The Team

Day 60 – Introducing who’s behind Doris@coxlesscrew.com

Laura Penhaul By

Day 60 – Introducing who’s behind Doris@coxlesscrew.com

Everyday we look forward to switching on our iridium go and receiving your emails that have been sent to doris@coxlesscrew.com, it’s honestly the highlight of our day. As we only have 1 email account on the boat and it takes some time to download text, we set up doris@ so that emails could be filtered from signatures, smiley faces, attachments etc. & then forwarded on to us. There is one amazing little fairy that does this for us, once again volunteering her precious time… Kirsten Samuel. I had mentioned Kirsten in a previous blog of Nat’s this week, when asked which friends or family I’d have in the boat, kirst is on my list. However I’d like to point out this is hypothetical as having previously asked Kirsten there was no hesitation in her response- No! After taking Kirst kayaking and seeing her go white as a sheet on millpond waters, I can see why, although I guess I can’t comment after being sea sick for 10days straight! The reason I would have K in the boat is because she is a glass half full type of girl. She is one of the most generous people I know and is always so thoughtful regardless how busy she is. When Kirst and I met she was a patient of mine at Pure Sports Medicine, we clicked almost immediately and I knew then that we’d become good friends. At the time Kirsten was one of the leading females working at HP(Hewlett Packard). When I started getting involved in the row, she took the bold step to retire from HP and set up her own business. In less than a year she had set up Kamwell (www.kamwell.com) and now just 2years on she has a thriving, successful business. I’m so proud of her, Kirsten is without a doubt one of the most dedicated, focused and caring people I know. Regardless of how busy she is, she always makes time for you and the fact that she fits in sorting our emails, whilst running her own business and not to mention preparing for her own wedding in less than 3months time, the girl is a machine and an inspiration.

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If you’d like to send us or Kirsten an email, then we’d love to hear from you at doris@coxlesscrew.com.

Personal messages:
Hannah Head – thank you for your lovely email, can’t believe you were in California that wedding sounds epic! Also, 10km swim missus is monumental! Let me know if you’re doing it for charity and can you send me the date when it is? Loads of love to Henry and little Arlo plus Butler of course xx

Michelle – how did the sports day go? Did you win the mums race?? X

Heather – is Pip still chewing the house up and how’s Adams training, can you let me know the date of his cycle? X

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An introduction to Lizanne – Rolling with the waves

An introduction to Lizanne – Rolling with the waves

Imagine you’re throwing a dinner party. You don’t know when your guests are arriving, you’re not sure what they like to eat, and you’ve never even cooked before. That is roughly my current situation as I wait for the girls to arrive in Hawaii…

Hi everyone, I’m Lizanne, and I’m a chocoholic

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I am South African, grew up in the UK and am currently living in Cape Town. Izzy will pass the baton onto me in Hawaii and I will row with the girls across to Samoa, where Meg will take over from me and row to Cairns.

I got involved in the row last year and was held as a reserve if ever they needed one…. So I got this call a couple of months ago; “Liz, you still up for it?!”
I have never rowed before – “Yeah sure!”

I have now had 3 months to prepare for a 60+ day stint on an ocean rowing boat; 2 hours on, 2 hours off, 24/7. 3 months to learn everything I can about the sea, organise my practice (which I bought 9 months ago) for my departure, get life insurance (jokes…. sort of) and pick up at least 10-12kg of muscle and fat. It has been a fascinating experience already and I’m not even on the boat yet!

I have started going into the men’s section of the gym and stare at myself in the mirror with an angry face. I have started saying stuff like “I worked my triceps too hard and now I can’t wash my hair”.

I have brownies for breakfast without feeling guilty, I realised I can never have too many eggs and I add butter to everything.

The aspect of the row I’m very intrigued and fascinated by is the mental prep. No doubt it will be a physical challenge, but what will get us all through to the other side is the mental capacity to believe that you can do anything you set your mind to.

Currently there is only one other person who knows what I’m going through- Meg Dyos. She will be taking over from me in Samoa. Look out for her intro blog as she is one of the funniest people I have ever met! She is quickly becoming a soul sister….

We’re both currently just rolling with the waves as we try to prepare ourselves as best we can for something we have never done before. So far it’s been a great ride, and I’m so excited for what is still in store for us

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Support in Santa Barbara

Isabel Burnham By

Support in Santa Barbara

We continue to be overwhelmed by the support we are receiving. In addition to all of the kind emails, messages on our blog and social media, ever since we arrived in Santa Barbara there have been people willing to help us out in
whatever way they can.

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We already feel very at home at the Santa Barbara marina, where we have a small crowd of friends and helpers. Kenny from The Chandlery Yacht Sales (www.chandlery.com) and his dog, Tilly, took Tony and Sarah out on his boat
as we were approaching Santa Barbara and has been a great source of information and help ever since. Larry kindly fashioned some new grab rails for us using his sail sewing machine and introduced us to, among other people, Joseph. Joseph, who makes beautiful furniture, took the time to make us some boxing to turn our fore cabin vents into an internal dorade vent to prevent water coming in. Jason, the electrician, came at short notice, did a great job and worked a long day to help us out. Michael kindly drove Ems and I out to Costco and waited patiently while we selected food for our replacement snack packs. Thank you all so much for your help.

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It was also lovely to see some familiar faces from home yesterday. Anna Carboni and her husband Marius came by to meet Doris and very kindly treated us all to a big Mexican feast. I used to work for Anna and her current firm, Redd Solicitors, very kindly helped the crew with pro bono legal advice in the run up to the start line. It was great fun to catch up with friends from home and Anna and Marius also bought us some handy guides to birds and fish, so hopefully we will be able to identify what we are looking at going forward!

Anna and Marius with the team in Santa Barbara

 

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This evening we took Doris out for a short spin in the bay to double check that the autopilot and water maker are running smoothly. We saw two whales just off the pier and a beautiful sunset. Another lovely day in Santa Barbara.DSC00044

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Update

The Team By

Due to an electrical charging problem the Coxless Crew have taken the decision to return to California whilst the weather forecast is favourable to do so. There is no imminent danger to the crew and they’re expected to make landfall in the next 3-4 days. More details to follow.

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San Francisco Day 10

Natalia Cohen By
San Francisco Day 10
Woke up feeling quite overwhelmed. I knew it was going to be an emotional day.
Izzy and Ems went to the apartment where Sarah was going to be interviewing and Laura and I headed to Pier 39 to see Doris and do last minute jobs that needed doing.
Sarah Moshman is the amazing Emmy award winning documentary maker that is going to tell our story for us.
Doris ready to go

Doris ready to go!

I took the opportunity to Skype with my family (as all the other girls have their parents here in San Fran). It was a great 45 minutes and although incredibly emotional was amazing to be reminded of their constant support and encouragement. My mum, dad and brother are my anchors in my life and thoughts of them will keep me rowing stroke by stroke to Australia.

Andrew from our Best Year Yet program, who happens to be in San Francisco, came to say hello. Being a personal friend of mine, it was great to see him. Izz and Ems returned and we all had a tuna sandwich lunch (one of my favourite foods – who anyone who knows me will testify to!) and then LP (Laura) and I headed off for interviews with Sarah.

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Interviews with Sarah

Not the best day to be doing this giving my vulnerable emotional state…but it had to be done never the less.

So many different emotions coming and going today that I couldn’t put my finger on any of them!

We all headed back to Destination Art and as the girls went out for dinner with their respective families, I enjoyed my last moments of ‘time alone’, feeling the warm fresh water on my face and body during my penultimate shower and washed my hair (possibly for the last time in 2 months or so!)I packed up my personal belongings to take to the boat and then realised that I had forgotten to eat dinner! As there was limited choice in the flat I had to grab an expedition food pack that I found lying around (spaghetti bolognese flavour). Not ideal – but literally a taste of things to come.

I fell asleep knowing that this will be my last night that I sleep in solid ground in a bed that is not moving and for more than 90 minutes!!

Let the journey begin… x

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San Francisco Day 7

Natalia Cohen By

San Francisco Day 7

As we walked down to the park, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. The park was filled with varying groups of people fan dancing, doing marshall arts, stretching, walking their dogs and watching a group of women role playing mayday situations!! That’s what we were doing. Running through our flash cards of Man-Overboard, Capsize, Mayday and Evacuation drills.

Park

Flash Cards

We headed to Alameda Marina, as we were hoping that Doris would be delivered between 10 and 12pm. No such luck! We busied ourselves in the meantime distributing protein shake power into 220 bags, buying 150 litres of bottled water (that we will be using as ballast or weight for the boat) and ensuring we had everything we needed to be packed onto Doris once we were actually re-united with her.

Water Protien

After 7 hours of waiting, she finally arrived. The exact reason for her delay is still a mystery as she was only being held in her container at customs a mere 15 minutes away but we were all very excited to see her!!

We managed to successfully pack away all the food (main meals and snack packs) and they take up 6 of our 11 deck hatches. Everything else needs to be packed tomorrow!

Doris Arrives

Doris

 

 

 

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San Francisco Day 5

Isabel Burnham By

As is starting to become a bit of a habit, the day started with a team yoga and core session in the park at the bottom of Filbert Street, followed by picking up coffees, chai lattes and mini pickled gherkins (yes – Natalia eats these for breakfast!) from La Boulange.

After breakfast, Tony headed off to check in with the San Francisco coastguard to let them know our movements in the Bay over the coming days and the plan for our departure under the Golden Gate Bridge. We stayed behind at the apartment to catch up on emails, finalise some outstanding logistics and start setting up our satellite phones.

Emma gets sat phone ready

We spoke with the awesome Ella Hewton, who will be updating our social media while we are out at sea and making sure that our blogs are posted to our website. Ella has been involved in the row for more than 2 years and is an incredible support. We feel so lucky to know that she our website, Facebook, Twitter etc are in such safe hands while we are out on the ocean.

Skype with Ella

After a quick sandwich lunch with Tony, Nat and Laura headed off to get us sorted with a local mobile phone. Emma and I wandered down past the famous Powell-Hyde cable cars to the marina at Pier 39 to pick up some deliveries they had for us and to pop into the supermarket to keep us well fed.

Powell-Hyde cable car

The late afternoon was filled with a couple of hours of team admin. We discovered late on that it will be another day before Doris is released from customs and we are able to get on with packing her up and starting our sea trials. It’s frustrating to have yet another day’s delay, but it is what it is, so we contented ourselves with a well-earned dinner and a movie night. We’ll crack on tomorrow with any of the outstanding tasks that don’t require Doris and we look forward to a jam-packed Wednesday and Thursday once we are reunited with her.

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San Francisco Day 4

Laura Penhaul By

Today started waking to a 06:45 alarm, with sun shining through the windows and the excitement of bouncing out of bed to go for a run. It’s been literally months since we last ran, as we’ve had to keep cardiovascular exercise to a minimum in order to put the weight on and bulk up with eating and gym work. But today was the first day with Tony (our shore support) joining us, so we ignored our strength and conditioning coach’s advice and went for a run – it was gorgeous! However, running when I was 58kgs certainly felt a lot easier than being at 70kg’s!!

So Ems and I joined Tony for a 5 mile jog down to the water and along to the bridge. San Fran is seriously a great lifestyle and place to live. There were loads of people out running – a 10km race was about to start, a sea swim race was starting where everyone was donning their wetsuits and there were even some gig boat rowers out in front of Alcatraz – absolutely beautiful view!

Early morning Alcatraz

Back at the apartment we whipped up an avocado, bacon and eggs breakie to get the calories up after running. Then it was en route with the team to Svendsen’s boat yard to start the day of packing our snack packs! Ems had carefully worked out calories and amounts so that in total we will have 2,000 calories in our snack packs once our protein shake and bar is added from Maximuscle.

Production line

I left the team to get cracking whilst I went out to buy the outstanding snacks. $450 later I had finished our shop and realised the hire car needed a top up of petrol. Thinking this would be a simple process, I trundled off to a Shell garage and came across the first hurdle …. ‘Gasoline’ only – no option for diesel or petrol! I’m driving a massive SUV so I assumed it was diesel, but there were no options! Second hiccup, how to pay! ….. I tried to pay at the pump then it asked for a zip code (clearly a UK post code doesn’t work!). Then it blocked me from using the pump and I had to ask a nearby American how to use it! Highly amusing and it reminded me how everyday is an adventure and a learning curve….

When I got back to Svendsen’s, the production line was in full swing. We made 220 snack packs. Dried fruit, nuts, biscuits and beef jerky were divided up into small bags and added to each snack pack along with cereal bars, crackers, chocolate, tea bags, boiled sweets and mints and hot chocolate sachets. We have also set aside some items to eat in the first few days that we think we will be able to tolerate when we’re feeling really seasick. I loved the organization and the team was working really efficiently. Seeing everything go into the bags made me feel really excited that we were finally packing, although I felt slightly sick at the amount of stuff that we will be eating!

Dried fruit packing! Laura's tea shop Cereal bar monitor

 

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San Francisco Day 3

Natalia Cohen By

San Francisco Day 3

Golden Gate Bridge

The morning began with a group skype session with Keith (our sports psych) and then the four of us split up to do slightly different tasks that needed to be done.

I have now taken on the responsibility of mindfulness and fun monitor for the team

Laura went to collect Tony (our shore support) from the airport and after a group lunch, she headed off to drop him at the hostel where he was due to stay. This seemed to be one of the worst parts of San Fran, filled with many homeless people, drug users and basically was the type of place you would want to drive through and keep your doors locked!! Clearly we couldn’t put our Tony there. We brought him back to stay with us for the night and will find him somewhere more suitable tomorrow!
Early evening we headed over the Golden Gate Bridge to Presidio Yacht Club where we will be launching from and where we had been asked to talk about our upcoming expedition to the club’s members. Their view out over the bay is priceless. Our warm welcome from Jason, Dutch, Rear Commodore Steve and his wife and Vice Commodore Jen was overwhelming! We gave our presentation, joined the 50 yacht club members for a gumbo dinner and then after hugs all round headed out for a drink in a recommended bar called the Tipsy Pig. This was obviously instigated by me, the fun monitor!! Vice Commodore Jen and couple of her friends James and Octavia offered to accompany us.
We headed back over the Golden Gate Bridge and into a new area of town we hadn’t been before. Everyone was in high spirits and we were looking forward to a couple of drinks (extra calories – so all good).

Dinner at Presidio Yacht Club

We were driving happily when blue lights flashed and we heard a loud speaker behind us saying ‘Pull over please’. Laura slowed and was about to do as instructed but then the loud speaker said, ‘No – not here. Head to the parking bay’. Ok….we did as instructed and were about to pull over when we were reprimanded again with a ‘Not to the left – over there on the right’.
Luckily after a light telling off for not coming to a complete standstill at a stop street, we were sent on our way.

We headed into the bar where everyone had to show ID (very American) and to my horror I realised that I didn’t have any!! I only had a copy of my passport (not accepted apparently) and so to the fun monitor’s dismay I stopped everyone entering. Luckily the security guy took pity on me and as well as offering to buy me a drink if I went home and got my ID (!?!), also very kindly directed us to a near by haunt that would allow me entry.
Fun resumed and we all had a drink, chatted to some random locals and then headed home just after midnight.

A great day for the team. A little bit of team psych, a little local PR for the expedition, being stopped by the Police and then a little social time… x

CC and Tony

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