I think we’ve cracked it – we’ve worked out how to win this race! We sit on para anchor chilling out in the sunshine, listening to our ipods and topping up the tans and go backwards slower than some other crews taking miles off their lead by doing nothing!! I’m v reassured that we’re not the fastest crew going backwards – when I saw our speed on anchor was nearly 1 knot I really thought we’d be one of the fastest heading back to La Gomera – but apparently not, I don’t know whether that’s because we have slightly different conditions, but we’re not complaining!

All day yesterday I was wondering what the others were doing and I kept waking up last night to check whether the wind had moved North (as some have predicted) and we could try rowing again. So getting today’s figures and finding out we were still in 10th was a bit of a relief. It doesn’t look like the wind will change until at least Sunday, so we might as well get on and enjoy the rest as best we can. It’s frustrating to see days go by and make no progress, and see records slipping away, but today the sun’s shining and we can be on deck rather than holed up in the cabin so it could be worse, certainly beats being in the UK in the cold and working 9 to 5!! On that note I think I’ll head back on deck again…

Mel x

Well here we are sat on the para anchor again! we had a lovely day yesterday, progress was a bit slow, but was still progress, and a momentous happening occurred – I washed my hair for the first time since race start! Annie washed hers too and we felt amazing, not sure we really looked it but with no mirrors on board who cares! What little wind there had been died in the evening making progress very slow but the scenery was stunning, sea was like grey silk and the moon the brightest it has been, I could see it reflecting of fish swimming alongside. We both had a couple of quiet watches and then when I came on at 4am the wind was beginning to fill back in from the South. I tried to get the autopilot to cope with it, bit difficult on my own to row from the bow position and mess around with the autopilot at the stroke position! I spent a fruitless 2 hours trying to make some SW ish progress and went steadily NW instead.  When Annie came on watch she rowed while I tried again with the autopilot – to no avail whatsoever – the wind was coming from exactly where we were heading and although only 10 – 15 knots that’s enough to stop us. The autopilot couldn’t cope so we tried foot steering, hand steering, Annie rowing with one blade only and me coxing by trying to look at the GPS and stars and nothing worked – after another 5 hours of determined effort on our part Explore wasn’t having it, she simply wouldn’t go S, she would only go N or NW if we fought her, so sadly it was time to put the para anchor out again. We are both very proud of the fact that not once during this 5 hour extremely frustrating battle was a cross word exchanged – team work!

We knew this weather (a huge low) was on the way so it wasn’t a surprise, we had been advised to go S to try and avoid it, we had tried to put as much s as possible in our course over the last few days, but it was hard work and after several concerted efforts we decided to stop fighting conditions and head W. It looks like the whole fleet has been affected anyway so I don’t think it would have gained us too much – but we won’t know until the low passes and we’re all on our way again. THe wind is going to be SW until Fri and then move more N, we will definitely have a go at bashing on as soon as it goes N, even if we can go straight S – we are moving at 0.8 knots on the para anchor so we need to make those miles back! I think because our boat is so light compared to some of the others that we are far more prone to drifting on anchor – but we still wouldn’t swap her for the world! The low won’t totally pass until Tuesday though so we’ve got a few days to stick it out – but as long as the whole fleet is in the same position we’re not too worried. We will eat, sleep, relax, try and mend sore hands and feet and be ready to fly out of the blocks as soon as we can make some progress.

But what do you do for 5 days on a 25 ft boat with less living space than a double bed?!!  Annie’s tidied up the deck and been topping up her tan, vaguely comfortable leaning against the liferaft and only getting marginally wet, I’ve been keeping track of our competitors, we’ve eaten loads already, we’ve exhausted the only trivia game on board so will have to come up with another use for it and tonight we’re having a rave! My sister gave us some presents for emergency situations and we thought 5 days on anchor warranted opening one – and it was some glo sticks – yippee! Thanks H, they’re fantastic, going to be cutting some shapes with them later!

Anyway, I’m off to eat again, more updates from Explore, the now cruise liner, tmrw

Mel x

If anyone has any ideas of games that Annie & Mel can play during this down-time – send them a message via their satellite communications here.

Blog 30: Mel – ‘Alarming’
I slept through the alarm twice last night – lovely for me as it means I must have been sleeping really deeply, which can only be a good thing, but v annoying for Annie who had to keep track of time on a watch with no light and shout at me when it was time for me to wake up!  I’m putting it down to the fact that I’m so used to life on board now that my brain tunes out noises it knows aren’t important – or that’s my excuse anyway!  Our cabin is actually not a particularly quiet place to sleep – especially in rough weather.  The rudder is a few centimetres from our head and bangs around like a crazy thing in a cross swell, water breaking over the cabin top sounds like someone thumping the hell out of it and the autopilot is constantly chuntering away to itself.  So I think my subconscious sees all these noises as normal, plus the alarm, and disregards the lot!  But I expect if a new noise occurred I’d be awake in an instant wondering what it was.

I think we are both so used to life on Explore now that we’re actually going to have more of a problem when we get to land.  We’re used to the watch system, we’re used to never walking more than about 6 steps, and those holding onto something, we can both make a decent cup of coffee on deck in the pitch dark and the basic hygiene facilities are no problem at all – it’s amazing how clean baby wipes can make you feel!  We are also totally happy with rowing for 12 hours a day, if someone asked me to do that at home I’d think they were nuts and I probably couldn’t do it, even if I wanted to, but out here you just get on and do it as we’re not going to get to Antigua if we don’t!

When we get to land we are going to have other problems, some more fundamental, like walking!  We won’t have used those muscles for so long it will be a struggle, as will standing upright on a non moving surface.  And the noise and bustle of normal life will be overwhelming.  I’ve had problems adjusting to land life in the past after an ocean crossing, I’d never slept walked in my life but started doing it on land during Clipper (I was hoisting sails, flaking sails, helming and all sorts in my sleep!) and that was after only 3 weeks at sea; God knows what 2 months is going to do to me!

Mel x

PS  I’ve dug out my mobile (horrible I know at sea) and am using that as an alarm now, and will change the alarm tune daily in an attempt to wake up!!

WARNING! STOP. EXPLOSION IMMINENT. STOP. CONSUMPTION OF FLAPJACKS REACHING DANGER LEVEL. STOP. IMMEDIATE RATIONING REQUIRED OF SECOND TUB. STOP. I REPEAT. STOP. IMMEDIATE RATIONING REQUIRED. END.

So how was your weekend? Mine was pretty much the usual… Even managed to fit in a spot of rowing in between all my various social engagements.

We’ve not had the best in the way of sea conditions of late with reports of worse to come in the next few days but we’re still racking up the miles and making good progress towards Antigua. We’re managing to hold our race position too which is excellent news. This looming bad weather is threatening to bring with it strong winds in totally the wrong direction which, if we do actually suffer from it, will be frustrating beyond belief as it will probably see us back on the para anchor going nowhere for several days – not what you want when you’re racing at all! Fingers crossed that it either decides to die down before reaching us, or decides to make its merry way elsewhere.

The sea right now is kind of lumpy. Not easy to row in at all (see Mel’s last blog). We’ve become quite the weather experts of late and are using all the correct terminology to describe the conditions:
Lumpy. Rock & Rolly. Wobbly. Downright nasty. Swelly. All over the shop. A bit curly wurly. Bloody indecisive. A right pain. Scary as hell. Swoopy, to name but a few.  Earlier I came on watch and asked Mel what it had been like. She replied with “$*!!£?!    &%!£**!!” – We’ll just add that one to the list I think.

Apart from weather issues, we’re having a lovely time on board it has to be said! Spirits are high and neither of us appear to be flagging yet but there’s still a couple of thousand miles to go so maybe I’m speaking too soon!

We have a new friend, who we’ve christened Fred (after our favourite La Gomera ferry). We’re not sure what he is (Or even if he’s a boy for that matter. Do fish have a sex??). Anyhow, Fred is an electric blue fish, approx 2-3 ft, who’s been following us for some time now. He’s beautifully sleek and elegant through the water but when he decides to jump… well, he’s rather fat to be honest! (Personally I think he’s chomped too much of the Shepherd’s Pie that we’ve been turfing overboard!!). Anyone got any ideas what type of fish he may be?

We also see flashes in the water at night time. Some kind of electric fish akin to an electric eel perhaps? Answers on a postcard to: Annie Januszewski. Stern Cabin. Little Red Boat. Atlantic Ocean.

Annie x

I will try to describe what it’s like to be hit by one of these side swipers.

It was dark, so dark you could make out the horizon but not the waves, except the big ones when they loomed v close, hiding the horizon.  As the swell from astern was irregular, coupled with the cross swell, it was taking every ounce of concentration to find the water with each stroke, you had to feel for the water with each one, while keeping a very close eye out for the big waves, and then suddenly you get smacked from the side, the boat immediately lurches violently to one side pinning one blade in the water and smashing the blade handle down onto your thigh, then one second later the boat’s over the other way as the wave rolls on, other blade stuck in the water, other thigh smashed and then the boat just carries on rocking while one of the big waves looms on the horizon.  You know you’ve got to take a stroke to get the boat moving again and stop the rocking, but you’ve no idea where the water is on either side and it’s changing every second anyway, but you’ve got to go for it so you have a light jab at the blades, one catches the water, one doesn’t making the boat lean even more.  You have another go and manage to catch another side swell at the top, the blade stops in the water and the handle whacks your knee, cursing you try again and finally manage to take a vaguely clean stroke and are on your way again.  Repeat continuously for 2 hours and you’ve got one of our night watches – we had 3 each like that.  Eventually at about dawn the swell that had been behind us died down, the wind changed direction and I changed course to put the side swell behind us for a much more pleasant ride.

We’re heading further West now but that’s no bad thing, Antigua is West and there’s no point trying to fight this swell as well as the wind.

Much as neither of us enjoyed last night I think it sums up this race – just keep going, keep taking the knocks, don’t let them get you down and you’ll eventually get there. Although there were obviously physical discomforts and pain it was far more a mental challenge, getting out of a warm, dry cabin for a 2 hour watch to be thrown around, bashed, bruised and soaked.  But Annie and I have come onboard with a very positive attitude and bucket loads of determination, nothing will stop us getting to Antigua and we’re determined to have some fun on the way.  Although we were both a bit quiet at times last night we did manage to laugh about it and there was no question at all of stopping.  I think last night is something we will enjoy with hindsight, when we look back on the race we will rememeber it and be proud of the miles we made, they were hard fought miles, but if all miles were easy this wouldn’t be a challenge and we wouldn’t be here!

Mel x

All night long I’d been looking forward to that… What a waste of a night! I do not recommend that anyone, given the opportunity, accepts the offer of vegetarian burgers and beans for breakfast! The beans, to give them their due, were as bean-like as beans can be, but the burgers?? Are you sure that’s what they were?? Here’s a little list of things that I would have rather consumed with my beans this morning:

An ironing board cover
6 fake plastic wine corks
A cardboard box
A toilet roll

I must say that the food on board is leaving rather a lot to be desired and already a few items have been banned due to their unsuitability to race conditions. Freeze dried Shepherd’s Pie is one such item that will never find itself hydrated again on this boat that’s for sure… I had the pleasure for my supper last night and subsequently visited our little yellow bucket no less than 5 times during the night! (Too much information I know, but I feel it’s important you guys share the ‘real’ experience with us best you can). Syrup Pudding sounded good on the label too… but turned out to be little more than a somewhat gooey house brick. All bricks have now gone overboard… but I do feel a little sorry for all the unassuming fish down there!

So. Yes, an eventful night for me. Made worse by the fact that I was absolutely knackered for some reason. I was still able to row (we don’t need to be awake to do that anymore!) but it was a highly labour intensive ordeal just trying to keep the curtains from closing. So many times I was reminded of my Father behind the wheel! I don’t know why I was so tired last night specifically – maybe the accumulation of 19 days spending a minimum of 12 hours exercising, 6 of which are in direct blazing sun… yes, that could be it I guess! When you’re so tired, all you want is sleep and it can’t come quick enough, so even though it’s the worst thing to do, you tend to spend every minute of every 2 hour shift looking at the clock and wishing the night away!

I will try and grab an extra hour’s sleep or 2 during my off watches today. Easier said than done though because the cabin is like a sauna during the day. And not the nice kind with a lovely swimming pool just outside. We do have a very large swimming pool obviously, but sadly it’s a little on the salty side and there are far too many things floating in it with big teeth for my liking! When I get home, I think I need to check into a posh hotel and just float…. no salt, no sharks, no waves… maybe just a little G&T.

Annie Zzzz

But we’re not complaining about the pain, it was to be expected (this is a huge challenge!) and to be honest it’s not nearly as bad as I thought – yet…  We;re looking after ourselves out here and really hoping our bodies will last the course!!

Mel x

PS  I’ve thought of something far scarier than all Annie’s scary middle of the night scenarios – being forced to listen to her iPod for a whole watch, that would be truly awful, she has terrible music taste!!!

Well. The first boat tears have been shed and they were mine!

Originally we were meant to start this race on 6th December last year (I can hardly remember that far back), but due to all the various delays, we didn’t actually get going until January 4th this year. Various people had given us presents to be opened at Christmas time but obviously that didn’t happen. Mel and I decided that instead we would have several parties on board to give us an excuse to make merry. We had a party yesterday to celebrate the first huge milestone – getting the distance to finish under 2000 miles. We will have another party every 500 miles!

The guest list was very exclusive, but everyone on it turned up on time. We wore our Santa hats and dived into a Christmas stocking each… I am now in possession of a green cow shaped toothbrush holder and some red nail varnish and lipstick (so I can look my best when arriving in Antigua apparently!)(And finally catch all those boys that we’ve been chasing for weeks!!) (Thanks Wendy! X). We toasted the momentous occasion with 2 miniature bottles of Damson wine thoughtfully supplied by my jolly fine friend, Toni. Mel even spent her night watch rowing in a flashing Santa hat (still no sign of those pirates funnily enough…)

My best present of yesterday was however from my brother, Andy, who had got loads of family members to send him a Christmas message of support for me. He printed up each one individually and scrolled them all into a transparent bauble which has been hanging in the cabin ever since we left land. By the time I’d read them all, I was in floods! There were messages from England, France, Poland, Canada AND even Milton Keynes!! My parent’s cat even managed to muster up the un-cat-like courtesy of wishing me a Happy Christmas… His apparently, has been ruined due to the appearance of some vile dog (hiss, spit, scratch, hackles up at the mere mention of the ‘D’ word). So thanks for making me cry Andy! I listened to a double album of Meatloaf in your honour last night to say thanks! – All this family stuff did make me think though… How about JanFest 2010 in Antigua??

To stop ourselves going stir crazy (perhaps a little late for me), Mel and I end up discussing the most bizarre things…. Like the scariest scenario to find yourself in whilst rowing the Atlantic… Picture the scene if you will:
At night one person is rowing in the pitch black with only occasional moonlight for illumination purposes. They are rowing backwards (ridiculous sport, I know!) with a bow cabin behind them which is approximately the size of a coffin (note my use of the word coffin for added drama!). About 6ft directly in front of them is the stern cabin where the other person is sleeping. The door to this cabin is tinted Perspex.

Scary scenario No 1
There you are happily rowing away when you feel a bony finger tap you on the shoulder…

Scary scenario No 2
You are happily rowing away until you yell at your crew mate saying that it’s time for watch change over. The response you hear from the cabin is a low growl that is most definitely not human…

Scary scenario No 3
You are happily rowing away when out of the black water; an arm reaches up and grabs the side of the boat, soon to be followed by another…

Scary scenario No 4
You are happily sleeping away and realise it’s time for you to get on the oars. You crew mate is no longer on board, but the oars are still paddling away on their own…

Scary scenario No 5
You are happily rowing away when you notice a ship alongside you that hasn’t shown up on your radar equipment. You can see through this ship and all the crew on board are floating skeletons…

You can comment on these blogs should you so desire, so see if you can think of anything scarier! Mel and I will offer a prize to the scariest!

To top it all… I was rowing last night and a fish leapt onboard and hit my cleavage (must have very good eyesight). I jumped out of my skin and spent the next ten minutes frantically searching my clothing for the offending critter. I found him on the deck in the morning. All of 2 inches and not very scary at all. I will attempt to toughen up over the next few weeks and stop being such a pathetic wimp!

Annie x

This race is all about the highs and lows, the days when we just plod on will all just merge into one, in fact they already are, but the highs and lows are what we will remember.  And yesterday was a bit of both.  I was not a happy bunny yesterday morning after a night on the anchor, although I felt very rested after 6 hours sleep for a change I couldn’t stop thinking about where all the others were and how many miles we’d lost.

When Jason sent the email and it was 20 miles on average I was very disappointed – don’t get me wrong though, I think putting the anchor out was the right thing to do, but then I started questioning why we hadn’t got going again sooner etc etc, sometimes being very competitive is not good for the mind!!

But after a bit I decided to stop going on about miles lost (much to Annie’s relief!) and turn the whole thing into a positive, the auto helm hadn’t been able to cope in the choppy water and changing winds so I decided I would change all the settings to make it cope – after all what’s it for if it can’t keep a course!!  After some fiddling around (and surprisingly little swearing, but I was being a girl and reading the manual!) I got it sorted (although it’s now munching through battery power like a crazy thing!) and despite some choppy conditions again we were flying – and we both agreed it was a pleasure to row again, rather than be fighting a boat which was all over the place.  I haven’t seen any figures yet but I reckon the last 24 hours might have been our fastest to date, our GPS shows an average speed of 2.4 knots – yee hah!!

Mel x

We will be tracking Annie and Mel’s progress and posting more of their blogs here. Keep up to date and find out why we are supporting therm here. Track their progress across the Atlantic here.

Annie tells me that I have to talk to you about spreadsheets today…  What?!  That makes me sound like a right geek, which I can honestly say I’m not!  However I do have to confess that I have a spreadsheet on this laptop to help me keep tabs on our competion and help me plan our route.

Taking a boat across an ocean is very much an art, the art of knowing how your boat behaves in every weather condition, and the art of completely understanding the environment you are in, the sight of a perfecttly balanced boat at sea is one of the most beautiful ever.  However there is a more mathematical, statistical side of racing across an ocean which I did not want to ignore, hence the spreadsheet.  I’m no excel wizard by any stretch of the imagination so we enlisted the help of our friend Jason, whose knowledge of these things is far greater than mine could ever be.  He asked what I wanted the spreadsheet to tell me, looked loads of things up on google, performed some kind of miracle and produced an amazing spreadsheet – thank you Jason!

Working through the strategy on dry land

He emails me the positions of all the boats I’m tracking every day, I key them into the spreadsheet and it tells me where they are in relation to us, how far away, what mileage they did in the last 24 hours and their distance to finish.  All this is valuable information to us, not only in motivational terms if we are taking miles off crews in front, but also in terms of who might be experiencing more favourable weather.  Annie and I had the chance to receive weather routing information (it’s allowed within the rules of the race) but we chose not to opt for it – a) because we couldn’t afford it and b) because I wanted to do it myself and arrive in Antigua with the knowledge that we had done everything ourselves.  We receive basic information from Woodvale and that, coupled with the spreadsheet, gives me a fairly good picture of what is going on.  However the most effective weather information is to look and feel what is going on around us all the time, the boat is always under the effect of wind, swell and current (in fact it probably accounts for half our speed on average) so harnessing that to our best advantage at all times is the most effective method of going as fast as possible, so we are constantly on the look out for changes in the swell or wind direction so we can make any changes to our heading as soon as possible.

Having said all this I have to say that ocean rowing boats are very stubborn creatures and only want to travel in certain directions relative to the conditions.  So we basically have to go where Explore wants to go, but try and make her use the conditions to her best advantage!  And when she decides she wants to go in a ridiculous direction (such as North as she has wanted to in recent Southerly winds) Annie and I have a huge fight on our hands persuading her that we want to go in a vaguely Westerly direction!

Clear as mud?  Yes I thought so!  But all this gives me loads to concentrate on out here, gives my brain something to do, and that might just keep insanity at bay!!!

Mel x

PS  The Ocean Planet guys came round again last night, at 5am this time, they haven’t quite got the sociable hours visiting thing sussed yet!!

Last night during the graveyard shift (5am – 7am) I fell asleep mid stroke and subsequently fell off my seat and bruised my bum. Now you may well laugh at this but personally I’m not altogether happy as I don’t think, technically, it was my fault. You see there was no moon. Had there been a moon, I would’ve been a lot more alert and aware of my surroundings so the incident would never have occurred in the first place. In this twisted world of ours I think I may be able to claim compensation…. When I get home I’m going to write a jolly stiff letter of complaint to the DLA (Dept of Lunar Activity) and see what comes of it. Surely the moon must be employed under some kind of job description contract that specifically states that it must provide lunar guidance to all sea faring vessels during the hours of darkness? One would’ve thought so wouldn’t one? I will keep you posted of the outcome…

Bruised bottom aside, last night provided me with ample pondering time as usual. I pondered the topic of pride (having just had mine dented a little, I thought it highly appropriate).

As you know, we’re dedicating this race to Mel’s Dad. How I wish he could see his daughter now! He would indeed be a very proud man it has to be said. Mel is doing a fantastic job navigating our way across the Atlantic. Our strong position within the leading pack most certainly has nothing to do with my map (sorry, chart) reading abilities – if it were up to me we’d still be trying to find our way out of La Gomera Marina!

Before we left, my parents told me how proud they were of me which is such a lovely thing to hear after all these years! My Father probably won’t remember this but when I was about 15, I announced that I when I grew up I was going to read English at Oxford University. Dad said that if I did this, it would make him the proudest man alive. I tried. But the closest I got was an English degree from Bristol Poly so it’s taken me 40 years, but finally he’s proud of me!

Truth be known though, I have far greater reason to be proud of them than they have of me. How many parents have their only daughter come home and say: “Mum, Dad, I’m going to row across the Atlantic. I will be gone for several months and I may die in the process. Can you loan me loads of money and oh, by the way, would you look after my dog?”

Their reaction? 100% total support. Now that’s a cool Ma & Pa if ever there were! If you know them and see them before I do…. Be sure to give them a big hug from me and tell them how much I love them!

Right. Back to the blades for me. Mel’s going to spend some time now plotting and scheming ways in which we can overtake crews and get to Antigua in the quickest possible time. It’s all very complicated stuff involving mathematical equations and spreadsheets etc – I’d best leave it up to her to explain how it all works!

Annie x

Happy as can be. I think that describes me perfectly this morning! Although saying that, I don’t think I’ve had a single miserable day the whole time we’ve been out here to tell the truth… There’s not really much to be miserable about and personally I spit in the eye of misery anyhow!

Today’s sea conditions aren’t the best. A bit too rock and rolly for our liking making it difficult to apply equal pressure to both blades and get momentum going, but we’re battling through and managing to put some miles away. We seem to achieve our best mileage during the night. I’m not overly sure why this is… Night time always seems to bring with it rougher, more testing waters but there’s no reason why this should be the case. Maybe it’s because you can’t see what’s looming so every wave takes you by surprise and keeps you on your toes!

The nights are pitch black. The moon is doing nothing to help, having waned as much as it possibly can of late. It doesn’t even bother getting out of bed before about 5am, then literally within 2 hours the sun begins to rise!
Rowing at night is a bizarre experience in many ways… Not being able to see a thing just gives your imagination licence to run wild! On particularly rough nights when the waves are coming at you from all over the shop, you wonder each time, whether this will be the wave that finally capsizes you. Many have tried, but so far, none have been successful!

It reminds me of those chaps who work on fairground rides:
“Scream if you wanna go faster! Did I hear you scream little lady? Well hold on to your seat… ‘Ere we go!”

What I find really unnerving about night rowing is the constant threat of danger. You can happily be paddling along admiring the magnificent celestial skies – then the next thing you know, your view has been replaced with complete inky blackness. You just know that there’s a huge wall of water heading straight at you… You don’t know how far away it is, what angle it’s coming from, how fast it is, how high it is, what its chances of breaking are…. Maybe you’re stuffed, or maybe you’ll just casually roll over the top and bob along your merry way! Terrifying or exhilarating? Hmmm. I’m not sure of the answer to that one but one thing’s for sure – a huge adrenalin rush if you’re into that kind of thing!

Pain wise, Mel and I have pretty much suffered from the same ailments: Back ache; swollen hands; blisters; severe bottom ache; aching knees… But I think we’re pretty much through the worst now (Although Mel  is currently sporting a terribly good look of bikini and knee supports!). I think the best way to describe us both at this stage is ‘’comfortably numb”!

Annie

Track Annie & Mel’s race position

We will be tracking Annie and Mel’s progress and posting more of their blogs here. Keep up to date and find out why we are supporting therm here

Race start has been delayed until Wednesday! The organisers are waiting for a shipment of flares which we’re not allowed to leave La Gomera without. It’s been a frustrating few days but on the up side, we’ve had more time to work on the boat and test her in the sea.

The ultimate test was a practice race yesterday between all competing crews, and it has to be said that Explore and her crew did very well indeed (surprising, considering the amout of Vino Blanco consumed the night before!). We were the fastest women by a long way and even managed to whoop a fair few of the guys, much to our satisfaction! We do have a very lightweight boat which certainly helps matters – the majority of the other boats are wooden and therefore much heavier.

The race took us 2 hours so gave us a perfect opportunity to really see how Explore performs. Overall we were extremily happy with her but needless to say we now have an even bigger list of things to adjust and tweak! Today we’ve been sorting out our auto-pilot. Not all crews have this onboard but we thought it was a justifiable expence…If it works properly, we won’t need to use the foot steering mechanism so much.

Both sets of parents are out in La Gomera at the moment. Sadly mine have to leave before race start but they did manage to somehow blag their way onto a super yacht yesterday, so got a really good close up view of us as we would be when we’re actually racing. Mum, Dad and I are off out for a farewell meal tonight. Tears are pretty much gaurenteed I think (On my part anyhow. They’ll be glad to see the back of me for a few months I’m sure!)
Annie

If you would like to find out the full story behind Annie & Mel’s epic rowing adventure across the Atlantic, and why we are involved with them, you can find out more at www.explore.co.uk/atlanticrowers. You will also find details about how you can get involved and help them achieve thair other goal of raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

So… Blog 3…

On a personal note…

I want to say thanks to Mel -  My crew mate, my partner in crime, (and my very, very good friend, more importantly) – Without you, this wouldn’t be happening. It’s you and me against the world Honey! (You packed the wine I hope?)

Annie & Mel in training

I also want to say thank you to Malcolm, Jason, Toni, Joss & Julius, who have supported me continuously.

And, (yes, you can start a sentence with ‘and’ Mum!) to my parents, who have been quite unbelievable in so many ways (look after that dog won’t you?  – he means the world to me!)

And thanks to Explore – As sponsors go… you’re proving to be damned fine so far… (Can you sort us out with flights home from Antigua??)

Annie

If you would like to find out the full story behing Annie & Mel’s epic rowing adventure across the Atlantic, and why we are involved with them, you can find out more here.