Atlantic Rowing Race: Blog 5

Annie - 28th November 2009 I’m feeling kinda cool sat onboard my ocean rowing boat, in the sun,  writing this blog from our netbook!

Our boat, Explore,  is still on the trailer in the boat park having some essential work done to her – some horrible sharp bolts are being sheered off the inside of the cabin at the moment. I’m very pleased about this  as I suspect they would do some serious damage to us if we capsized at sea, and then we really might actually need to use the skin stapler in the medical kit!

Required medical kit

We’re pretty close to being ready to launch – just waiting for Woodvale to finish tightening bits and securing bobs really. We also need to put a layer of anti-foul on the hull to reduce the amount of sea creatures wanting to hitch a free ride to Antigua!

There are over 20 crews here altogether – an assortment of singles, pairs, fours, and a 12 man boat, so that’s quite a lot of people. It’s interesting watching how the individual crews are getting along (or not getting along as the case may be). Rowing an ocean I guess,  is not your usual run of the mill past time, so it does tend to attract some rather extreme and bizarre characters it has to be said (I guess that means that Mel and I are either extreme, or bizarre too... but I won’t dwell on that point I don’t think). I won’t mention names but there are already a couple of guys who aren’t talking to each other so God only knows what they’ll be like after 60 odd days at sea together! (Need to count the number of crew members carefully when that particular boat reaches Antigua I think). Mel and I haven’t even snapped at each other yet so, fingers crossed, we should make it without either us having to use the on-board axe.

'Explore' stands out amongst all the other boats

Whilst I’ve been writing this blog, Mel’s been off shopping for some more high calorie snacks and has just returned with a huge bag of sausages, some Christmas stockings and a couple of furry dice – what a fabulous crew mate! Annie