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Media whirlwind!

The Team By

Wow, what a few days it has been. We have been imagining arriving into Cairns for a long time and hoped there would be some media interest but we NEVER anticipated quite so much attention! From the UK and Australia, to the US and all the way across Europe, we have even been approached by Korean and Japanese news stations for an interview!!

Photo Jan 25, 11 11 24 AM

 

We really have a big thank you to say to our PR team at Carver PR who have been working around the clock getting us coverage and have managed to arrange for us to be on The One Show next Wednesday evening followed by Lorraine on Thursday morning! So keep your eyes peeled and tune in!

Sarah Moshman director and producer of our documentary film, Losing Sight Of Shore, has also been busting a gut getting footage throughout the week and her PR team, SmartHouse Creative, has generated so much coverage too across America. It really has been phenomenal. Sarah has left Australia now to head back to the US to get started on the documentary….we can’t wait!!!

And if you haven’t managed to see, here is some of that coverage….



http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2016-01-25/rowers-message-to-cornwall-were-not-just-country-bumpkins/

press

Metro DailyMail

CNN – http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/25/sport/british-rowers-pacific-ocean/index.html

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/01/25/pkg-amanpour-rowers-iaw.cnn/video/playlists/amanpour/

BBC – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35398206

BBC Cornwall – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-35405373

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35397844

‘Behind the scenes’ – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35398753

British female rowing crew make history with Pacific crossing – The Guardian – http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/25/british-female-rowing-crew-make-history-with-pacific-crossing

Joy as Coxless Crew complete their 9,200 mile Pacific Ocean row – The Daily Mail – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3415605/Joy-Coxless-Crew-complete-9-200-mile-Pacific-Ocean-row.html

Coxless Crew becomes first all-female team to row Pacific Ocean after nine months at sea – The Daily Telegraph – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/12119203/Coxless-Crew-becomes-first-all-female-team-to-row-Pacific-Ocean-after-nine-months-at-sea.html

Coxless Crew: British female rowing team complete record-breaking journey across Pacific – The Independent – http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/coxless-crew-british-female-rowing-team-complete-record-breaking-journey-across-pacific-a6831991.html

People.com – http://www.people.com/article/four-women-cross-the-pacific-in-rowboat

And that is just the tip of the iceberg!!

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The final day on land…

The Team By

The final day on land…

We have just finished our last day on land before we reach Australia. At 10am tomorrow (8pm tonight UK time) we will head off on Doris for the final leg of our journey to Cairns. As always the last day before departure was a busy one. Laura had the morning off so Ems, Nats and Megs packed the final items on to Doris and finished off the final boat preparations while Tony went on the hunt for the last items on the shopping list. He’s now visited pretty much every shop in Samoa and has the best collection of holiday snaps I’ve ever seen! The amazing Nicola Mills had found us some foam for our seat cushions and came for a visit to entertain us while we worked. The suncream monitor was not doing her job though and allowed her to get a little bit toasted in the midday sun. At lunch time we were lucky enough to have Zita Martel come down to see us on the boat. Zita is the first female skipper of the traditional Samoan longboats and a hugely inspirational woman and we loved hearing about her success in breaking down the stereotypes in a male dominated sport.

With final preparations more or less done we had a lovely final dinner with some of the amazing people of Samoa who have made our time here so special. A huge thank you to Nicola who can organise anything, Xavier for providing endless help and support and introducing us to the Samoan Voyaging Society and Sylvia who has allowed us to stay in her beautiful guesthouse all together. We are all really sad to be saying goodbye to Samoa and its beautiful people. We all feel like we’ve had a bit more of a rest than we did in Hawaii and are feeling as ready as we ever will to take on the final and possibly most challenging leg of our journey.

Us with Xavier

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An epic afternoon…

The Team By

Today began with Emma and Nats being kindly taken out on the Gaualofa, a traditional twin hulled sailing canoe, the one that escorted us in on our arrival. Ems got to get her hands on the biggest oar she’s ever handled, so she technically steered the boat which is over 3 times the size of Doris.

Meanwhile LP made the most of a quiet house, so she got to catch up with a few of her close friends that she constantly talks about on the boat and who have been an amazing support to her throughout (Heather & Ads, Michelle & Paul, Sarah & Tim, Mary & Darren, Kirsten & Steve- on their honeymoon!).

Meg then went out for a paddle in Doris with Ems, to get familiar with the oars before she sits in the driving seat on Tuesday morning (Monday evening in the UK) for launch of the final leg! Thankfully she quotes ‘I quite enjoyed rowing’ Wonder if that will be the same thought by Cairns?!

We then had an epic afternoon! Sarah Moshman and crew had found this beautiful waterfall spot; Sopoaga Falls, so we went there for some filming and a photoshoot with Alana Fickes.

We then went on to one of the world’s most beautiful water spots; To Sua Ocean Trench. It was unbelievable. The water so clear, turquoise blue and bath temperature and what made it even more special, was that there was no one else there! If this was in Europe, it would be heaving with tourists and locals everyday, so to have it to ourselves was very special. It certainly has made rowing to Samoa worth it along with everyone and everything else on this Island.

It was topped off with a fresh coconut and bananas bought as a car snack on the drive home, wish we could get these on our commutes to work back home!

So with only one full day left, tomorrow is full of last minute.com on the boat and personal preparations for launch on Tuesday morning (Monday evening UK time). We hope to set off about 10am local time, but first things first, we will only leave once we have polished off a significantly huge breakfast!

Xx

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Day 2 on Samoa

Laura Penhaul By

Day 2 on Samoa…

Waking up this morning in a massive king size bed with beautiful soft, fresh linen at the wonderful resort of Sinalei was worlds apart from where we were just 48 hours previously. A couple of us got up early and went down to the water front where we jumped off the pier into the deep, fresh water spring that came up in the sea. The water temperature was like a cool bath and it was so clear with beautiful colourful fish swimming around us amongst the coral reef.

We then had the most amazing breakfast, which for most of us is our favourite meal of the day and for me, it’s been the food that I’ve been talking to LV about for the last 2 weeks at least! We had the buffet breakfast which included marmalades such as papaya, lime and banana, or coconut marmalade with nutty bread or coconut bread, fresh mangoes and apple cream fruits. This was the starter to cleanse the palate before the main course of eggs benedict including bacon and spinach on 2 muffins!

Breakfast

 

 

Followed by a dessert of pancakes with bananas in orange marmalade syrup – seriously delicious! One bonus of needing to stock up on food whilst we’re here, we’re literally eating everything in sight, love it!! Before leaving I got to do one last rendition of the Hakka to check I had it right, apparently I need to work on my scary face! (See facebook for the video!)

Laura doing the Haka

We were sad to leave Sinalei and the wonderful John who had been so generous in providing our stay, but it was time for Doris to get pampered. We cleared out everything from the hatches and deck, washed her clean and let her air dry before repacking. Whilst down at the dockside, we had some wonderful visitors, from the group of men from Tansmania, to the 2 lovely couples who are living and travelling the world on their boats.

The Tasmanians

Us with Joe from the hotel

 

The finale for the evening was a phone call with Keith our Sport Psych. Touching base on where we are as a team reflecting on our 2nd leg, setting us up for success on the last leg, ensuring we’ve got our individual plans laid out for what we want out of the last leg and how we prepare for bringing Doris home for the finish. Plenty of homework to ensure that we don’t completely laze about whilst we’re here!

One thing is for sure, Samoa is definitely getting harder and harder to envisage leaving next week. The people, the food, the culture and the island itself, is one of the most beautiful places i have ever been to. Thank you Samoa.

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Leg 2, Day 91 – meanwhile, on dry land……

Isabel Burnham By

Today’s blog comes from dry land! I can’t believe that it is nearly 100 days since I left Doris and the team in Hawaii. I have been asked by the girls to blog to provide an update on what I’ve been up to since I got home at the end of July (and to give them a well earned day off blog writing!).

Probably the most common question that I have been asked since I got home is: “is it difficult being back in the real world” or “did it take you long to adapt to being back in the real world?”. The short answer is no. I don’t want to disappoint anyone (some people seem to expect a very profound or philosophical answer!), but I came back to find that the real world is exactly as it was before I left! I have been lucky enough to have had a really amazing experience, learnt some new things and met some great new people and I’ll take that forward with me, but I don’t see myself or the world any differently now. It was lovely to see friends and family again after being away and to be able to thank people personally for all of their support, but after that I just slotted straight back in to everyday life. I think a big reason for this is the fact that life out there on Doris is simply so far removed from everyday life that it really does feel like another planet. The ‘bubble effect’ that we talk of is very real. Now that I am back on dry land, it is still sometimes difficult for me to imagine what the girls are doing and feeling, which is strange since I spent so long out there with them myself! I have emailed Doris a few times with that in mind, telling the girls to try their best, despite the frustrations and difficulties, to appreciate the incredibly unique situation that they are in, as once they are home it will seem like a faraway world. Of course, we are all very different people and the other girls may find that they have a completely different experience on returning home, particularly Ems, Nat and Laura who will have been at sea for an incredible 9 months or more.
Now I am back on dry land, I am in a support team role and have the responsibilities that come with that. We received a huge amount of help in the run up to the start line, but since coming home I have seen first hand how much time and effort is still being dedicated every day by our incredible support team of Tony, Keith, Ella, Alex, Kirsten and Meg (until she flies to Samoa on Thursday!). We really can’t thank them enough for their hard work, generosity and enthusiasm. There are also so many others to thanks of course, including our charities, sponsors, PR support Carver PR and Angle Studios, ambassadors, families, friends, supporters and followers.
Life as a Coxless Crew supporter is a busy one and I thought I would finish by summarising a few key events that the other members of our shore support team and I have been up to recently:

– Meg and I did a 24 hour “rowathon” at Discovery Park in Kent. We rowed a 2 hour on, 2 hour off shift pattern to help Meg to prepare mentally for this routine when she joins the girls on Doris in Samoa. The event was a chance to tell more people about the row and to raise money for our charities, as well as an opportunity for me to meet Meg’s extended family for the first time. These guys are amazing – they should be available to rent out to cheer people on! Thanks also to Discovery Park, Miles and Barr and New Level Results for their support.
24 hour row September 2015
-Meg, Ella and I were joined by a number of the team’s family and friends at The One Show, where Matt Baker and Alex Jones spoke to the girls live from the Pacific.
One show October 2015 One Show October 2015 families
– Meg, Kirsten and I attended the 2015 Women of the Year Lunch as representatives of the Coxless Crew team. The lunch is an annual event held by the Women of the Year Foundation to celebrate women’s achievements and contribution to society. We still have no idea who nominated us to attend, but we are very grateful that they did! It was a wonderful occasion. The room was packed with women who have achieved extraordinary things. We heard some fascinating stories and felt very humbled to be there.
Women of the Year lunch 2015
– Meg and I met with the teams from Breast Cancer Care and Walking With The Wounded last week to talk about our ongoing fundraising effort. Laura and Ems wrote blogs earlier this week explaining a bit more about why we are supporting these brilliant charities. We are very lucky to have good relationships with both charities and we receive an amazing amount of support from them. We have got to know everyone we are working with at BCC and WWTW well and they really do feel part of the team. Tomorrow, I am going to join some of Walking With The Wounded’s injured service men and women to walk one day of their 1000 mile Walk of Britain challenge. I can’t wait! http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/walkofbritain2015/
– Preparation for Samoa has been full steam ahead! With help from some of our incredible sponsors, Tony and the rest of us have been making sure that the girls will have everything that they need to resupply Doris in Samoa ready for the third and final leg to Australia. Our thanks goes to Victron, Crewsaver, Solbian, Peli Products, Azoprint, Revo, Jetboil, Fusion Audio, SOS Rehydrate and BeWell expedition foods (and many others).
UPDATE FROM THE GIRLS: Ems and Nats were in the cabin when they heard the cry of “turtle” from LP and LV on the oars. They rushed to the hatch door. “That’s a small turtle, maybe it’s a baby turtle, how cute” said Ems. “Wait a minute I think it might be a coconut” said LV. On closer inspection that is indeed what it turned out to be. T minus 4 days until the main thing left on board to eat is rehydrated beef curry. Samoa can’t come quickly enough!
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Leg 2, Day 51 – Roly and Poly

Emma Mitchell By

Day 51 – Roly and Poly

We spend a lot of time with Roly and Poly on board Doris. About 6 quality hours with each of them every single day to be precise. Roly and Poly are our two rowing seats, Roly at the front in the stern and Poly at the back in the bows. They are made of wood (the only wooden thing on the boat) and slide up and down the deck on 8 roller blade wheels. Four of these wheels are upright and roll along the top of the deck and four are sideways underneath the seat and roll along the sides of the deck to keep the seat moving in a straight line. These wheels were the bane of my life for the first leg requiring a lot of maintenance and DIY. Inside the wheels are bearings which let them roll smoothly and in the first leg the wheels kept coming loose and damaging the bearings making the seats not roll so I spent a lot of time removing wheels and replacing bearings – not the most easy thing to do on a moving ocean rowing boat and meaning that either Roly or Poly was taken out of action for a while. Thankfully after some modifications with the help of Tony and a brand new set of full ceramic bearings from our sponsors RM Bearings we seem to have solved the problem this leg ‘touch wood’.

Since we sit on Roly or Poly for 12 hours each day, comfort is very important. We velcro foam cushions covered in a green waterproof cover onto the wooden seats to provide cushioning (although after 51 days they are starting to loose their padding ability) and then place a sheepskin on top. We each have our own personal sheepskin as the lanolin in the wool is soothing to angry bums and they are all named to tell them apart. LP also uses a ‘booster seat’ giving her extra height to ease the pressure on her hip and making the rest of us look like we are rowing in go karts.

image

Roly and Poly bring with them different responsibilities. The rower sitting in Roly in the front is responsible for the steering and sits looking at the bulkhead of the aft cabin. This contains the deck repeater telling us what heading we are travelling at and what our course over ground is, the aft cabin hatch which depending on the time of day can provide entertainment by watching the rowers inside and the stickers we have been putting up to mark off the days which we have been at sea. The rower sitting in Poly has less responsibility but duties include shuffling sheepskins to and from the fore cabin, rummaging for snack packs and staying in time with the rower in front. The view from Poly is mainly of the back of the rower in front and you are mainly isolated from any conversations between Roly and the aft cabin due to the sound of the wind and waves. The positive of Poly is that you get complete privacy when frequenting the bucket (unless there is someone in the fore cabin) although it does come with an increased splashing potential in most conditions.

UPDATE: Two nights ago Nat and I were on the oars in the darkness when we spotted some strange lights on the horizon. With the two of us this happens more than you might think so we waited to see if they would rise and were therefore stars. They didn’t and it become obvious that there were two boats, one passing in front of us and one behind. Like buses, you don’t see a boat for 45 days and then two come along at once. They were large fishing boats on their way to a fishing ground. Unfortunately they didn’t respond to our calls on the VHF so we didn’t get to have a chat but it is nice to know that there are other people out there!
Today we also got to chat to Meg and Izzy on the phone who are doing a 24 hour ergathon to raise money for our charities. They were 12 hours in when we spoke to them and doing amazingly although despite our testing conditions and salt water showers today I would still rather be here than sat on an erg for 12 hours!
We are still edging painfully slowly but surely towards the equator and are looking forward to the rituals and celebrations when that finally happens.

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Farewell Santa Barbara

Emma Mitchell By

Farewell Santa Barbara

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

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

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Electronics on Doris

Laura Penhaul By

A number of people have been asking the questions of exactly what happened to cause us to turn around and so I wanted to share with you a little more detail into our reasoning and also how our sponsors have been extremely supportive in helping to rectify and prevent any re-occurrence.

 

As we mentioned in an earlier blog, we sustained some flooding into the hatch that housed our batteries and the IP65 box which contained all the charge controllers and battery monitoring system to recharge our batteries. We have a clear lid on the battery hatch so that we could check it easily on a daily basis but it wasn’t until I noticed that there was condensation in the IP65 box that I thought there must be water in there and when I looked more closely I saw the flooding. Typically we had put all the charge controllers into an IP65 rated box to ensure that no water was to ever come near the system incase of any flooding, but unfortunately when we opened the box we found there to be 1 screw missing which is the only entrance point into the box which must have been how water got in.

1 of the MPPT boxes, which is the clever box that regulates the charge gets as much energy from the panels into the battery and safely charges at 14.2Vdc. This MPPT had stopped working and overheated due to the water and humidity that was within the box. Initially at this stage MPPT 2 was still in working order so we knew we had at least 1 charging system intact for one battery. Our solar panels are so efficient and wired in series, so we have 2 sets of series on the boat each set linked to 1 MPPT.

Once we had bailed out the hatch and closed off any further charging through the MPPT, I didn’t want anyone staying in that cabin that night incase of further overheating of electrical equipment. So we left the hatch open to air and dry out, whilst we had the boat on para anchor, we then continued with 2 hour shifts with 2 of us sitting on deck whilst the other shift got into the forecabin for warmth. Can’t say it was the most comfortable night! This way we waited until daylight to see what the full damage was and to make a decision on whether we continued forward to Hawaii or to turn around.

Initially we still had 1 working charging system so we decided to push forward to Hawaii as we knew we had plenty of power to continue. Once we started rowing though and I went to tidy up the MPPT connections and wires, I noticed the other MPPT had also gone. This automatically made the decision for us to have to turn around. If we were half way to Hawaii then we would be able to survive on all of our back ups I.e. Handpump watermaker, handheld GPS, handheld VHF, back up satellite phone and spare battery, solar monkey chargers. As we weren’t half way and have 6months of rowing ahead of us, it seemed the obvious and sensible decision to return to land.

Regardless of the flooding half way up the batteries, they were unscathed and continued to work well as the terminals were completely intact. Once we’d disconnected the MPPT’s, at that time we had 60% state of charge in each battery. With both batteries 90amp/Hr each, this meant we still had plenty of battery to use on our return to land, so even after 6 days of use for our GPS, AIS, VHF and charging our sat phone,we came in with approx 30% in each battery and voltage still maintained at 12.9v each.

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On entrance into Santa Barbara, Tony Humphreys our onshore support was there at hand to assist us in sorting out the issues we had. The main issues was finding where the flood had come from and ensuring we could prevent it from reoccurring. Then we reviewed the electronics and Johannes our sponsor from Victron was amazing and was on hand regularly (even at 11pm his time!) to respond and assist in our decision making with where to move the MPPTs and BMS system. Collectively we decided they needed to be out of the bilge so there wasn’t risk of flooding if it reoccurred, then to be somewhere with better ventilation. This was partly my fault previously as I was so particular about preventing any water entering around the electronics, that I had asked for them to be put in an IP65 box, not thinking that if water did enter it would end up being like a greenhouse in there!

We then had to hunt around for an electrician to be able to do the work under Tony’s supervision so after a few phone calls by Kenny in Santa Barbara, he found Jason who very kindly made himself available at such short notice to do the work.

Johannes from Victron (amazing sponsor support) very kindly sorted out for Justin from Maine, USA to fly down for a day to oversee and double check that all the Victron equipment was up and running efficiently. It was great to have Justin there as there were a couple of wiring issues that weren’t quite right, so he made the necessary adjustments and by late Friday afternoon we were all up and running again – 100% batteries, solar charge bringing the MPPTs to float, monitors all working and BMS units with 2 lovely blue lights. It is such a relief to have a fully functional system again :).
Some people prefer the old lead acid system to be fitted in their ocean rowing boat, but you tend to only get 60% out of your solar and the efficiency of the batteries slowly deminish over time as sulphur builds up. I love our lithium system and personally wouldn’t use anything else. The wiring is slightly more complicated but the system is so easy to use, means you get 99% out of your solar panels and the batteries maintain voltage right down to less than 20% state of charge. The reason the MPPTs failed was our fault for not noticing the flood in the hatch or into the Ip65 box as the wiring doesn’t mix with water or extreme humidity, which neither would any other battery system.

On this occasion we were very fortunate and the whole process of getting things sorted has reassured us even further of all the experts we have behind us in supporting this venture. Without Tony, Johannes, Jason and Justin, we would have been in more of a pickle. One thing is for sure, no matter how much training I did before coming away, I’d say this has only worked in our favour to now in realtime know more about our battery system inside and out and all the problem shooting involved.

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Departure update…

The Team By

Work on Doris is nearly complete, but we now need to wait for the best weather window to leave Santa Barbara for Hawaii.

It currently looks like we may be setting off early next week, but we’ll keep you updated…

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