Wind and rain
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 head winds making us slow down to less than a snails pace. We cleared the decks and put our heads down in the cabins. I woke every 30min to check the winds to see if we could get back at the oars to make progress. We ended up waiting 8 hours for the wind to drop. It is really frustrating floating out in the middle of the ocean knowing we have over 1700 miles left to go and in some of our 2 hour shifts made 2 miles of progress. It felt good to get back on our way this afternoon all rested. It is still raining but the wind is behind us again. Before we set off we wrote down a few things about ourselves and the trip like why we were doing it and what we most feared etc. For the most feared i wrote lightening. With all of this rain around it has always been in my mind but today as myself and Marin were rowing the VHF Radio antena started fizzing and crackling. I asked Marin what that was and he quickly switched the electrics off and started to unscrew the antena. Once he had unscrewed it it was not conected at all but was still fizzing in his hand. As he lowered it stoped but at the same time the fishing rod in the holder started to make the same noise. Marin puts the antena down and reaches to take the rod down and as he touches it gets a small shock through the rod and throws it to the deck. At this point i dive for the knife to cut a zip tie that holds a copper cable that we can throw over the side in such a circumstance. I then try to convince steve to let me in the bow (slightly lower with less electrics) cabin. Marin emerges from the stern with a hand held none electronic compass to keep rowing and calls for me to come out of hiding in the bow and man up! Not sure why but i've never been a big fan of lightening. Im not sure if the piece of copper wire dangling in the water actually makes any difference but it certainly helps me relax!!
Simon
