
7:50, phone rings. The One Show “Hello girls, just setting you up, can you hear us ok?”
Nat: “yes can hear you fine thanks”
TOS: “ok great. Stay on the line while we get you ready”
At 8am they introduced us and we made a real racket on the ocean screaming “hellooooo The One Show!” It was a surreal moment knowing that our words at this moment were being aired on National TV. We could not be physically any further removed from the setting where our voices echoed to right now. I wondered for a moment if any of my friends/family were watching… In the hurry of things we hadn’t really told anyone, although we knew our social media queens and Carver PR would be all over it. The call proceeded. One of us would hold the phone with the rest of us huddled round, trying to hear what was being said.
We assume that unfortunately due to the call quality they omitted a lot of the questions we had been told to answer, including my pancake question, and questions about missing my best friend’s wedding (haha, all my questions actually). We stayed on the line for the whole show, as they kept coming back to us intermittently throughout. A few minutes before we were on a lovely man called Steve would say in the background of the show noise “alright ladies, you are on in 3 minutes…. 2 minutes….. 1 and a half minutes….”
As expected, it was over in what felt like a flash. Damit! No call-to-action, there wasn’t really any opportunity. We desperately wanted to get our message across for people to text Doris to 70300 and donate just £3 for our charities. Oh well, there’s always writing about it in this blog I suppose!
After the show finished Sinead came back on and said “hiiii, how was that? Did you guys enjoy it?… Before I go I wanted to let you guys know what surprise we have for you. Who am I speaking to right now?”
“You’re speaking to Lizanne” “Oh Lizanne, great. We had Anna in the studio, as well as your dad!!”
Oh my word, WHAT?? That’s amazing! The same Anna who’s wedding I was supposed to be a bridesmaid at!! I nearly teared up at the thought of The One Show having organised for her to attend the show, along with my dad (the XFactor fan, who I can only imagine loved seeing Caroline Flack more than hearing my voice!)
“For Natalia, we have your dad Bernard and brother Jared here” Nat shrieks with excitement
“For Emma we have your mum and grandad here, and Laura your mum and dad are here”. None of us had expected this, and we were all totally overwhelmed. Wow The One Show, thank you!
We knew all the friends and family would be together so Nat quickly called her brother who, bless him, immediately put us on speaker phone. We each got to speak to our family, saying things like “you sneaky things, can’t believe none of you told us!”
The One Show, thank you for keeping us entertained and making our whole week! Somehow it felt like we were there and the excitement has kept us buzzing all day. We are that much more amped to step it up a gear and get to Samoa! It is amazing to see the support we have back home and knowing that our efforts are not in vain. We also hope to have raised more awareness of what is at the core of our journey across the Pacific; supporting women who have faced and overcome adversity through our charities Breast Cancer Care and Walking With The Wounded.
UPDATE
We swapped pairs again today; Ems and I bid farewell in a long embrace… It will be a mere hour before I see her again. Nat and I are reunited. We had a beautiful sunset shift, and to top off our amazing day, we were greeted by a huge pod of dolphins who came so close to the boat I was worried I might hit them with my ore while rowing.
All is well on the Pacific.
Laughter is one of my favourite joys in life. It can connect people without saying a word, or it can be the connection that brings friends and family closer together. It can lighten the mood, lift the tone, end quarrels or be the bridge to falling in love. No words, just a simple shared humour in thinking something is funny.
You can tell a lot about a person by the way they laugh, or what they laugh at. Laughter is so individual you can often pick someone out in a crowd by the sound of their laugh. I think sometimes one of the best sounds is the belly laugh of someone you love.
We weren’t taught to laugh. It’s something inside us that we were born with. Everyone can laugh; deep down stomach aching laughter, explosive laughs, silent laughs (me!), high pitched, low pitched, laughs that make the tears stream, laughs that make you fall off your chair, laughs that make you struggle for air, a child’s laugh, a cheeky laugh…. The thing I like about laughter is you can’t fake it, but generally you never need to as it’s as contagious as seeing someone yawn. They say time’s a healer; personally I think laughter is even more so.
On the boat we have bonded blood, sweat and tears. These have been grounding moments, and plenty of deep meaningful chats to set the world’s troubles right, but the moments I will cherish far beyond my destination in Samoa is the endless laughter we’ve shared on the boat. They are moments etched in my mind that will make me laugh again when I think of them back home, unable to explain to anyone asking “why are you laughing?” We often talk about it on the boat; how will we ever explain any of our jokes to people?? The answer being; you can try, but they won’t think you’re funny. The truth is these are the moments we’ve all built together, so special that between the six of us they are memories we’ll cherish and remind each other of at our 10 year reunion. I already can’t wait!
UPDATE
Still going South. Woop woop! It was so hot today I think we all died a little. We’ve been downing our SOS rehydrate drinks to keep us hydrated!!
LP took the opportunity to clean the barnacles off Doris (which is supposed to speed us up 0.5 knots!) as we’ve not seen Fernando for a few days.
We swapped rowing buddies today, Ems and I are reunited.
Oh! And Megs amazing mum and partner have contacted Oreos to see if they can help us out so that the girls don’t run out in the last leg. Absolute LEGENDS!
After 71 days at sea, our existence on Doris is changing. It was never supposed to take this long and we still have quite a distance to go, so we are now entering into our provisions. This is where we adapt to bend and not break and show that resilience we’ve been talking about so much. On the boat it is often mentioned how we miss the things we took for granted back on land (like a non-crusty towel for example!) but as we start to run out of certain things it’s amazing to realise that even out here on the Pacific there have been things we took for granted.
We keep going on about our snack packs, but you need to understand how important they have been to our rowing lives. As well as offering a tiny element of surprise; “oooo what treats are in store for me today?!”, they also make life amidst the salt a little sweeter. They give us the quick boost we need when afternoons in the aft cabin drains our energy with high temperature and humidity, or when we need a little kick at night to stop us nodding off. Their main purpose however has been to increase our calorie intake; savoury snacks, oreos, jelly beans, gummy bears, dried fruit and nuts etc.
The idea was to consume 3000 – 4000 calories per day on the boat, split between breakfast, 1 or 2 main meals, a snack of noodles and tuna, a dessert and then a snack pack of about 1000 calories to make our intake a little more exciting.
As mentioned previously we have now run out of snack packs (mayday!!) but also of noodles, desserts, and we’re almost out of breakfasts. The thing we have plenty of though is main meals (unenthusiastic ‘yay’). So this means that since running out of all the good stuff we are having to adjust meal plans.
Breakfast: instead of having porridge, muesli or an all day breakfast we now have the choice between a protein bar or a main meal. Some might decide to have half a main meal and save the rest for night time
Lunch: a choice of vegetable pasta, beef curry (those two are my least favourite thanks to the sea sickness), oriental chicken (running dangerously low as its a firm favourite), shepherds pie, chicken tikka masala or chicken korma. To increase calorific value of our meals we will add olive oil to our (already greasy) delicious freeze dried meals.
Afternoon: packet of tuna or protein bar
Night time: after a night shift we will come in and make a quick meal. For our first night LP and I had shepherds pie. Nats and Ems took their meals out on the oars which was a little tricky to eat between strokes.
Additional treats: a cheeky spoon full of peanut or almond butter, our secret chocolate stash which will allow us one chocolate a day and a few fruit pots.
Toilet rolls….
Two weeks later and we are still on our last toilet roll. We have dug out the wet wipes and decided to, y’know, use a splash of water if we can.
The one good thing that has come from running out of stuff means that we are acquiring more space in the hatches. This means that we can clear out the Fore cabin of sheep skin and our broken water canisters to provide a little escape at night. Sensitive to everybody’s moods and needs we have decided to sleep separately for one (or more if wanted) of the sleep shifts. I wonder if this is going to be bliss or lonely after 2 months of sleeping head to toe.
Now comes the reason the morale on the boat is wavering; we have lost the use of one of our solar panels. Thankfully due to the efficieny of the remaining solar panels we are still able to charge our batteries but at a slower rate. . Since we have two batteries we have plenty of power and more than enough energy to fuel the boat. However, with slightly less charge capacity of our batteries we have decided to be more conservative with the use of our electrical components. The essentials to be used include running the water maker, charging our sat phone, iridium go (access to emails) and iPad (for comms).
This has meant a few other changes.
Temporarily we are unable to charge our iPods/personal equipment as these are our lowest priority…. so no music on the oars. Our deck speakers have also not been used in attempt to save energy. This has meant a significant increase in chatter, especially at night to keep us awake. LP and I being the gobbledygook culprits have started compiling a ‘night plan’ of conversational topics. When you thought you knew it all, you get to know your row buddy even better!
Nat is also singing a lot more. Usually 2 sentences of a song, in an extremely high pitch, repeated over and over….
We have also decided to be sparing with running the watermaker, so there is a hold off on clothes washing. There is still plenty water for us to drink and body wash with as this is one of our top priorities, and hopefully we should be back to normal washing clothes within a few days. I reckon the next change aboard Doris will be putting pegs on our noses.
With all these adjustments on the boat, this is where we draw on each other for our entertainment and energy boosters. In the changes we are experiencing right now, the team is stronger than ever. Being able to talk about our frustrations together somehow creates a new bond, then we leave it behind, make a joke about it and row on.
We have received an unbelievable amount of incredible and thoughtful emails over the past few weeks. From us all we would just like to say that you guys inspire us to keep going… It makes all the difference
UPDATE: we were supposed to celebrate with her in Samoa, but instead we called her from our pink boat….. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH MOSHMAN!! The gorgeous lady doing our documentary is another year older, wiser and ready to spend the coming year doing a lot of editing!
Yesterday Nat spoke about the ‘fears’ we considered before getting on Doris, as this allowed us to prepare as best we can for unfortunate circumstances. This list was accompanied by our ‘hopes’ which identified our goals and gave us a clear idea of why we are doing what we’re doing.
One of my biggest fears was receiving bad news about loved ones whilst out at sea, and unfortunately this happened earlier this week. My uncle; a devoted husband, an incredible father, a dear friend to many and one of the funniest people I knew, lost his battle with cancer. He put up an amazing fight and stayed positive throughout; testament to how he lived his life.
Last year he decided at the last minute to come and run the Two Oceans half marathon with my cousin and I. He made it across the finish line and got his medal with 30 seconds to spare…! No training, an aching body and a huge smile! His beautiful demeanour and lust for life has been passed onto his children, and as someone who was so involved in his local community his legacy and stories will live on.
As I received the news late at night the ocean was still, calm, lit up with a gorgeous large full moon and stars flickering. If I had wine onboard I would have used that, but instead with our spiced rum Nat and I gave a toast to a beautiful person.
It is strange receiving news like that when we’re so far removed from everything. In contrast to our distant existence out on the ocean, it very quickly brings you back to reality. All I really wanted to do was take a walk in the mountains. There’s no escaping on the boat…
So taking on my imaginary hike while on the oars, I pondered the dynamics and importance of family. We were born into families to be instantly connected to someone else. Families can be so complex, yet such a necessity in our lives. At times of need they can either pull together like an old fashioned knot; the bigger the load the tighter the knot, and even after the load is lifted the knot stays taught. Other times the rope can snap where is has weakened and been worn away over the years, the load too heavy to bear.
I have also once again been amazed at how a good team pulls together during tough times. We have had an array of different challenging circumstances on the boat so far, but for me nothing quite as bonding as this. Over the past two months we have become a family on the ocean and these girls have becomes my sisters. I could not have chosen three more incredible ladies to be on my boat.
I know that families can be the biggest stressing in ones life, but they can also be the biggest blessing. I know they are the people we take most for granted because they’re just ‘there’, but they’re also the ones we miss most when they’re gone.
Thank goodness we were also given the choice of friends to bring into our inner circles, as the saying goes “you can’t choose your family but you can choose your friends”. I regret that I am not there to offer my support, but love and prayer crosses oceans. I’ll continue to live my life with the motto “make the circle bigger”, but first ensuring a firm core with the people who have always been there, and alway will be; blood is thicker than water.
I know that the nature of this blog is personal, but if you can take anything from it then realise that life is fragile, and appreciate the amazing people around you.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to us anymore that nothing is quite as we’d imagined it would be on the Pacific. The equator was cold and wet (?!!), the wildlife has been mainly birds vs. sea life and recently every time we plan to have a team social to celebrate crossing the equator the heavens open up which causes us to postpone.
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt though it’s that communication makes all the difference, and in true female form as you can imagine there’s a LOT of chatting that happens on Doris. It amazes me that there is always still something to talk about! A hot topic of conversation that gets raised daily is what we are experiencing physically. Very often it’s prompted by a groan heard as someone exits the cabin and stands up straight; a rare occurrence. Or “You alright?” as another does a little stretch before going into the cabin after their 2 hour row shift. “It’s just such hard work!” No, they’re not referring to their row shift, but about making their way from one end of the boat to the other!… A mere 4 steps. The short distance we have to walk/crawl is now a physical strain as we haven’t walked properly for 2 months (longer for the other 3 girls)
Seriously?? Perhaps ignorantly I didn’t give it enough thought, but I expected our bodies to be toned, tanned and muscly, perhaps in the best physical shape we’ve ever been??… The answer is a big, fat NO!! Instead our muscles have withered away and have become so weak I’m not sure I’d even be able to jump onto my bed when I get home… but at least we have the tan.
So what are we experiencing physically?
Legs: our legs have become good at doing one thing only; to push ourselves back and forth on the rowing seats. The weight of this might be 30kg – 50kg in a leg press equivalent depending on the sea state. Considering that this isn’t even our body weight you can start to see the issue. Since we’re hardly standing we have minimal resting tone in our muscles, taking it from hero to zero. Muscle groups particularly affected are our calves, quads and gluts. All the junk in our trunk has pretty much disappeared! This means that there is more pressure on our seat bones when we row as we lost our “padding au natural”. Our foam seat cushions have flattened a bit with someone constantly sitting on it, but our saving grace has been without a doubt our individual sheep skin. I’ve become very attached to mine…. (We have enough sheep skin for about one each per week)
Hip flexors: it’s a little unfair, but these guys are doing most of the work. Since one of the quad muscles are also a hip flexor, most of the push and pull comes from here. (Hip flexors located front, top thigh). Functionally, due to its attachments when these muscles are tight they pull the pelvis forward and unfortunately this in turn also puts strain on the lower back.
The low back: as mentioned above, the hips pulled forward pulls the back into extension. The “Bucking Bronco” side-to-side and rotation movements that happens during stormy conditions and with one arm rowing also cause the joints to become irritated. Combine this with the strain placed on the vertebral discs and you have a three ingredient recipe for low back pain. Due to its inflammatory nature the pain will mainly be felt during a static sleep shift, but thankfully it will ease off again when you get up and move.
Forearms: rock solid. The forearm muscles are the ones that contract when we grip the oars. Since we are gripping for 12 hrs a day, our wrist flexors are working overtime and causes what we call ‘The Claw’. Claw hand is exactly what it describes; the muscles, tendons and skin becoming so tight it pulls our hands into a claw position, requiring some stretching to alleviate it. The gripping muscles are overstrained and when particularly weak it makes it very difficult to click fingers or open bottles.
Hands: we may look like four female Pacific voyagers, but that’s until you see our hands…! Man hands! Thankfully no blisters, but calluses have transformed our lovely female hands into street cat paws. Well… Whatever needs to happen to get the job done. Our hands also take a slight beating when we are fighting currents or winds (most of the time) causing the joints and tendons to be aggravated which leads to inflammation. The first few minutes on the oars are usually needed to warm up and loosen up. It does feel like you’ve aged about 50 years…
Due to the oar gripping I have also completely lost the fingerprints on my index and middle fingers!
Skin: another truth about ocean rowing is that our skin is constantly covered either in sweat, salt water or suntan lotion. It’s finally taken its toll in the last week when everyone’s skin got really itchy. Making sure we wash the salt off daily is important to stop it from getting worse.
Bums: it’s been mentioned before and it will be mentioned again, we spend a lot of time caring for our derrières. If we don’t, the outcome is pretty uncomfortable, so we either cover in baby powder or lather in sudocreme every 2 hours. The lanolin in our sheepskin also acts as a soothing agent.
Sun Tan: we all love a bit of a sun kissed glow, but I fear some of us may return with a different ethnicity altogether! We tend to cover up in the mid day heat, but otherwise have constant sun cream at the ready. Miraculously, none of us have been sunburnt. Funniest of all, if immigration authorities question ethnicity on arrival into Samoa we only need to show them the back of our thighs for identification. It’s the funniest tan line I’ve ever seen.
I’m told that in comparison between leg 1 and 2, physically there have been a few differences. For Ems, our Cambridge rowing queen she’s been fairly lucky to have minimal problems, just the calluses on her hands. Nats has been much better during this leg and her only complaint is also callused hands. LP unfortunately suffers with hip impingement, ankle stiffness and upper back stiffness. The two of us have luckily been able to give each other some treatments, so keeping niggles at bay.
Thankfully none of our ailments are causing much disruption to our rowing, and during the minimal time we have to do “life” we are making time to look after our bodies.
UPDATE: we’ve had another North West current today. One thing I love is singing in the rain and making up words to existing songs, so with my trusty composer Natalia Cohen, we wrote the following lyrics during a torrential downpour to the song we all love, “I want to break free” by Queen.
We want to break free
We want to break free from this current It’s taking us North West
We want to break free
God knows, God knows we want to break free
We’re rowing hard
We’re rowing so hard that our hands hurt Can’t even click to the beat
Oh, we’re rowing so hard
God knows, God knows we’re rowing so hard
Is it gonna rain? Is that a squall I see coming?
Battle stations at the ready
It is gonna rain
God knows, we’ve got to save the Oreos
Ems and I had a very special morning visit by about 50 dolphins yesterday. I’ve not caught a fish yet. I’ve realised it’s possibly because the hook is too shallow in the water as it gets pulled along with the boat. Going to try make a make-shift weight tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
Also just wanted to say a huge congrats to Izz and Meg for the roaring success of their 24hr row fundraiser. Great work girls, and thanks to Megs family who have been superstars in helping and supporting!
My best friend got married today… And though I’ve thrown myself passionately head first into the row, for the first time since starting this adventure I’ve wanted to be elsewhere. Unfortunately due to the delays caused in Leg 1 and our difficulty with currents, my bridesmaid dress remained in the closet. Overcoming adversity… it comes in all shapes and sizes.
Ocean Rowing… Absolutely unpredictable.
So I’d like to raise a cyber toast and say a huge congratulations to the gorgeous couple, Anna and Phil.
Needless to say the emotion on Doris has quivered over the past few days as I missed the wedding and we’re teetering on the edge of the Equator about 3 weeks later than originally thought; it’s a mental milestone for all of us. So you can expect a pensive blog today.
Everything happens for a reason?.. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I came to be out here, and not at the wedding, or not anywhere else for that matter. It’s one thing reading about an intrepid adventure, but when it comes down to the crux of it all; how do you make the decision that “yes please, I’d love to go and row an ocean”? Where does the seed that was planted as an idea flourish into an answer? How do you muster up the courage to take a leap of faith knowing full well that the leap will propel you far beyond your comfort zone?
The answer will be different for everyone, and there isn’t a right or a wrong. Having something in your life that allows you to believe that the decisions you make are the right ones will ultimately be the difference between “yes” and “maybe”, “excellence” and “average” and eventually “possible” and “impossible”
I sat on the edge of my answer for a while. I had recently bought a practice which increased my responsibility and kept me incredibly busy and I found myself at a crossroad; my head telling me what the sensible thing would be, but my heart (as usual) fighting to be heard and eventually get it’s own way. The back and forth/pros and cons lists consumed me, until my answer came one day, loud and clear in the form of a sermon by a lady called Charlotte Gambill, her insight and faith completely contagious. She was over from the UK for the Cape Town Women’s Colour Conference and I made it to one of her talks. About 7mins into her talk she said “imagine you’re on a little rowing boat, in the middle of the ocean, with no one around you”. With thousands of women in the arena, it felt like she was there speaking only to me. I went home and emailed Laura, I was doing the row. To be honest, my faith has been integral in my rowing experience, and for me is the thing that puts a smile on my face.
So I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be in “the Middle” of somewhere… Hear me out.
The beginning of something is always new and exciting with endless possibilities. It’s where your motivation is highest, procrastination lowest, inspired by a new beginning. At the beginning of the race you’ve got that nervous energy, ready to put into practice the months of training you’ve been doing. In short, the beginning is always great.
The end of something is usually an accomplishment, a milestone reached, an end of an era, or cause for celebration. Yes, it’s sometimes a sad occasion, but mostly the end of something always brings change, and change is as good as a holiday, right? In the race it’s the feeling of joy, satisfaction and blissful relief as you reach the finish line.
….and then you get ‘the middle’. It’s the bit no one really talks about. It’s not exciting, it’s not inspirational, it’s the boring bit that everyone wants to skip to ‘get rich quick’ and it’s the part of the relationship where you lose each other, only to realise years later that something needs to be done. It’s where all the hard work happens and is the easiest place for us to lose focus as procrastination sets in. It’s the middle that sets you apart from 1st and 2nd place, and it’s where possible is bridged with impossible. If we’re not careful, it’s the space that was only supposed to occupy your life for a short while, and instead it becomes your life; mediocrity.
Right now, in the MIDDLE of the ocean it’s where we’re overlooking our niggles, fighting with the ocean, ignoring the refreshing call of an ocean dip to make it to our destination. It’s the hard work that pays off in the end, and like Charlotte says, it’s in the middle where you find out what’s in the middle of you…
I wasn’t at Anna’s wedding, but I’ll be in her middle.
Our sunset today, in the middle of the Pacific
On a personal note: it’s wedding season, and a huge congrats to Karla and Jeff, and Lydia and Dereck who got married last month. Looking forward to catch up and hearing all about it.
UPDATE: Gobbledygook moment of the week- as I narrated The Lion King to Laura on our night shift a few days ago, from me there was the occasional addition of snack packs to the storyline, but best of all, when I got to the section where Simba was in trouble in the Elephants graveyard LP leaned back and offered me her ore to give to Simba to help him out. Cute.
I am always amazed at how the human body adapts to the different variables it gets exposed to and how there is always something left in your body to give even though you think you’ve given it all. It’s a topic I can ramble on about for hours.
We have now had almost 7 weeks of 2 hour stints; rowing, resting, rowing, sleeping, and so on. Due to the recent unfavourable conditions we had to break this routine for about 14 hours. After we deployed the para-anchor and had a team Greys Anatomy watching session a few days ago, I found that suddenly for a brief moment we were at a slight loss of what to do…!! We have been so set in our 2 hour lifestyle that breaking it felt like finishing a school term and not really knowing what to do with all that free time. We have one goal and that’s to move closer to our destination every day, so life on the boat with no rowing?? Absurd.
LP and I quickly snapped out of it and started the ‘The Ultimate Oreo Challenge’. It’s unfortunately not a “how many can you eat?” challenge, because at this point in time Oreos are too precious. Due to our delay in getting to Samoa we are going to run out of snack packs, and hence I need to imagine a life aboard Doris with no Oreos! (Don’t fret, we still have plenty of food, just not our snacks and sweets)
So the challenge is; getting an Oreo from your forehead, to your mouth, no hands, then getting it between your teeth and separating it in half, eating the one side that doesn’t have icing on, licking the icing off the other side, and then eating the other half of the Oreo….. Doing all of that with no hands, and no dropping it. LP does the latter part of this challenge while on the oars! It’s pretty impressive.
Laura and Lizanne doing the Oreo challenge
The four of us had a great time playing games and chatting before retiring to our humble abodes. Like Nat said, she went with Ems into the Fore cabin for the night while LP and I the Aft Cabin (slightly bigger). Worst night sleep of my life. After about 3 hours my body started to ache like I’d just run a marathon with a fridge on my back. I strangely welcomed the 2 hour alarm beckoning us to monitor our track and fill in the logbook. I am amazed, I longed for routine and so did my body.. It had gone into a complete inflammatory state with muscle spasm! It eased quickly with stretches and movement, but we all emerged from the cabins that morning groaning and moving like we were 101 yrs old.
It struck me then that the 8 hours sleep that was normal to us in our lives back on land, was suddenly too much for our bodies to handle. We got used to the 2 hour rhythm, and any more time gave leeway for inflammation to enter our repetitively strained joints and muscles. I started looking closely at our bodies to see exactly how they had changed since we started the row. More to come on this in detail.
Since I got on the boat I have wondered in astonishment how our bodies have coped so well with such little aches or pains. With Laura being a Physiotherapist and myself an Osteopath we do focus on preventative measures, but I’m still astonished. I guess it’s just another case of ‘sink or swim’, as rowing is the only way for us to get to our destination, and so our bodies instinctively adapt.
No doubt we will settle back into a monophonic sleeping pattern when we get home, but before then I hope it is smooth rowing all the way to Samoa so that we can avoid having to “rest” for a few hours again. Sounds ridiculous to say it, right??
UPDATE: thanks so much to everyone who helped with the fishing advice, I’m on it. We’ve unfortunately not had one single flying fish land on the boat for weeks, hence why I’ve not used them.
Last night however LP and I had just finished our sunset rowing shift and on my way into the cabin I asked Nats and Ems to keep any flying fish for me if by chance they see any jump on board so I can use it for bait. I went inside and was talking to LP when 2 minutes later I heard a ‘plop’ next to me and we looked at Nat (facing into the cabin from the oars) thinking she threw something, she hadn’t. When Laura asked what that was I joked and said “a fish”. Funniest moment so far…. It was in fact a fish! In the footwell! A tiny flying fish. We all burst out laughing as I took my fish with the bbq tongs and kept it safely to use for bait the next morning.
Since my bait had literally landed into my lap, I was sure i’d catch something today. Sad to say I didn’t. Better luck tomorrow
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