Chic Gites

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On the 1st March 2017 I will finally, weather permitting, set off to row the Atlantic Ocean. Now I know what some of you will be thinking - ...

Monday 20 March 2017

The wind of change

It's been a period of ups and downs for Rose and the crew as after passing through the Canaries in good time they were then kept firmly in its grasp by some very frustrating weather. Although the sea state has been calm and the wind fairly light, the current and winds have been conspiring against them for the past 4-5 days pushing them back east.
Last night however (Sun - Day 14) the tradewinds finally showed their faces and put a massive grin on Niall's face, so much so that he didn't want to come off the oars when the 2hrs were up!! They now have much more favourable tailwinds helping them towards the mid - Atlantic for the next few days. 

Despite the frustration (and lack of any alcohol to celebrate both St Patrick's day and the rugby result!) the boys have kept up their morale and hopefully will now see some great boat speed and miles under their belts.

In and amongst there has been some high jinks - close encounters with container ships, cleaning the underside of the boat, and last night, Niall and Clement saw a meteorite land in the sea!!!

Some updates from the boat:

Colin's blog - Day 10 - Weds - We tried to say goodbye to the Canaries but the shadow of the island combined with the currents and headwinds meant we were only able to make between 0.8knts to 2.0knts of boat speed.  It was like the island had a huge grip on the boat and wouldn't let us leave.  We had a strategic decision to make, do we A) head slightly east to get out of the current and shadow of the island and then south to pick up the trade winds or B) continue the exhausting battle.  So we took A) the longer route but it was an amazing feeling making the boat go faster, overall we feel we lost about 5 hours (~15nm) progress in the right direction.  Later the conditions improved and we had a visit from a pod of dolphins.

From Niall - St Patricks Day - Day 12 - Happy st Patrick's day to you all. My first dry one for over 20 years! Fine here. Regime still very tough but the miles and days are racking up. Would be nice if the famous trade winds would blow but no sign yet.

Colin's blog - Day 12 Fri - After a frustrating Thursday we felt that Friday being St.Patricks day we were due some good luck, this was not the case...
Niall was given the bad news first, there was no Guinness or Irish whiskey stowed away for this special occasion.
We then had a spot of excitement when a few hundred meters container ship changed course directly for us.  As it approached within 200m the person on the bridge waved at us and then proceeded to bear away back to his original course.  What a joker!!



Some info on a 'regular day'!

From a rowing perspective in a day we
- Row 12 hours,
- Sleep 8 hours,
- Eat 2 hours,
- Do other tasks for 2 hours

Daily tasks include:
 - Taking comfort breaks
 - Doing the laundry (weekly)
 - Cleaning the Solar Panels
 - Producing 30 litres of water
 - Tidying up the rubbish
 - Reviewing the weather
 - safety checks
 - Checking emails and replying to home


Update from Niall - Sunday - Day 14  - Weather continues to be a pain here - progress remains slow. Went for a swim today to clean the bottom of the boat - the water is surprisingly cold still.

Update from Niall  Day 15 - Last night we saw a meteorite land a couple miles away from us  - it was only small but it had a big blue trail - quite cool!

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