"Barbados is calling"
Each session throughout a 24hr period is quite different. My favorite is the sunrise session, watching the sun rappidly rise from the horizont, as the rays touch your skin you can emidately feel the energy seep through you body as your biological clock switches from from night to daytime mode. The moon has also been rising later and later making for very long dark night time rowing sessions.
As we are getting closer and closer to the Carabean the tempature is getting hotter and hotter, the midday sessions are now only 1hr each to account for this. A strange phenomenon is occurring in that these sessions are now dominated by the fact that the 10 min warning is being given by the people in the cabin rather than those on the oars. While rowing you are exposed to the strong sun but you also benefit from the cooling breeze, in the cabin we cannot leave the hatch open due to the risk of a wave swamping the electronics and sleeping area, these cabins have now become a cooker during the midday sessions making sleeping impossable and requiring a near constant drinking of water to stay hydrated.
The night time rows are a quite affair, we tend to spend our time daydreaming or listing to podcasts/music. We identified a significant problem of rowing in the dark during our trials rowing across the Adriatic sea to Venice back in the end of September. Identifying waves which we might need to take some sort of avasive action for in the dark with no moonlight is impossible. To resolve this problem it was decided to mount lights on the stern cabin. Marin attached a set of very effective and bright Hella Marine LED's after she was spread in the new Tusmobil TransAtlantik colours which have done the trick perfectly.
Over the past few weeks we have been getting more and more flying fish. These increadable fish with there Darwinian adaptation of highly exaggerated fins enabling them to fly considerable distance above the surface of the water thus avoiding other aquatic predators.
As many of you will know fish are attracted to light in the same way as a moth during nighttime is attracted to the bright lightbulb within your house. We have often noticed schools of fish just beneth the surface of the water at night basking the light from the on the stern cabin. Within the last week the flying fish we have encountered havell fri to fully grown high speed flying machines. They fly at a colossal speed resemblight a small bird of pray launching themselves from the crest of waves.
Now we have a slight problem! At night these bright lights are needed to warm us of oncomming waves, they also however attract the flying fish in the same way they attract other specises of fish. This problem first dawned on me when a few days ago during a relatively calm night, I was in the stern steering position when I noticed in my peripheral vision a small, very, very fast bird like creature heading straight for the side of the cabin. It impacted with a bullseye straight onto the lights with a loud THUD, before splashing motionless into the water dead! The fish hit with such a force that it woke Al up from his deep sleep, dazed and confused it would be pointless explaining what had just happened so I told him he was dreaming and to go back to sleep.
Since that night simular incidents have been becomming more and more commen with Kamakazi flying fish attacking the lights on the boat with increasing ferosity. Night time rows are now not just about looking out for waves and changes in wind direction but also for these fearless fish which are intent on attacking our boat like small cruse missiles.
With this increasing danger we are now developing protective head gear. The attached photo shows the "Tusmobil fish protection helmet MK1" (patent pending).
With this increased protection we can now make it safely through to the morning (unfortunatly only one person can use this Persone Protective Equipment at any one time at the other buckect is used as a toilet).
I always look forward to the 05:00 – 07:00 session as I always have my lovely "Bioboom" breakfast (the chocolate one is my faveroute). I jump into the cabin, put on the jetboil, get out of my rowing gear and into my sleeping bag all nice and cozy. I make my breakfast and enjoy breakfast in bed. However even this seemly innoicent and safe activity is not without its risks. One of my greatest assessets on this trip is my ability to fall asleep wherever and whenever i choose. The last two mornings I have struggled to get to the end of the cup of lovely breakfast while staying awake. I have shoveled the last large spoonful of food into my mouth, turn off the light and settle down to sleep slowly munching away at the remaining food in my mouth. Unfortunatly due to my ability to emidatly fall asleep i have managed to do this before finishing and swollowing all the food in my mouth. This results in me waking up with the 10 min call still with a mouthfull of bioboom! This part eaten breakfast mixed with saliva over an hour and a half leaves a particulary nasty taste in ones mouth! Getting ready for your shift is always a rush so there is never time to brush your teeth before you start, as such you have to row for 2 hours with this hideous taste in your mouth before you are able to clean your teeth and get ride of it!
All in all we are still having an amazing time, we are now potentially within 2 weeks of ariveing at Barbodos. We all have specific things we cannot weight to do when we make land and one of them is eating fresh fruit and burgers!
All the very best from the Tusmobil TransAtlanti team now with only 678 nautical miles to go :0)
Steve
