This is the toughest thing I have done since cycling through Siberia in the wintertime. The reasons are quite similar. It's a sleep-deprived dash across an unchanging landscape. The days are relatively short on excitement and variety ... more
I am lying in the stern cabin with the sun beeming down onto Simon and Marin outside. After a frustrating (and very wet) few days we are again making good progress with 63 nm covered yesterday. The current average speed is 3.7nm.p.h so if the... more
Today we are in another planet, this planet is more beautiful, nicer and pleasant. We have sun and trade winds accompanying us toward Barbados.
Last days were harder than usually, yesterday we made only 33 miles.
But amazing is... more
It has been a somewhat different to the norm few days. We have had a real mixed bag of weather. Last night we finaly broke and decided enough was enough and put out our sea anchor. We had gone through hours of horizontal rain and... more
It is flat calm as I write, the motion of the rocking boat unusually gentle. Marin made the most of it this morning, jumping overboard to scrape algae from the hull.
Simon and Marin are on the oars, having to pull harder than usual... more
sorry for yesterday's absence of forecast, simply did not work....
General synoptic situation:
High E of Azores weakening, frontal system slowly getting closer from
the West affecting... more
The last two days we have had light or no winds. The advantage of this is that the sea is calm so moving around the boat and completing tasks is much easyer, however our progress is vey slow. Today we have been having squalls coming through... more
There is not a huge amount to report on over the past few days. It seems to have been lots of sky, sea, rowing, sleeping and eating. After all of that there really is not much time for anything else. I would like to report on... more
Expeditions are normally crammed with new experiences. New places, people, sights and sounds. Your mind fills with precious new memories.
But this row is different. Its power comes more from all that is absent(In that sense it... more
The last 24 hours has seen mainly good rowing conditions with the right wind strength in the right direction and with not too many waves to disrupt our rowing rytham, the disadvantage of not having strong winds and big swell is that we do not... more
Two words that will never mean the same again. Time behaves strangely on board our little boat. It is the rowers' job to wake the dreaming pair ready for their new shift. Once the rower has said these simple two words time slows... more
Before we began the row I thought that I was looking forward to rowing at night. A full sky, strewn with stars. A crescent moon, rising surprisingly swiftly. Peering round to look out for the green and red lights of distant ships passing on... more
We are getting into the swing of it all now but the nights are prooving the most difficult. The unwelcome call "10 min" from the deck inevatably brings you from a deep sleep back into the real world where after a few seconds you... more
It has been straight into it this week with challenging conditions. We spent our first night on the drogue last night. This is a 6ft parachute that we put out the stern if the wind is too strong in the right diretion. This allowed us to... more
What as difference a day makes! After our first two days of large seas and strong winds, at about 03.00 This morning the wind dropped and the swell followed suit. By the time the sun rose we had a soft wind and small rolling swell and... more
It should be a beautiful view for typing a blog, except that in front of me Steve is rowing in just shoes, t-shirt and sunhat.
And I'm finding it hard to know what to write about, where to begin. For the things that are of... more
First day in a open sea was very wide. The environment is totaly different as we used to, waves and wind are thorowing us up and down and sea sicknes doesn't allow us to eat a decet meal, and the list goes on and on.
We know... more
Finally, our adventure has began.
At 8:55 in the morning we set sail from the marina Puerto de Moganu
Diverse crowd from Denis, Ana, David, Jeff, Nicolai, Maria and random marina visitors waved us good bye
Mail has arrived, everything is ready and the adventure has begun.
Boys are off!
Good luck
The start of or ocean rowing expedition has been postponed for a day. We are still waiting for the parcel to turn up. It is quite unbelievable that it takes so much time for the parcel to show up, as they had it in Las Palmas since Thursday.
Day 4 of the preparation for the for the transatlantic row. Boat nearly ready. All the food has been packed. Ably assisted by friends of Gran Canaria Diving and Dr. Fish Spa and diving visitors. We decided to have 52 days worth of food, meals,... more
