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Leg 2, Day 87 The faces of Oceania
By After spending 6 months out in the middle of the Almighty Pacific, I feel as if I’m slowly beginning to understand her a little better. She truly is magnificent, as I’ve said many times before, but it’s difficult to ask you to come and experience her without first preparing you for her ever changing personality. Within her vast boundaries, Oceania can be a healer, joker, protector, and teacher. This is why she provides us with the perfect environment to fight and overcome our adversities and to learn many a lesson from her variable landscape.
She is a very close ally of the wind and the sky and working in unison, they have a strong effect on her mood and behaviour.
Just like us, she has her moments of feeling either frustrated or reflective etc and when we are in sync, a deep connection is felt. She has the power to uplift and change our moods and has and will always be our constant companion throughout our odyssey.
Without further ado, may I present…
Oceania the playful – Varied sea state that changes quickly. She’ll taunt us with splashes, but they normally amount to nothing. There are sometimes 2 waves that come from different directions that we watch collide and it’s as if she is doing a high 5! She tends to rock the boat quite a lot in her playful state and will also wet whatever we have hanging on the grab rails to dry and find this very amusing. Her favourite game is hide and seek, where she hides a wave and then sneaks it up on us to give us a little fright but no soaking.
Oceania the irritated – Big swell rolling in from one or two directions with the wind ruffling the surface of the water. White peaks breaking in the distance and also close to the boat. Bubble trails streak down the waves and you can almost see her frown. The sky will almost certainly be grey and rain will hang threateningly on the horizon. She’ll throw us some big waves and play havoc with our heading, just to try and make us as irritable as she is. This normally means that there is some one-armed rowing going on.
Oceania the confused – This is when Oceania does not really know what is going on with her. There are waves coming from all sides and angles and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the direction relative to the wind. The swell is usually average to large and we have to be extra careful with wave splashage as it can from from anywhere. Average wind speed is usually 12-15 knots and as we never really know what is happening from one moment to another, we can’t normally keep a good course. Anything can happen when she is feeling like this, so we all know to stay on our guard.
Oceania the angry – This is usually large swell with waves of a minimum of 12-15ft and wind speeds of between 12-21 knots. There is so much movement in the water that this face could be mistaken with the confused one, however, the wave direction is slightly more constant. To ensure we understand her wrath, when in this sea state, it’s normally pretty difficult to hold a steady course. She’ll crash waves down on us even though her anger wasn’t caused by us, we’re good as any to take it out on. If she’s really not happy there will normally be dark clouds nearby with thunder and lightening. Night time is when she lashes out even more.
Oceania the reflective – This is where we work together. It’s where Oceania makes some time for us and gives us space and opportunity to gaze in all directions and feel her loving kindness and presence. She will help inspire us by having a magical light shine and sparkle down on her waters from either the sun or moon and bathe us in golden, metallic, pink, purple or blue tinged light. She gives us the calmer waters to allow time for our reflections and is when we feel her healing power the most. On occasion she goes completely still and silent and this is where we know that she is sharing some of her magic with us.
Oceania the happy – It’s always really obvious when she is happy. The water feels great to row through and we are making good speed and course. Regardless of wind strength, Oceania will normally share something sacred from within her depths with us. Dolphins, whales, turtles are among the gifts she reveals when she is feeling the happiest. She shows off her beauty in the light of a special sunrise or sunset and as the light catches her waves, it’s like a twinkle in her eye. When Oceania smiles, we feel her energy and we find ourselves smiling too.
Oceania the joker – mainly found in the Doldrums
She lulls you into a false sense of security and makes you think that you have a steady speed and course that will last a few hours or days, then changes her mind. She’ll throw in a squall that will alter the wind and speed or suddenly give you a current that halts your progress completely! She can send a squall your way and then change the wind direction and send it back again. When she’s in this mood, Oceania can either entertain or annoy us.
Whatever her mood, the almighty Pacific is always mesmerising. She has taught us so much already and we have a deep, love and respect for her that has become part of all of us x
UPDATE:
– Sad to say we’re back on the para-anchor. After an irritated, playful then angry sea today with winds of 21 knots and up to 30ft waves, we are struggling to keep a southerly course and have had to try and halt our progress until tomorrow when the wind should be settling at 18-15 knits for the next few days.
Looks like we’re going to be fighting to keep the right course and make sure we don’t overshoot Samoa. If it was easy it would be boring – right?
– We took the opportunity to try and dry some of our stuff that seems to be perpetually damp. Towels and sleeping sheets were among the worst affected, so we all gathered on deck for a mass dry by wind session. There was much laughter and flapping of materials. Ems was doing so well, with her towel finally not so wet that you could wring it, when a huge wave came over the bow (front) of the boat and soaked it again!!
– The body is truly a wonderful thing. From about day 86 our bodies have been speaking to us. They are saying, “Enough is enough ladies, we can’t take it no more. We’re ready for some rest and recovery and we want to be dry, clean and salt free. Please get to land as quickly as possible and look after us!!” We are getting all manners of skin rashes, irritations, salt sores and pressure sores and there is no opportunity for them to heal properly as we’re constantly wet. Last leg on day 60 my body told me it was enough and luckily 8 days later we arrived in Hawaii. I’m hoping that the 8 day rule will apply now too, let’s see if we make it Samoa by then!!
Leg 2, Day 86 – Doris’ Law
By Day 86 – Doris’ Laws
Out on the Pacific we find that life on board Doris is governed by a number of annoying but reliably true laws. The things that seem set to annoy you or make life difficult but you can’t help but laugh at how true they are. Inspired by Murphy’s Law here are Doris’ Laws.
– If you are struggling to hold a good course over ground for a whole session it will suddenly get much easier in the final 10 mins just in time for the next pair to have a good session.
– If you get excited about fast progress in the right direction be prepared for poor currents and adverse winds to turn up.
– If you write in a blog that we are going fast and in the right direction, by the time the blog is posted the wind and currents will have changed.
– If you turn on the camera to get some good footage of the big waves crashing over our heads the seas will calm down. When you turn the camera off because you aren’t getting any exciting footage it takes only 1 minute after returning to your rowing position before one or both rowers will receive an air dump.
– Regardless of the conditions, in the last 10 minutes of any session you will get splashed. We call this the 10 minute danger zone.
– On a hot day rain clouds will appear all around you but Doris will pass through the middle without a raindrop landing on her deck. On a cold day or at night a single rain cloud on the horizon will always head straight for the pink boat.
– If you plan a social, time to take video footage or sponsor photos as a team because conditions are good, by the time the planned hour approaches the wind will pick up, the waves will splash or the rain will come.
– She who likes the cold water least will get the most waves to the head (usually me!).
– The closer you get to your destination, the slower time will pass.
– If you wash something which you need to be dry by night time to wear on the oars then as soon as you hang it to dry on the grab rails either rain clouds will appear or the sea will get splashy.
– If at the end of a splashy shift you rinse yourself off with fresh water before entering the cabin a wave will catch you between your rowing position and the hatch.
UPDATE: We are still battling against strong south easterly winds and struggling to make any progress South. We are trying to slow our progress west as much as possible to prevent overshooting Samoa. Another soggy night has passed. The early night shifts aren’t so bad with the light of the moon allowing you to see the approaching waves but once the moon sets there is no warning as walls of water wipe out the deck with no warning. Last night both LP and myself got wiped off our seats by big deck washing waves and ended the shift feeling like we’d been playing a rugby match. With similar conditions in the forecast for the next 10 days it looks like our dry land dreams will have to wait a little longer. So near and yet so far! However we do have a new friend who has been following us for the last few days. A little dark fish with white lips and some flappy fins who we have called Harvey has been swimming alongside our oars.
Leg 2, Day 85 – Dreaming of dry land
By Leg 2, Day 85 – Dreaming of dry land
Lizanne touched on it yesterday in her blog, that now we are finally discussing potential ETA into Samoa within the next 2 weeks, Tony and Meg have booked flights and Lizanne’s parents too, discussions on the oars have migrated to what we are looking forward to the most when we reach land. I thought I’d share with you some of the small things we have missed whilst out at sea for nearly 90days & certain things we are looking forward to …..
1) An ice cold glass of coke, with condensation running down the outside and large chunks of ice clunking in the glass.
2) seeing other people different to the 3 other faces we’ve seen on here for the last 84 days!
3) having the safety net of seeing Uncle Tone, knowing that everything will run like clock work whilst he’s around.
4) greeting Meggy Moo into the team
5) Seeing Sarah Moshman’s smiling face and finally getting to see the documentary trailer that we’ve heard so much about but not seen.
6) asking each other what cocktail we would choose at Sunset (this is a trait started by Nats on the boat) but actually then having that cocktail for real.
7) Having solid food that requires a knife to eat it, that’s not expedition food mush and also where there’s an endless supply that you don’t have to share. Foods of choice on the boat today are; Me – A medium rare steak with chips, salsa and avocado salad, Ems – a bbq, meat, salad and fresh bread, Nats- BBQ of local food with fresh salad and Lizanne- Fresh seafood platter with salad and Watermelon. 8) An endless supply of Fresh fruit and frozen yoghurt 9) A shower!! Followed by drying with a clean,soft towel. Plus an ice bath for me for recovery to help with aches and pains.
10) A clean, fresh linen, spacious bed with more than 2 hours sleep
It seems typical, that as soon as you start to think or look forward to the finish line, it gets further away! The same happened as we neared Hawaii that we got caught at the tail end of a hurricane. Well this time it’s just good old strong winds from the South East that seem to be hampering our progress. Today the swell is reaching around 20ft and we are back to getting a regular dousing from the Ocean. Full air dumps, deck wipeouts and hair washes from the sea, to leave us constantly crusty with salt, a déja vu from leg one.
Leg 2, Day 84 – No Danger Diaries
By Leg 2, Day 84 – No Danger Diaries
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….
Love Liz aka Doots x
Leg 2, day 83 – Ups, downs and dancing
Day 83 – Ups, downs and dancing
Four significant events have happened in the last 24 hours.
1. We have now done a full food audit and have allocated equal numbers of all different types of freeze dried food to each of us. We have a good variety left apart from Oriental Chicken and Shepherds Pie as distressingly, they have been the first to go. The other options will last us for the next 10 days eating 2 meals a day. After that, never mind beef curry for breakfast, there will ONLY be beef curry left full stop!! This collection of 48 packets of curry will have to be eaten for the following 6 days, after which…there will be no more food.
As we had had an amazing previous 24 hours making great progress, spirits were high as we all busied ourselves working out how long we thought it would take us to Samoa, if we kept averaging the speed we were doing. 10 days was definitely a realistic prediction.
2. We decided to celebrate crossing the 400 nautical mile mark by rewarding ourselves with something a little different. We combined a 15 minute social and a belated Equator crossing celebration and used 4 songs (1 chosen by each of us) to play out on deck through the loud speakers. We then proceeded to…dance! This social idea was mine…as dancing has always been one of my passions and I thought it would be good to try something different. I had originally proposed an hour, but it was decided that after 3/6 months of no exercise except for rowing, that 15 minutes was probably going to be challenging enough. It was hysterical. 4 girls on a pink boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, shimmying our shoulders, shaking our hips and flailing our arms in the air in a way that we had not moved them in months. Safe to say that after the first song, let alone the fourth, we were all exhausted. It was worth it.
After our little dance, we all stood facing out to the almighty Pacific and ‘whooooo hoooooo’ed’ as loud as we could and then resumed our routine of eat, sleep, row, repeat. Just another day at the office.
3. As is the wonderful world of Murphy’s law (more about Doris’ law to come from Ems), late last night the wind and current changed. Once again our speed has dropped and it is difficult to hold a course. We’re never allowed to forget that everything constantly changes and that we’re going to be challenged every step of the way on this journey. We can’t help but feel a little frustrated but it serves us right as we clearly still have the lesson to learn:
‘Remember the impermanence of all things, don’t project into the future and stay focused on the moment’.
Beef curry for days on end may actually be a possibility…
Moral dipped slightly…then…
4. We had an unexpected encounter. Our first sign of human life in 82 days. A lovely 51ft sailing boat S/Y Windcutter glided into view a couple of miles away while LP and Ems were on the oars. We couldn’t see them on our chartplotter but decided to call them anyway to say hello.
I jumped on the radio.
‘Unidentified sailing vessel, unidentified sailing vessel, this is Doris, Doris, over’
S/Y Windcutter then proceeded to introduce herself. We chatted for a while and then told them to come and say hello…so they did. Craig and Carol have been travelling on their boat for the last 3 years exploring the islands. They have just come from Samoa where they said they had run into some bad weather (Yay!) and were now heading to Hawaii. They circled us a couple of times while we shouted at each other and everyone’s spirits lifted again momentarily regardless of the limited progress being made! Thank you Windcutter and thank you Oceania x
Leg 2, Day 82 – A day in the life of the aft cabin
Day 82 – A day in the life of the aft cabin
The aft cabin on Doris is the size of a small 2 man tent. For the last 82 days four of us have been sharing its space and kept all our belongings in it. It is where we spend 12 hours of every day and a lot happens inside. Here is a typical day in the aft cabin.
09.00: Emma enters the cabin for the first awake shift. Laura’s arm enters to grab her water bottle and the blue cloth to clean the solar panels. Laura enters the cabin. Both rowers change into dry pants and Emma fills in the logbook while Laura reads the numbers from the chart plotter. A quick video diary about their first morning shift follows before Ems retires to the nose of the cabin and gets out the iPad to send and receive emails and begin writing her blog.
09.20: Laura boils water in the jetboil and makes breakfast for her and Emma. This is gobbled down in seconds by the hungry rowers.
09.30: LP runs the water maker. A whirring, clicking noise ensues as fresh water trickles from the blue hose into the bottles lined up in the footwell. This job requires concentration and the occasional distressed sound is emitted as the hose fails to be transferred quickly enough and a bottle overflows to flood the footwell. Once finished the footwell is mopped dry with the conveniently placed sponge.
10.25: Ems finally gets the Iridium Go! to work and reads out emails people have sent to us as a team. This brings a big smile to the faces of both rowers. Individual emails are then read by each rower as they lie down and stretch out their legs.
10.50: “How do we only have 10 mins left” is heard followed by changing of kit, rifling in pockets and assembling of bags and water bottles to be sent out to the oars.
11.00: Ems and LP exit the cabin and are replaced by Nats and LV. Log book and video diary are completed. Nat checks the chart plotter again to see how many miles we have left to Samoa. This time it’s 396nm! Nat is sat by the hatch so she gets straight on with preparing main meals for the hungry pair. Special expedition foods are on the menu as a reward for passing the 400nm mark so Mediterranean vegetable pasta and spag bol are on the menu.
11.20: Both rowers sit side by side propped up against the overflowing personal kit pockets and eat their meals while having a good chin wag.
11.45: A shout from the oars of ‘turtle!’ brings Nat and LV to the aft cabin hatch where they both peer their heads out to try to see as the turtle passes quickly next to Doris. After the excitement they retire back inside. Nats needs to write some emails so she shuffles past LV into the nose of the boat with her towel ready to sit on. It’s a tight squeeze and involves a lot of wriggling.
12.25: LV rifles through her pocket to find a vest top. Obviously this is at the bottom and therefore involves emptying the whole contents of the pocket in an explosion all around her. It then takes 10mins to fit it all back in.
12.45: Nat stands up out of the port hatch with the Sony camera to catch some footage of the rowers in the sunshine.
13.30: Ems and LP are ready to eat. Noodles is on the menu for Ems and scrambled egg and potato for LP so a visit to the condiment hatch is required for sweet chilli and ketchup. This requires shuffling of the rowers away from the area, lifting up of one side of the cabin cushion and delving into the hatch with an arm feeling around for the right bottles.
14.20: A lot of giggling ensues from the aft cabin as Ems and LP practice their alphabet rap. A new party trick is almost learned!
15.05: Nats checks the chart plotter AGAIN to see how far away Samoa is…. 392nm now.
15.45: LV needs to wash some clothes. She wriggles past Nat to the front of the cabin, reaches out and opens the deck hatch closest to the door to remove the washing bucket. The bin and a couple of the water bottles are removed from the footwell and balanced on the cushions around her and the bucket set down. Clothes are washed with soap suds and then rinsed both in a minimal amount of water. A hunt ensues in the aft cabin by LV and Nats for any of our elusive pegs and the clothes are then passed out to LP on the oars to hang on the grab rails.
16.15: LV gets out her diary to write in it and Nats gets out her kindle to read. Both are asleep within 10mins.
18.35: A shout of ‘dolphins’ from Nats and LV on the oars sends LP out of the main hatch and Ems out of the round port hatch to take a look. Cameras are then grabbed and footage taken hanging out of each hatch.
19.15: Nats brushes her teeth out of the port hatch and LV out of the main hatch.
21.20: LP and Ems grab a quick meal of chicken and vegetable pasta before hitting the cushions for a snooze.
22.51: The alarm goes off, first gently and then getting more and more angry the longer it is ignored. LP sleepily turns it off then groans and lies back down. Ems tries to put her shorts, long sleeve top and buff on without sitting up or opening her eyes.
23.17: Time for Nats and LV to have some shepherds pie before bed.
00.51: The alarm gets angry again. Nats switches on the light to get ready. Pre row shift sudocreme application occurs. LV rocks gently by the footwell with her eyes closed until 00.59 when she collects her stuff to leave the cabin.
01.23: Ems is woken up by a head torch, visor and sunglasses falling from the autopilot shelf on to her as she sleeps. Ems resolves to tidy autopilot shelf in the morning. Ems forgets this by the time the alarm sounds.
02.51: Angry alarm. LP tries to put her vest top on. Gets stuck with her head through the arm hole. Tries again. Same problem. Lays out vest top in front of her with a sleepy frown of concentration. Orients item of clothing and body ready to don the top. Ends up inside out but head is through the right hole.
03.10: LV completes the log book in Spanish after a lesson in numbers from Nats on the oars. Sleepy video diary completed.
05.05: After a torrential rain storm on the oars LP and Ems enter the cabin one at a time and struggle out of sopping wet jackets and shorts. Copious quantities of talc are applied to bodies, cushions and sleeping sheets.
07.07: Nats and LV return to the cabin after a beautiful sunrise shift for a final snooze. A new day has begun on Doris.
UPDATE: Following on from Nats Doris tragedies blog it appears that Lizanne’s potential tragedy may in fact be a Doris crime. Yesterday it was discovered that LP was wearing LV’s green top not her own. She pleads ignorance to how this happened but now the mystery deepens. Where is LP’s green top? Surely she hasn’t lost another item to Neptune?!
We have passed the 400nm to Samoa mark – woohoo!!
Leg 2, Day 81 – ‘My Best Always’
Day 81 – ‘My Best Always’
Wow what a day, Thursday 15th of October will go down as a key highlight to date. Not only did we have the amazing One Show phonecall in the morning, but the night was topped off by my receiving a call from my old Junior School. The lovely Dan Simons, a teacher at Trewergie Junior School in Redruth, Cornwall had been so supportive of the row and had set up a non-school uniform day of heroes and heroines whilst running a rowathon, all in aid of raising funds for our charities. Dan is one of the most passionate and enthusiastic teachers I know, driven to empower his pupils to be the best they can be, a trait shared with his father who was my teacher when I was at Trewergie. Dan had co-ordinated through my parents, to set up calling us on the boat when the children were together for an assembly at 10:15am (UK time). This was 11:15pm for us and landed at the beginning of mine and Ems row shift which was from 11-01:00 (after much deliberation around time difference and mucking it up as I had planned/ thought it was landing in a rest shift- oops!). We were lucky with the weather, that although the seas were choppy and the wind was picking up, the night sky was clear with an abundance of stars and slither of a moon, so we were able to stay out on deck for the call. Apart from signal dropping out twice briefly, the call was clear and we were able to speak to the audience of 400 children and staff. Dan had introduced me and then there was an opportunity for 3 pupils to ask me questions;
1) what is your daily routine on the boat?
2) what has the sea life been like?
3) what keeps you motivated?
This last question was my favourite. I told the children how speaking to them and hearing their support was without a doubt, a huge motivator for me. Redruth is a small town in Cornwall, so I got a chance to share how I was sitting exactly where they are (albeit more than 20years ago!) but am now experiencing sitting in the middle of the Pacific. I’m lucky enough to say, that the words that Mr.Simons left my parents and I with when I left that school, was ‘the world is your oyster’, who would have thought that 20years on, I would realise that, that has become true. I wanted to share this with the children, to help them realise not to let location or circumstance get in the way of following what you believe and help create focus on what you can achieve.
Trewergie School definitely played a huge role in shaping the person I am today and grounding of my beliefs. With a school motto of ‘My Best Always’ I hadn’t realised until recently returning to the school, how much I lived my life by that motto. The school is a beautiful old building , but to me it is more than bricks and mortar that makes a school, it’s the teachers that make it. Back in the late 80’s / early 90’s when I was there, Mr.Butcher was our Head Teacher and Mr.Simons the Deputy. Mr.Butcher was a kind man with assertive authority that ensured the School was run like clockwork which resulted in outstanding Ofsted for years to come. Mr.Simons was a lovely man and gave so much time and energy to the school to ensure every, single pupil had the best experience and they could take something away from it.
The thing with Trewergie is that it has such a welcoming, warming feeling. Having not been back since I left there when I was 11, it brought wonderful memories flooding back when I visited the month before we left for America. The homely feel to the school comes from the teachers passion and positive energy to want to be there, to be ‘their best always’. What’s beautiful is that there were still a number of teachers there that had taught me! Secondly there were the sons of my teachers (Mr.Butcher and Mr. Simons). Finally a couple of teachers were those of my classmates who had now returned to teach!!
To see your old school get right behind and go one step further to set up an independent event on our behalf, has been truly humbling. To hear 400 children shout good luck to us down the phone, is a moment I will never forget. This row has brought us some amazing experiences and we’ve seen some beautiful things, but this phonecall back to my old roots will be one of the most memorable.
Update: The last 2 nights we have had the sea around Doris light up with something luminous. We’re not sure if it’s phosphorescence or jellyfish as it comes in all shapes and sizes and seems to float past the boat not swim. We had 2 sperm whales surface near Doris today as they surfed the waves and although the wind has picked up, we are continuing a steady path towards Samoa and a good pace. Just 430nm to go!
leg 2, Day 80 – Making waves from across the Ocean
Day 80 – Making waves from across the Ocean
“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.
Liz x
Leg 2, Day 79 – The Doris Tragedies
Day 79 – The Doris Tragedies
Some of you may remember a few months ago I wrote about the sad truth about the state of pollution in our oceans. In leg 1 we rowed through part of what we believed to be the ‘Great Pacific garbage patch’, where the frequency of debris floating past us was alarming. In leg 2 we have definitely seen a lot less pollution, but it has still been very evident.
Please know that everything mentioned below was completely unintentional and every effort was made for retrieval of each object! I feel as though I’m best placed to write this blog as, so far, I am the only person to not have had a ‘Doris tragedy’ befall me yet and you all already know my strong feelings regarding Ocean pollution.
A Doris tragedy = when something has been very accidentally and distressingly lost at sea.
Ems was the first person to have this happen. After days of some of the roughest seas we had had in leg 1, the wind suddenly died and we had our first day of flat calm. This, of all days, when there was limited boat movement, was the day that Ems let go of her tupperware whilst cleaning it in the sea after her lunch. We still have no idea exactly how it happened.
Then, after heading off from Santa Barbara, Ems was generously cleaning LP’s new flask for her after a cup of peppermint tea and…boom…lost to the ocean as well. Ems has since made a point of informing anyone whose tupperware and/or flask she is cleaning that they do so at their own risk!
LP had an opportunity to get her own back on Ems, when a week or so after the loss of her flask, she too was kindly cleaning Ems’ tupperware before…bam…gone.
This, unfortunately, was the start of LP’s ‘Doris Tragedy’ bad luck. To date, she has lost Ems’ flask, her purple top, her favourite pink bikini top (this was a particularly tragic day), one of our hatch shades (a silver car windscreen shade), a blue flannel and a pillow case!
The pillow case is a good story.
This was in leg 2, when just after a beautiful sunset, a large silvery fat fish jumped and landed on the deck of Doris. It was thrashing around in a state of panic and LP, being our knight in shining armour, nominated herself to pick it up and release it back into the ocean. She snatched the nearest thing she could find from the cabin (one of our pillowcases) and bravely lurched forward to help save it. The fish was still flapping around dramatically and LP began losing her nerve a little. Practicing some positive speak, she began shrieking (I say shrieking as it was an extraordinarily shrill pitch that I believe the dogs on any neighbouring island would have heard), “You’re just a fish, you’re just a fish, you’re just a fish!”
With the mantra firmly in place, LP grabbed the fish with both hands and flung it into the sea. Unfortunately, instead of only releasing the fish, she also let go of the pillowcase. A life saved, but alas another ‘Doris tragedy’.
The loss of the blue flannel may be the most pertinent as it was the most used item. It was a sad day when LP realised that her flannel, normally hanging with all the others on the grab lines, was nowhere to be seen. Ems was with her at the time and sensitive to the sadness LP clearly displayed, generously offered a section of her green flannel. LP now has a flannel albeit a tiny little green one!!
Izzy in leg 1, had a couple of perturbing losses.
The first was her pink sponge. Izz had been talking about washing with her new sponge for quite a while and the day had finally come. Excitedly she remained out on deck after her row shift and was preparing for the big wash. All was in place for the procedure; the bucket, the soap and the sponge, which was placed on the side ready to do its job. Izz reached for the pink sponge and when doing so accidentally knocked it overboard. It happened so quickly, it was all a blur, but there was no rescuing the little pink sponge. The dismay on Izz’s face was priceless as she watched the pink object drift further and further away from us.
You would think a lesson had been learnt…but alas no. Days later Izz was brushing her teeth out in the oars and was rinsing the toothbrush with her trusty Camelback water bottle. She was about to finish up when the bottle accidentally knocked against the gate of the oar and…plop…into the water it fell. Make no mistake, Izz made a valiant effort to try and retrieve her beloved bottle, but as the current whisked it away, she found herself on the wrong side of the oars and, alas, could just not manage to get to it before it was floating off into the distance.
Last, but never by any means least is the lovely Lizanne. Now we are still unsure if this story is one of ‘Doris mystery’ or ‘Doris tragedy’, but whichever it may be it has caused our LV great distress. We all have matching blue green long sleeved Ripcurl UV protected tops that we wear to row in and this seems to have completely disappeared. Most of us presume it has been given as gift to Neptune along with LP’s purple top and bikini, but LV just refuses to believe. We’re hoping she’ll come to the realisation soon enough and are all ready to support and help her deal with the loss x
UPDATE:
We had a HUGE Mahi Mahi jump up onto the boat last night and smack poor Ems on the leg. It then flew into a flapping panic releasing fish scales and a very strong fishy smell of fear while Ems and LV screamed like girls. Our night in shining armour came to the rescue again. This time LP grabbed MY sheepskin and proceeded to enter the same scenario as the silver fish. This time, however, she learnt from her previous mistake and managed to keep hold of the object that had aided her in saving the fish’s life. Not so good for me. The sheepskin reeked of fish, so rendered it unusable.
In other news…we have had a breeze today which has made rowing slightly more bearable. I broke my non hair washing record from leg 1 (40 days) and finally cleaned it after a staggering 52 days!! Who knows what will happen in leg 3!!?
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