Progress Update
Distance from La Gomera to Antiguais 2548 nautical miles
Row Started: 04 Jan 2010 13:30
Last Update: 22/03/2010 12:41
Distance From Start: 2551
Distance To Finish : FINISHED
Row Started: 04 Jan 2010 13:30
Last Update: 22/03/2010 12:41
Distance From Start: 2551
Distance To Finish : FINISHED
The Team
Recent Photos
Charity
If you would like to support the Pytheas Club by making a donation to Save the Children please follow the link to our Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/pytheasclub
Corporate Sponsors
The Pytheas Club's lead sponsor is Montanaro, an independent asset management group established in 1991.
For a full list of our Corporate Sponsors please see the 'Sponsors' page.
For a full list of our Corporate Sponsors please see the 'Sponsors' page.
About the Pytheas Club
The Pytheas Club was formed in 2007 with the objective of winning the Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race in 2009. The journey will involve a 29 foot boat, 3,000 miles of ocean and two men rowing
on continuous two-hour shifts for up to seven weeks.
Progress Report from Adam and Jimmy
DAY 77 - LAST DAY
On Tuesday 22 March, after 77 days at sea, we crossed the finish line at English Harbour, Antigua. Stepping ashore was overwhelming, and it will be some time before we have fully come to terms with the experience of the last 11-weeks. We are so happy to be back with the loved ones that filled our thoughts when we were at sea and we are finding joy in all of the little things that we missed on the ocean, the sights, sounds, smells and tastes that are part of everyday life back on dry land.
The crossing was tougher than we ever imagined it would be. Within a fortnight we were well adjusted to the sleep deprivation (about 5 hours/day) and the exertion of rowing for 12-hours/day, much of it in the searing heat. Managing our bodies was a constant battle, but the greatest challenge was mental. Even before the race started (a month late), adverse weather patterns would ensure that this was no ‘normal’ season for an Atlantic crossing and it soon became clear that our 50 day target was completely unachievable. Eventually even our ‘worst case’ scenario of 70 days fell by the wayside. Including the delayed start, we have now been away from our lives back home for almost five-months. We had hoped to be gone for little more than two. It has been too long.
Thank-you for all the support you have given us throughout the race and over the last 3-years. It has been a life changing experience for us and we return home with a different perspective on life and different priorities from those which we had when we left.
Jimmy & Adam
Antigua, 24 March 2010
On Tuesday 22 March, after 77 days at sea, we crossed the finish line at English Harbour, Antigua. Stepping ashore was overwhelming, and it will be some time before we have fully come to terms with the experience of the last 11-weeks. We are so happy to be back with the loved ones that filled our thoughts when we were at sea and we are finding joy in all of the little things that we missed on the ocean, the sights, sounds, smells and tastes that are part of everyday life back on dry land.
The crossing was tougher than we ever imagined it would be. Within a fortnight we were well adjusted to the sleep deprivation (about 5 hours/day) and the exertion of rowing for 12-hours/day, much of it in the searing heat. Managing our bodies was a constant battle, but the greatest challenge was mental. Even before the race started (a month late), adverse weather patterns would ensure that this was no ‘normal’ season for an Atlantic crossing and it soon became clear that our 50 day target was completely unachievable. Eventually even our ‘worst case’ scenario of 70 days fell by the wayside. Including the delayed start, we have now been away from our lives back home for almost five-months. We had hoped to be gone for little more than two. It has been too long.
Thank-you for all the support you have given us throughout the race and over the last 3-years. It has been a life changing experience for us and we return home with a different perspective on life and different priorities from those which we had when we left.
Jimmy & Adam
Antigua, 24 March 2010
DAY 76
LESS THAN 80 MILES TO GO! IF CONDITIONS PERSIST, SHOULD BE THERE IN 48HRS. I HEAR THE RUM IS GOOD IN ANTIGUA!
LESS THAN 80 MILES TO GO! IF CONDITIONS PERSIST, SHOULD BE THERE IN 48HRS. I HEAR THE RUM IS GOOD IN ANTIGUA!
13:00, 20th March – end of Day 75
At the 07:00 update SOM had retaken 17th from RW.
Sent at 08:17 GMT;
07:00.BACK UP TO 17TH AND CLOSING ON EX 11NM AHEAD. BACK IN RAINY NL AND PACKING FOR THE NEXT FLIGHT TO LGW THIS EVENING.CU SOON!XX The boys seem to have settled back into a 40nm rhythm over the last couple of days, that should put them over the line just into Day 79 – hopefully before nightfall, local time, on Tuesday 23rd March. Perfect timing – we’ll be arriving at about 15:30 local time, on Sunday 21st and will have a day to recuperate before the excitement of the arrival.
At the 07:00 update SOM had retaken 17th from RW.
Sent at 08:17 GMT;
07:00.BACK UP TO 17TH AND CLOSING ON EX 11NM AHEAD. BACK IN RAINY NL AND PACKING FOR THE NEXT FLIGHT TO LGW THIS EVENING.CU SOON!XX The boys seem to have settled back into a 40nm rhythm over the last couple of days, that should put them over the line just into Day 79 – hopefully before nightfall, local time, on Tuesday 23rd March. Perfect timing – we’ll be arriving at about 15:30 local time, on Sunday 21st and will have a day to recuperate before the excitement of the arrival.
13:00, 19th March – end of Day 74
Received at 14:34 GMT;
YIPPEE! ES ARRIVED YDAY EVE. NOW DOING 6NM SHIFTS! RACE U TO ENG HARBOUR! CANT WAIT TO SEE U. X Sent at 15:06 GMT; WE’LL B THERE IN 50HRS SO U NEED 3.3KTS! ANYWAY ENJOY THE LAST DAYS OF THIS AMAZING ADVENTURE - BEER, STEAK & SLEEP AWAIT U!XX
Received at 14:34 GMT;
YIPPEE! ES ARRIVED YDAY EVE. NOW DOING 6NM SHIFTS! RACE U TO ENG HARBOUR! CANT WAIT TO SEE U. X Sent at 15:06 GMT; WE’LL B THERE IN 50HRS SO U NEED 3.3KTS! ANYWAY ENJOY THE LAST DAYS OF THIS AMAZING ADVENTURE - BEER, STEAK & SLEEP AWAIT U!XX
DAY 74
LESS THAN 200 MILES 2 GO! WE CAN ALMOST SMELL THE RUM. ANTIGUA CAN PROB SMELL US! REALLY NEED A PROPER WASH!
LESS THAN 200 MILES 2 GO! WE CAN ALMOST SMELL THE RUM. ANTIGUA CAN PROB SMELL US! REALLY NEED A PROPER WASH!
13:00, 18th March – end of Day 73
Sent at 11:01 GMT;
FRCST SHOWS EASTRLY STENGTHNG F2 NEXT12HRS,THEN TO F3/4 BY MON, HOLDING THRO MID NEXT WEEK.NOW 6 BOATS WITHIN 26NM WINDOW AHD.XX A similar day again, not too bad in DMG terms with 32 nm ticked off, but NF has now left them in 18th and at the back of the pack of 5 boats that they were leading just a few days ago. Not sure why that is – boats both north and south seem to be making stronger progress. Maybe the boys are just making the most of the last few days of this unique adventure?
Sent at 17:51 GMT;
13:00.18!NF PASSED 10NM S OF U TODAY. U PASSED THEM ON 22JAN!. AHEAD NF9, EX12, RW17, NY25, PS29NM. KLM2MORO YIPEE!XX
Received at 18:41 GMT;
THANKS! STILL SOUTHERLIES HERE. FINGERS X OVER NEXT 12H. GOING TO HEAD INTO IT TO TRY & SQUEEZE FEW MORE NM S. Strange – the weather chart shows southerlies above 19N, but where the boys are just at 17N11 they should be squarely into easterlies.
Sent at 19:20 GMT;
CHART STILL SHOWS E’LYS AT17N10!?STILL HAVE A RECORD IN YR SIGHTS=BOREHAM@LOCK’S84D23H32M 4A GEMINI/SOM "PERSONAL BEST"!X
Sent at 11:01 GMT;
FRCST SHOWS EASTRLY STENGTHNG F2 NEXT12HRS,THEN TO F3/4 BY MON, HOLDING THRO MID NEXT WEEK.NOW 6 BOATS WITHIN 26NM WINDOW AHD.XX A similar day again, not too bad in DMG terms with 32 nm ticked off, but NF has now left them in 18th and at the back of the pack of 5 boats that they were leading just a few days ago. Not sure why that is – boats both north and south seem to be making stronger progress. Maybe the boys are just making the most of the last few days of this unique adventure?
Sent at 17:51 GMT;
13:00.18!NF PASSED 10NM S OF U TODAY. U PASSED THEM ON 22JAN!. AHEAD NF9, EX12, RW17, NY25, PS29NM. KLM2MORO YIPEE!XX
Received at 18:41 GMT;
THANKS! STILL SOUTHERLIES HERE. FINGERS X OVER NEXT 12H. GOING TO HEAD INTO IT TO TRY & SQUEEZE FEW MORE NM S. Strange – the weather chart shows southerlies above 19N, but where the boys are just at 17N11 they should be squarely into easterlies.
Sent at 19:20 GMT;
CHART STILL SHOWS E’LYS AT17N10!?STILL HAVE A RECORD IN YR SIGHTS=BOREHAM@LOCK’S84D23H32M 4A GEMINI/SOM "PERSONAL BEST"!X
13:00, 17th March – end of Day 72
Not such a bad day for the boys today in terms of mileage versus the fleet, turning in 33 nm DMG24 against a fleet average just short of 12 nm, but NY, their closest competition behind managed 10 nm more and passed SOM today for the 3rd time in the race, pushing them down to 17th – their worst position of the race. :-(((
Sent at 18:53 GMT;
13:00.17.NY40NM S OF U@16N30PAST2DAY.5BOATS WITHIN 21NM AHEAD!TRAFFIC JAM4ENGLSH HARBR NXT WK OR TURBO FINISH?XX
Received at 22:18 GMT;
YO! CHALK HAS TOLD US 20KNT EASTERLIES FROM TMRW, BUT CONDITIONS BUILDING FROM S. ANY IDEAS
Not such a bad day for the boys today in terms of mileage versus the fleet, turning in 33 nm DMG24 against a fleet average just short of 12 nm, but NY, their closest competition behind managed 10 nm more and passed SOM today for the 3rd time in the race, pushing them down to 17th – their worst position of the race. :-(((
Sent at 18:53 GMT;
13:00.17.NY40NM S OF U@16N30PAST2DAY.5BOATS WITHIN 21NM AHEAD!TRAFFIC JAM4ENGLSH HARBR NXT WK OR TURBO FINISH?XX
Received at 22:18 GMT;
YO! CHALK HAS TOLD US 20KNT EASTERLIES FROM TMRW, BUT CONDITIONS BUILDING FROM S. ANY IDEAS
13:00, 16th March – end of Day 71
Sent at 17:32 GMT;
13:00.16:-((PS&EX PAST2DAY.NOW10&16NM AHD,NY&NF JUST8NM AFT.HW FINISHD&LAST BOAT TESS PAST HALFWAY2DAY!HOORAH!!XX
Sent at 17:32 GMT;
13:00.16:-((PS&EX PAST2DAY.NOW10&16NM AHD,NY&NF JUST8NM AFT.HW FINISHD&LAST BOAT TESS PAST HALFWAY2DAY!HOORAH!!XX
13:00, 15th March – end of Day 70
Talk about swings and roundabouts! From the amazing progress of Day 69 the boys seems to have been plunged back into the doldrums and slipped back to 16th place their worst position in the race to date – a slot they occupied briefly on the 12th January! Out of nowhere, they have been passed by SMA, who have spent most of the race languishing between 19th and 21st and now, in the space of the last 4 days, have shot up to 12th! The boys have also swapped places with EX again, now for the 8th time, and have been passed for the 1st time by PS.
No news on Woodvale or on the team website about OS pulling out, but they have clearly had a major problem and are perhaps trying to rendezvous with the support boat.
Talk about swings and roundabouts! From the amazing progress of Day 69 the boys seems to have been plunged back into the doldrums and slipped back to 16th place their worst position in the race to date – a slot they occupied briefly on the 12th January! Out of nowhere, they have been passed by SMA, who have spent most of the race languishing between 19th and 21st and now, in the space of the last 4 days, have shot up to 12th! The boys have also swapped places with EX again, now for the 8th time, and have been passed for the 1st time by PS.
No news on Woodvale or on the team website about OS pulling out, but they have clearly had a major problem and are perhaps trying to rendezvous with the support boat.
13:00, 14th March – end of Day 69
A superb day for SOM today, knocking off 46 nm DMG24 compared to a fleet average of just 28.2 nm and, after a brief departure, returning to their favoured 13th position! OS seem to have hit a snag as they plummeted from 13th to 16th place, making just 5 nm during the day.
Received at 18:22 GMT;
SLOWING NOW. PUSHING S AGAINST STHLYS. OS HAVE JUST PULLED
A superb day for SOM today, knocking off 46 nm DMG24 compared to a fleet average of just 28.2 nm and, after a brief departure, returning to their favoured 13th position! OS seem to have hit a snag as they plummeted from 13th to 16th place, making just 5 nm during the day.
Received at 18:22 GMT;
SLOWING NOW. PUSHING S AGAINST STHLYS. OS HAVE JUST PULLED
07:00, 14th March – Day 69
At the 07:00 update the boys have amazingly made up the 27 nm they were behind OS at the end of Day 68 and are now 1 nm ahead of them.
Sent at 10:11 GMT;
07:00.WOW!GR8WORK GUYS!BACK@13TH!OS@17N34MADE JUST5M SINCE13:00.RW NOW25NM AHD YR NXT TRGT!OS1EX&PS9AFT.XX
At the 07:00 update the boys have amazingly made up the 27 nm they were behind OS at the end of Day 68 and are now 1 nm ahead of them.
Sent at 10:11 GMT;
07:00.WOW!GR8WORK GUYS!BACK@13TH!OS@17N34MADE JUST5M SINCE13:00.RW NOW25NM AHD YR NXT TRGT!OS1EX&PS9AFT.XX
13:00, 13th March – end of Day 68
Looks like the boys are slowly getting back into gear – making 26 nm today, 2nd best for them in the last week. Although all the boats ahead drew away (including RC who finished the day 1 nm short of the finish line with their best day of the race, making 71 nm) SOM did manage to gain on the key competition astern and regained 14th place from EX – which was the only place change of the day.
Sent at 17:16 GMT;
13:00. BACKIN14TH PLACE,WELL DONE GUYS!10VC99NM AHD.MA71.RW32.OS27. U.EX1NM AFT.PS5.NY7.RC FINSHD5TH&3RD PAIR@14:00GMT.XX
Looks like the boys are slowly getting back into gear – making 26 nm today, 2nd best for them in the last week. Although all the boats ahead drew away (including RC who finished the day 1 nm short of the finish line with their best day of the race, making 71 nm) SOM did manage to gain on the key competition astern and regained 14th place from EX – which was the only place change of the day.
Sent at 17:16 GMT;
13:00. BACKIN14TH PLACE,WELL DONE GUYS!10VC99NM AHD.MA71.RW32.OS27. U.EX1NM AFT.PS5.NY7.RC FINSHD5TH&3RD PAIR@14:00GMT.XX
13:00, 12th March – end of Day 67
It’s hard, if not impossible, to set aside the armchair frustration of seeing the boys slip slowly down the fleet and look at things from their perspective! They’ve been struggling to make progress for the best part of a week, averaging just 18 nm a day for the last 6 days, with only 3 crews in the top 21 doing less. They are no doubt experiencing frustration on a level that few of us ever know. While this last week may seem an anti-climax to our vicarious adventure, when, so recently, we saw them in with a chance of moving up to 10th, the race, as a race, is probably far from a major concern for them right now.
Received at 14:41 GMT;
YO! NO WINDS TODAY, HEADING S. WILL B AT 17N IN 24H. X Try, if you can, to imagine yourself out there. Sixty-seven days at sea and stuck for a week in the doldrums …
Sent at 17:35 GMT;
13:00.15=PS.EX3NM AHD,OS14.NY14AFT.BOATS BELOW17ARE FLYING!
It’s hard, if not impossible, to set aside the armchair frustration of seeing the boys slip slowly down the fleet and look at things from their perspective! They’ve been struggling to make progress for the best part of a week, averaging just 18 nm a day for the last 6 days, with only 3 crews in the top 21 doing less. They are no doubt experiencing frustration on a level that few of us ever know. While this last week may seem an anti-climax to our vicarious adventure, when, so recently, we saw them in with a chance of moving up to 10th, the race, as a race, is probably far from a major concern for them right now.
Received at 14:41 GMT;
YO! NO WINDS TODAY, HEADING S. WILL B AT 17N IN 24H. X Try, if you can, to imagine yourself out there. Sixty-seven days at sea and stuck for a week in the doldrums …
Sent at 17:35 GMT;
13:00.15=PS.EX3NM AHD,OS14.NY14AFT.BOATS BELOW17ARE FLYING!
13:00, 11th March – end of Day 66
Not too far off the mark today, with a DMG24 of 29 nm compared to a fleet average of 31. MA is finally getting the benefit of their southerly latitude, powering past both OS and RW today to leap up into 11th place – 10th taking account of VC’s impending penalty.
Received at 14:20 GMT;
NOW INTO D6 OF SOUTHERLIES. DO WTHR CHRTS SGST ANY REPRIEVE OR COURSE OF ACTION? X
Sent at 17:23 GMT;
13:00.14.N/NWLY WNDS FROM MDNGHT.WIND STRONGR@18N SO ADVANTGE2U@ MORE NTHLY POSN4A CHANGE!WND S AGAIN TUES…
and at 17:38 GMT;
ACTION IS2GET BELOW17N,PREF 16N45BY TUES. MA PAST U@STORMD2 11TH AS THEY ARE BELOW17N!! Conditions do look set to improve for a couple of days, but more contrary winds are forecast early next week before settling into the usual north-easterly pattern towards the end of the week. This all makes ETA estimation highly uncertain and booking flights highly stressful – I hope the guys realize what a trauma this little adventure is putting us all through! Received at 18:31 GMT; WIND SEEMS TO B DOIN EVERYTHING IT CAN 2 KEEP US ABOVE 17! MSG CUT AT 21ST2... X
and at 18:49 GMT;
EXPECTING MORE BAD WTHR ON TUES? MIGHT B BEST 2BK AS LATE AS POSS. 200NM AT LEAST GIVES A 1WK WINDOW!
Not too far off the mark today, with a DMG24 of 29 nm compared to a fleet average of 31. MA is finally getting the benefit of their southerly latitude, powering past both OS and RW today to leap up into 11th place – 10th taking account of VC’s impending penalty.
Received at 14:20 GMT;
NOW INTO D6 OF SOUTHERLIES. DO WTHR CHRTS SGST ANY REPRIEVE OR COURSE OF ACTION? X
Sent at 17:23 GMT;
13:00.14.N/NWLY WNDS FROM MDNGHT.WIND STRONGR@18N SO ADVANTGE2U@ MORE NTHLY POSN4A CHANGE!WND S AGAIN TUES…
and at 17:38 GMT;
ACTION IS2GET BELOW17N,PREF 16N45BY TUES. MA PAST U@STORMD2 11TH AS THEY ARE BELOW17N!! Conditions do look set to improve for a couple of days, but more contrary winds are forecast early next week before settling into the usual north-easterly pattern towards the end of the week. This all makes ETA estimation highly uncertain and booking flights highly stressful – I hope the guys realize what a trauma this little adventure is putting us all through! Received at 18:31 GMT; WIND SEEMS TO B DOIN EVERYTHING IT CAN 2 KEEP US ABOVE 17! MSG CUT AT 21ST2... X
and at 18:49 GMT;
EXPECTING MORE BAD WTHR ON TUES? MIGHT B BEST 2BK AS LATE AS POSS. 200NM AT LEAST GIVES A 1WK WINDOW!
13:00, 10th March – end of Day 65
A good day for SOM relative to the fleet as the boys started to make a bit of progress while many others, particularly boats ahead, slowed under more adverse conditions. Stats; SOM DMG24 of 23 nm against a fleet average of 19.8 nm, perhaps most importantly for the positional end-game, gaining 12 nm on both OS and RW over the day. The French ladies in Vivaldi crossed the line at 18:04 GMT on the 9th, to win the fours class in a time of 64 days, 4 hrs, 34 mins.
A good day for SOM relative to the fleet as the boys started to make a bit of progress while many others, particularly boats ahead, slowed under more adverse conditions. Stats; SOM DMG24 of 23 nm against a fleet average of 19.8 nm, perhaps most importantly for the positional end-game, gaining 12 nm on both OS and RW over the day. The French ladies in Vivaldi crossed the line at 18:04 GMT on the 9th, to win the fours class in a time of 64 days, 4 hrs, 34 mins.
DAY 65
MSG FOR ROB & CAROLINE: THKS 4 ALL UR TEXTS! PLS TEXT US UR EMAIL ADDRESS SO WE CAN MSG BACK. GLAD U LIKED XMAS PUD!
MSG FOR ROB & CAROLINE: THKS 4 ALL UR TEXTS! PLS TEXT US UR EMAIL ADDRESS SO WE CAN MSG BACK. GLAD U LIKED XMAS PUD!
13:00, 9th March – end of Day 64
SOM’s increasingly slim grip on 13th place did come to an end today, as MA stormed past, just 30 m to the south of SOM and seemingly quite unaffected by the adverse conditions that our boys are experiencing. SOM managed just 12 nm today, against a fleet average more than double that – 25.2 nm. Up the leader board, KK crossed the line at 23:04 GMT taking 2nd place in the pairs class.
Sent at 16:55 GMT;
13:00.10VC86M AHD,100M,262T.RW44,53,282.OS42,51,279.MA20,47,210.U.NF9M AFT,25,155.EX28,44,142.KK FNSHD11:13&WINS PAIRS DUE2QB PENLTY.
Sent at 19:12 GMT;
U SEEM STUCK INAHOLE OTHERS MISSED!MA@17N02BREEZED PAST@40M DMG YSTRDY.SEEMS NO QB PNLTY AFTERALL
SOM’s increasingly slim grip on 13th place did come to an end today, as MA stormed past, just 30 m to the south of SOM and seemingly quite unaffected by the adverse conditions that our boys are experiencing. SOM managed just 12 nm today, against a fleet average more than double that – 25.2 nm. Up the leader board, KK crossed the line at 23:04 GMT taking 2nd place in the pairs class.
Sent at 16:55 GMT;
13:00.10VC86M AHD,100M,262T.RW44,53,282.OS42,51,279.MA20,47,210.U.NF9M AFT,25,155.EX28,44,142.KK FNSHD11:13&WINS PAIRS DUE2QB PENLTY.
Sent at 19:12 GMT;
U SEEM STUCK INAHOLE OTHERS MISSED!MA@17N02BREEZED PAST@40M DMG YSTRDY.SEEMS NO QB PNLTY AFTERALL
13:00, 8th March – end of Day 63
Not a good day for the boys – and I don’t just mean the invasion of privacy from the mid-ocean paparazzi posted on the Woodvale site today. What a fine beard! What a great tan!! We can only be grateful these pics were posted with limited resolution … Although they held on to their favored 13th place for the 26th day, it was by no more that the skin of their teeth (and I think we’ve seen quite enough skin for one day!), with MA clawing back an astonishing 35 nm in the last 24 hrs, to be within 4 nm at 13:00 and NF not far behind at 9 nm aft. The pocket of adverse winds that has affected OS, RW and SOM over the last couple of days seems to be very limited … or else the boys are taking it easy which is, I think, unlikely. Hopefully they will be out of it soon or they may have an extra place or two to make up if they are to gain any assured positional advantage from VC’s penalty.
Sent at 17:40 GMT;
13:00.10VC68M AHD.RW32.OS24.U.MA CHASING U DOWN-JUST4M AFT!!NF9.CAN’T AFFORD2LOSE PLACES IFUR2GAIN POSITION FROM VC PENALTY.XX
Received at 18:32 GMT;
YO! FIGHTING STRONG SOUTHERLIES, WERE DOWN TO 0.5KNT WITH ALOT OF PAIN! Sent at 19:07 GMT;
MA IN STHLYS2NOW&WILL SLOW.PICS OF U&BLACKBEARD POSTED ON WOODVALE2DAY.NICE TAN KIDDO!10DAYS LEFT2SAVOUR…THIS2WILL PASS!XX
Not a good day for the boys – and I don’t just mean the invasion of privacy from the mid-ocean paparazzi posted on the Woodvale site today. What a fine beard! What a great tan!! We can only be grateful these pics were posted with limited resolution … Although they held on to their favored 13th place for the 26th day, it was by no more that the skin of their teeth (and I think we’ve seen quite enough skin for one day!), with MA clawing back an astonishing 35 nm in the last 24 hrs, to be within 4 nm at 13:00 and NF not far behind at 9 nm aft. The pocket of adverse winds that has affected OS, RW and SOM over the last couple of days seems to be very limited … or else the boys are taking it easy which is, I think, unlikely. Hopefully they will be out of it soon or they may have an extra place or two to make up if they are to gain any assured positional advantage from VC’s penalty.
Sent at 17:40 GMT;
13:00.10VC68M AHD.RW32.OS24.U.MA CHASING U DOWN-JUST4M AFT!!NF9.CAN’T AFFORD2LOSE PLACES IFUR2GAIN POSITION FROM VC PENALTY.XX
Received at 18:32 GMT;
YO! FIGHTING STRONG SOUTHERLIES, WERE DOWN TO 0.5KNT WITH ALOT OF PAIN! Sent at 19:07 GMT;
MA IN STHLYS2NOW&WILL SLOW.PICS OF U&BLACKBEARD POSTED ON WOODVALE2DAY.NICE TAN KIDDO!10DAYS LEFT2SAVOUR…THIS2WILL PASS!XX
19:00, 6th March – Day 62
The boys made it to 510 nm DMG to the finish at 19:00 GMT – that’s just 20% of the 2548 nm course length left to go!
Received at 18:20 GMT;
WHAT WAS OUR DMG AND OS? CONDITIONS NOW SLOWING. X
Sent at 20:15 GMT;
TO13:00 24HR DMG U46NM RW37OS37VC30.TO19:00U37RW31OS32VC33. FORCST S/SELY WINDS THRO MNDAY.XX
07:00, 7th March – Day 62
SOM reached the 500 nm mark at about 06:00 GMT on Day 62, just a few hours after the target they set themselves on Tuesday.
Sent at 08:02 GMT;
07:00.499!YEE HA!UR DOIN MUCH BETTER THN OTHRS HOLDING GAINST DRIFT2NW. MAYBEBOAT WEIGHT?OS MADE7NM LAST18HRS,SEEMS NOW ON SA AGAIN!XX
Received at 10:17 GMT;
YO! MSG CUT AT 18... CONDITIONS FROW SSW. FIND WE DO RELATIVELY WELL IN POOR OR CALM CONDITIONS.
Sent at 11:33 GMT;
…OS MADE 7NM 18HRS TO 07:00.LOOKS LIKE NOW ON SA AGAIN. JUST HAD MY BACON N EGGS SUNDAY BRUNCH.YUMMY-WONT BE LONG!XX
13:00, 7th March – end of Day 62
Looks like there is another tricky patch of weather affecting a number of boats in the middle of the fleet. All those from DM in 9th down to MA in 14th recorded sub-30 nm DMGs on Day 62, with the exception of VC who are a bit further to the SW and managed 31. The good news is that the boys are clearly able to be deal with these conditions better than the two boats that they are chasing – OS and RW managing just 8 and 20 nm in the last 24 hrs against SOM’s 24. This is largely due to the fact that they are able to maintain a more westerly track, while OS and RW are being pushed much more to the north west.
If the boys are able to repeat their much rehearsed sprint off the blocks when the wind turns more favourable, they may be able to leapfrog past these two and have VC once more in their sights. Forecast suggests this may be a late as Tuesday, which is not good news for the ETA!
Sent at 14:39 GMT;
13:00.10VC54M AHD.68M,256T.OS18,25,304.RW14,23,315.U.MA39M AFT,56,127. NF40,48,115.OS,RW DRIFTNG WAY N. SAME OLD MSG-STAY STH!!XX
The boys made it to 510 nm DMG to the finish at 19:00 GMT – that’s just 20% of the 2548 nm course length left to go!
Received at 18:20 GMT;
WHAT WAS OUR DMG AND OS? CONDITIONS NOW SLOWING. X
Sent at 20:15 GMT;
TO13:00 24HR DMG U46NM RW37OS37VC30.TO19:00U37RW31OS32VC33. FORCST S/SELY WINDS THRO MNDAY.XX
07:00, 7th March – Day 62
SOM reached the 500 nm mark at about 06:00 GMT on Day 62, just a few hours after the target they set themselves on Tuesday.
Sent at 08:02 GMT;
07:00.499!YEE HA!UR DOIN MUCH BETTER THN OTHRS HOLDING GAINST DRIFT2NW. MAYBEBOAT WEIGHT?OS MADE7NM LAST18HRS,SEEMS NOW ON SA AGAIN!XX
Received at 10:17 GMT;
YO! MSG CUT AT 18... CONDITIONS FROW SSW. FIND WE DO RELATIVELY WELL IN POOR OR CALM CONDITIONS.
Sent at 11:33 GMT;
…OS MADE 7NM 18HRS TO 07:00.LOOKS LIKE NOW ON SA AGAIN. JUST HAD MY BACON N EGGS SUNDAY BRUNCH.YUMMY-WONT BE LONG!XX
13:00, 7th March – end of Day 62
Looks like there is another tricky patch of weather affecting a number of boats in the middle of the fleet. All those from DM in 9th down to MA in 14th recorded sub-30 nm DMGs on Day 62, with the exception of VC who are a bit further to the SW and managed 31. The good news is that the boys are clearly able to be deal with these conditions better than the two boats that they are chasing – OS and RW managing just 8 and 20 nm in the last 24 hrs against SOM’s 24. This is largely due to the fact that they are able to maintain a more westerly track, while OS and RW are being pushed much more to the north west.
If the boys are able to repeat their much rehearsed sprint off the blocks when the wind turns more favourable, they may be able to leapfrog past these two and have VC once more in their sights. Forecast suggests this may be a late as Tuesday, which is not good news for the ETA!
Sent at 14:39 GMT;
13:00.10VC54M AHD.68M,256T.OS18,25,304.RW14,23,315.U.MA39M AFT,56,127. NF40,48,115.OS,RW DRIFTNG WAY N. SAME OLD MSG-STAY STH!!XX
13:00, 6th March – end of Day 61
Another excellent day for SOM, turning in 47 nm DMG against a fleet average of just under 40. The boys gained on pretty well every other crew in the fleet, and are clearly pushing hard to reach the 500 nm line before 20:00 GMT! ETA hovering between 15th and 19th March for the last four days, with a 5-day average of the 18th.
Sent at 14:15 GMT;
ANOTHER GR8DAY. EQUAL BEST DMG IN THE FLEET 2DAY. WELL DONE! 10VC48NM AHD.OS34RW18.U.MA44AFT NF49. 500 STILL ON BY 8PM?
Another excellent day for SOM, turning in 47 nm DMG against a fleet average of just under 40. The boys gained on pretty well every other crew in the fleet, and are clearly pushing hard to reach the 500 nm line before 20:00 GMT! ETA hovering between 15th and 19th March for the last four days, with a 5-day average of the 18th.
Sent at 14:15 GMT;
ANOTHER GR8DAY. EQUAL BEST DMG IN THE FLEET 2DAY. WELL DONE! 10VC48NM AHD.OS34RW18.U.MA44AFT NF49. 500 STILL ON BY 8PM?
07:00, 5th March – Day 60
QB crossed the line at 05:47 GMT, winning the pairs class in just under 60 days (59 days, 16 hours and 17 minutes).
13:00, 5th March – end of Day 60
Well, the boys delivered on their 55 nm promise, achieving a "personal 2nd best" of 58 nm against a fleet average today of 52.7 nm, but still just a wee bit short of that elusive 60 miles!
Sent at 16:52 GMT;
XLNT58NM!YR2ND BEST DAY.CLOSE BUT NO CIGARS!12BOATS IN TOP21HAVE DONE60+NM.WANNA C U ON THE LIST.RW27OS42VC58 AHD.QB FINSHD15:15.XX
QB crossed the line at 05:47 GMT, winning the pairs class in just under 60 days (59 days, 16 hours and 17 minutes).
13:00, 5th March – end of Day 60
Well, the boys delivered on their 55 nm promise, achieving a "personal 2nd best" of 58 nm against a fleet average today of 52.7 nm, but still just a wee bit short of that elusive 60 miles!
Sent at 16:52 GMT;
XLNT58NM!YR2ND BEST DAY.CLOSE BUT NO CIGARS!12BOATS IN TOP21HAVE DONE60+NM.WANNA C U ON THE LIST.RW27OS42VC58 AHD.QB FINSHD15:15.XX
13:00, 4th March – end of Day 59
A good day for the boys today, with 50 nm made good, 104% of the fleet average. OS and RW continue to pull away, but they hauled in VC by 5 nm and extended their lead on MA (by 8 nm) and NF (by 15). SOM seems to have a gravitational attraction for 13th place – this is the 22nd day they have ended in that slot! However this will not last much longer. OS is now within 19 nm of VC, having closed the gap from 35 nm yesterday. Once they pass VC, SOM will effectively move up into 13th place, since VC is "guaranteed" to be penalized by at least 2 places.
Received at 14:17 GMT;
IF THIS WEATHER HOLDS WE MAY BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED 55DMG COMING UP! Sorry guys not today, but fingers crossed for tomorrow. They may be pleasantly surprised … but I have a feeling that their avid followers are expecting a bit more!
Sent at 17:15 GMT;
10VC64NM AHEAD.OS45RW29.U.MA26AFT.NF40.U DID50 TODAY,RW DID55,OS61.17PS BEAT THE FLEET@69. 55WOULD BE YR5TH BEST,U NEED60!XX
A good day for the boys today, with 50 nm made good, 104% of the fleet average. OS and RW continue to pull away, but they hauled in VC by 5 nm and extended their lead on MA (by 8 nm) and NF (by 15). SOM seems to have a gravitational attraction for 13th place – this is the 22nd day they have ended in that slot! However this will not last much longer. OS is now within 19 nm of VC, having closed the gap from 35 nm yesterday. Once they pass VC, SOM will effectively move up into 13th place, since VC is "guaranteed" to be penalized by at least 2 places.
Received at 14:17 GMT;
IF THIS WEATHER HOLDS WE MAY BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED 55DMG COMING UP! Sorry guys not today, but fingers crossed for tomorrow. They may be pleasantly surprised … but I have a feeling that their avid followers are expecting a bit more!
Sent at 17:15 GMT;
10VC64NM AHEAD.OS45RW29.U.MA26AFT.NF40.U DID50 TODAY,RW DID55,OS61.17PS BEAT THE FLEET@69. 55WOULD BE YR5TH BEST,U NEED60!XX
Day 56
I CAUGHT OUR 2ND DORADO TODAY. ADAM AND I ENJOYED ANOTHER FISH DINNER WHICH IS A WELCOME BREAK FROM ROUTINE AND RATIONS.
I CAUGHT OUR 2ND DORADO TODAY. ADAM AND I ENJOYED ANOTHER FISH DINNER WHICH IS A WELCOME BREAK FROM ROUTINE AND RATIONS.
Day 55
MET UP WITH ANOTHER BOAT TODAY! OCEAN SUMMIT. THEY WERE SURPRIZINGLY CLEAN SHAVEN. ENJOYED CURSING THE WEATHER 4 20MINS B4 PARTING.
13:00, 28th February – end of Day 55
A strong day for SOM, almost hitting the magic 50 nm DMG24 mark, pulling away from every boat astern and gaining on a couple ahead. After leaving OS yesterday the boys continued to pull southwest, aiming still to reach latitude 16N45, and seem to have turned more to the west, closer to the great circle route, around 07:00 GMT this morning.
Sent at 14:04 GMT;
XLNT DMG24GUYS,JUST UNDER50M.OS PULLED1M AHD,BUT VC NOW DOWN2 75M. LOOKS LIKE U TURND2GT CRCL?WTHR LKS GOOD,SOME SE’LY END WK.XX
Received at 14:45 GMT;
HAD STARTED RATIONING ON BASIS OF 27DMG! HOW FAR IS DM? NEWS ON VC DISQUALIFICATION?
Sent at 15:34 GMT;
7DM180DMG@18N14HW176@17N36RA162@17N51VC76@16N37.NO NEWS VC DISQUAL.WILL ASK SIMON.WHATSTHESTORY? 2QB 1STPAIR LIKLY FINSH NXT SAT.XX
Received at 15:41 GMT;
OS MENTIONED THEY HAD A WATER RESUPPLY. RA COULD BE A BIG ASK!!
The weather this week looks pretty settled, although with some south-easterly winds at times from Wednesday on. Hopefully this will allow the boys to put in a few more 50+ days and get back on track for a mid-March arrival.
Sent at 17:27 GMT after e-mail reply from Simon Chalke at Woodvale;
SC:DUNNO PENLTY TILL VC GETS IN.PUT H2O ON INCASE HAVE2DRINK MORE THAN150L.PENLTY MIN2PLACES OR DISQUAL.UNQUTE.RA BIGASK INDEED!XX
MET UP WITH ANOTHER BOAT TODAY! OCEAN SUMMIT. THEY WERE SURPRIZINGLY CLEAN SHAVEN. ENJOYED CURSING THE WEATHER 4 20MINS B4 PARTING.
13:00, 28th February – end of Day 55
A strong day for SOM, almost hitting the magic 50 nm DMG24 mark, pulling away from every boat astern and gaining on a couple ahead. After leaving OS yesterday the boys continued to pull southwest, aiming still to reach latitude 16N45, and seem to have turned more to the west, closer to the great circle route, around 07:00 GMT this morning.
Sent at 14:04 GMT;
XLNT DMG24GUYS,JUST UNDER50M.OS PULLED1M AHD,BUT VC NOW DOWN2 75M. LOOKS LIKE U TURND2GT CRCL?WTHR LKS GOOD,SOME SE’LY END WK.XX
Received at 14:45 GMT;
HAD STARTED RATIONING ON BASIS OF 27DMG! HOW FAR IS DM? NEWS ON VC DISQUALIFICATION?
Sent at 15:34 GMT;
7DM180DMG@18N14HW176@17N36RA162@17N51VC76@16N37.NO NEWS VC DISQUAL.WILL ASK SIMON.WHATSTHESTORY? 2QB 1STPAIR LIKLY FINSH NXT SAT.XX
Received at 15:41 GMT;
OS MENTIONED THEY HAD A WATER RESUPPLY. RA COULD BE A BIG ASK!!
The weather this week looks pretty settled, although with some south-easterly winds at times from Wednesday on. Hopefully this will allow the boys to put in a few more 50+ days and get back on track for a mid-March arrival.
Sent at 17:27 GMT after e-mail reply from Simon Chalke at Woodvale;
SC:DUNNO PENLTY TILL VC GETS IN.PUT H2O ON INCASE HAVE2DRINK MORE THAN150L.PENLTY MIN2PLACES OR DISQUAL.UNQUTE.RA BIGASK INDEED!XX
Day 54
ADAM CAUGHT THE FIRST FISH! BIG JUICY DORADO. FILLITED COOKED AND EATEN WITHIN 30 MINS. LOOKS LIKE RATIONS MAY LAST LONGER...
ADAM CAUGHT THE FIRST FISH! BIG JUICY DORADO. FILLITED COOKED AND EATEN WITHIN 30 MINS. LOOKS LIKE RATIONS MAY LAST LONGER...
01:00, 25th February – Day 52
In the 12 hours to 01:00 today, SOM made 7 nm DMG, RW made 5 and OS lost 1 nm. Tracks show that many boats are on sea anchors again, with strong adverse winds being experienced by the leading boats. The boys must have been putting in another heroic effort against wind and swell yesterday as they have managed to limit their northerly drift, unlike many other boats. DM ahead has been pushed almost a degree north over the last 3 days.
Sent at 05:58 GMT;
01:00.ANOTHR HEROIC EFFRT GUYS!YR12HR DMG 7NM, RW5, OS MINUS 1. MANY ON ANCHRS NOW. BOATS WELL AHED HVE WORST OF IT.XX
Received at 10:47 GMT; AT SA SINCE 3AM, BUT FINALLY MOVING S AT JUST UNDER 1KNT! WIND & SWELL FROM S, SO MUST B SUB SRFC CRNT. SA = sea anchor.
13:00, 25th February – end of Day 52
Yet another day of frustration for the boys, and many of the crews, as the unseasonable weather pattern in the mid-Atlantic takes hold again. All bets are off again, as we wait to see what kind of hand the boys are dealt and how they respond to these difficult conditions. With only a few miles separating SOM from OS and RW, it’s all down to who is fastest in recognizing the change in conditions that allow further progress west. So far the boys have been very quick of the mark each time the winds have turned … let’s hope they are still on the ball this time.
Stats today; 3 nm DMG, 39% of the fleet average of 7 nm, gaining on 4 ahead (where the adverse winds were felt earlier and more strongly) and just 2 astern. Worrying news via other race followers that the boys may only have 14 days of food left on board. This is a serious concern, since on recent progress they still have 3 weeks of work ahead of them. Pity it was only bog rolls they got re-provisioned with!
In the 12 hours to 01:00 today, SOM made 7 nm DMG, RW made 5 and OS lost 1 nm. Tracks show that many boats are on sea anchors again, with strong adverse winds being experienced by the leading boats. The boys must have been putting in another heroic effort against wind and swell yesterday as they have managed to limit their northerly drift, unlike many other boats. DM ahead has been pushed almost a degree north over the last 3 days.
Sent at 05:58 GMT;
01:00.ANOTHR HEROIC EFFRT GUYS!YR12HR DMG 7NM, RW5, OS MINUS 1. MANY ON ANCHRS NOW. BOATS WELL AHED HVE WORST OF IT.XX
Received at 10:47 GMT; AT SA SINCE 3AM, BUT FINALLY MOVING S AT JUST UNDER 1KNT! WIND & SWELL FROM S, SO MUST B SUB SRFC CRNT. SA = sea anchor.
13:00, 25th February – end of Day 52
Yet another day of frustration for the boys, and many of the crews, as the unseasonable weather pattern in the mid-Atlantic takes hold again. All bets are off again, as we wait to see what kind of hand the boys are dealt and how they respond to these difficult conditions. With only a few miles separating SOM from OS and RW, it’s all down to who is fastest in recognizing the change in conditions that allow further progress west. So far the boys have been very quick of the mark each time the winds have turned … let’s hope they are still on the ball this time.
Stats today; 3 nm DMG, 39% of the fleet average of 7 nm, gaining on 4 ahead (where the adverse winds were felt earlier and more strongly) and just 2 astern. Worrying news via other race followers that the boys may only have 14 days of food left on board. This is a serious concern, since on recent progress they still have 3 weeks of work ahead of them. Pity it was only bog rolls they got re-provisioned with!
Day 51
BACK ON SEA ANCHOR! BEGINNING TO THINK VERY CAREFULLY ABOUT RATIONS. PLENTY OF FOOD NOW BUT TRIP IS TAKING MUCH LONGER THAN EXPECTED.
OVER 800 MILES TO GO BUT FEELS LIKE THE HOME STRETCH! TRYING TO GAIN A COUPLE OF PLACES IN MEANTIME.
Despite the continuing difficult conditions at their location, in the last 24 hrs SOM halved the lead of their two target boats – RW and OS – and now have them clearly in their sights. It seems that the adverse winds may be quite localized, because elsewhere in the fleet DMGs in the 40s to 50s were not uncommon. The boys made 31 nm today, just 81% of the fleet average of 38 nm. Chasing boats EX, NY and NF gained on SOM today, but are still 21 to 35 nm adrift – close enough to keep the pressure on but no need to raise that spectre just yet!
Received at 14:54 GMT;
WINDS HERE COMING DIRECTLY FROM S. WORKING S AS SWELL ALLOWS. AIMING 4 17.
and at 15:20 GMT;
MSG CUT AT JJ WILL LAND... HOWS YOUR BK SELLING? X
Sent at 18:22 GMT;
JJ LANDS THURS–NOW JUST54M2GO!2QB NXT WK. RW NOW 5M AHD, OS10-HALVED SINCE YESTDY.GOOD EFFORT GUYS!SALES UPDTE APRIL.XX
and at 20:01 GMT;
C U R FIGHTNG HARD GAINST NW DRIFT. RW,OS LESS SUCCESSFUL.MESSY WINDS NXT2DAYS-S,SW,W,N.NRML SRVICE RESUMED SAT ABOUT12UTC.XX
BACK ON SEA ANCHOR! BEGINNING TO THINK VERY CAREFULLY ABOUT RATIONS. PLENTY OF FOOD NOW BUT TRIP IS TAKING MUCH LONGER THAN EXPECTED.
OVER 800 MILES TO GO BUT FEELS LIKE THE HOME STRETCH! TRYING TO GAIN A COUPLE OF PLACES IN MEANTIME.
Despite the continuing difficult conditions at their location, in the last 24 hrs SOM halved the lead of their two target boats – RW and OS – and now have them clearly in their sights. It seems that the adverse winds may be quite localized, because elsewhere in the fleet DMGs in the 40s to 50s were not uncommon. The boys made 31 nm today, just 81% of the fleet average of 38 nm. Chasing boats EX, NY and NF gained on SOM today, but are still 21 to 35 nm adrift – close enough to keep the pressure on but no need to raise that spectre just yet!
Received at 14:54 GMT;
WINDS HERE COMING DIRECTLY FROM S. WORKING S AS SWELL ALLOWS. AIMING 4 17.
and at 15:20 GMT;
MSG CUT AT JJ WILL LAND... HOWS YOUR BK SELLING? X
Sent at 18:22 GMT;
JJ LANDS THURS–NOW JUST54M2GO!2QB NXT WK. RW NOW 5M AHD, OS10-HALVED SINCE YESTDY.GOOD EFFORT GUYS!SALES UPDTE APRIL.XX
and at 20:01 GMT;
C U R FIGHTNG HARD GAINST NW DRIFT. RW,OS LESS SUCCESSFUL.MESSY WINDS NXT2DAYS-S,SW,W,N.NRML SRVICE RESUMED SAT ABOUT12UTC.XX
07:00, 23rd February – Day 50
Sent at 08:43 GMT;
7:00.13. XLNT PROGRS, WELLDONE!11.OS-18DMGAHEAD,22M250T.RW10AHD,15M,231.U. EX24AFT!28,97.NY42,50,81.NF45,52,92.WATERY DESERT4CASTABOVE17N!XX ... or a watery dessert according to the Woodvale news page today!
13:00, 23rd February – end of Day 50
SOM held on well to 13th place today, adding a very impressive 18 nm to their lead on EX and 19 nm on NY. Stats for the day; 39.3 nm vs 39.7 for the fleet, reduced RW and OS to respective leads of 11 and 21 nm DG from 27 and 24 nm yesterday. The boys have pulled themselves impressively out of the sub-30 nm hole that EX, NY and NF were still languishing in at 13:00.
Received at 14:27 GMT;
GOOD TO HAVE A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD AT LAST! HOW FAR ARE VOC? WIND LIGHTER SO HEADING S AGAIN.
Sent at 18:22 GMT;
VC IS A BIG ASK!WAS GONNA WAIT TILL YOU GOT THE OTHER2B4MENTION THEM! RW AND OS NOW JUST 11 AND 21M. VC IS 96 :-( STILL AT16N30.XX
... and at 18:40 GMT;
CONDITNS WILL CONTINUE2FAVOUR STHLY BOATS.U MUST GET BELOW17N BETTER 16N45 WHILE WINDS ALLOW.1JJ WILL LAND THURS,2QB NXT WK.XX
ETA has now moved firmly into the week of 15th March, with today’s estimate being 16th and the 5-day average pointing to the 19th. So much for the 10th plus or minus 2 days estimated just 6 days ago! I’m gonna stop estimating an uncertainty range henceforth, and give thanks that I never pursued a career in meteorology!
Sent at 08:43 GMT;
7:00.13. XLNT PROGRS, WELLDONE!11.OS-18DMGAHEAD,22M250T.RW10AHD,15M,231.U. EX24AFT!28,97.NY42,50,81.NF45,52,92.WATERY DESERT4CASTABOVE17N!XX ... or a watery dessert according to the Woodvale news page today!
13:00, 23rd February – end of Day 50
SOM held on well to 13th place today, adding a very impressive 18 nm to their lead on EX and 19 nm on NY. Stats for the day; 39.3 nm vs 39.7 for the fleet, reduced RW and OS to respective leads of 11 and 21 nm DG from 27 and 24 nm yesterday. The boys have pulled themselves impressively out of the sub-30 nm hole that EX, NY and NF were still languishing in at 13:00.
Received at 14:27 GMT;
GOOD TO HAVE A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD AT LAST! HOW FAR ARE VOC? WIND LIGHTER SO HEADING S AGAIN.
Sent at 18:22 GMT;
VC IS A BIG ASK!WAS GONNA WAIT TILL YOU GOT THE OTHER2B4MENTION THEM! RW AND OS NOW JUST 11 AND 21M. VC IS 96 :-( STILL AT16N30.XX
... and at 18:40 GMT;
CONDITNS WILL CONTINUE2FAVOUR STHLY BOATS.U MUST GET BELOW17N BETTER 16N45 WHILE WINDS ALLOW.1JJ WILL LAND THURS,2QB NXT WK.XX
ETA has now moved firmly into the week of 15th March, with today’s estimate being 16th and the 5-day average pointing to the 19th. So much for the 10th plus or minus 2 days estimated just 6 days ago! I’m gonna stop estimating an uncertainty range henceforth, and give thanks that I never pursued a career in meteorology!
19:00, 21st February – Day 49
Received 19:02 GMT;
DMG 24 AT 112 IS ODD WAS 30+ AT 260. FLWING EX LAST NIGHT. THEY MUST HAVE DONE MORE THAN 1!
... and at 19:04;
HEADING S. BESET BY SOUTHERLIES. AT THIS RATE WELL RUN OUT OFF FOOD! XX
Sent at 20:09 GMT;
2CRYPTIC?112 WAS PERCENT OF FLEET AVG! EX DID 18M DMG TO 13:00,U DID 37. 1 WAS THEIR LEAD. RW WAS 27M AHEAD. UVE 80DAYS FOOD?XX
Received at 06:27 GMT;
AH! JUST PASSED WITHIN HALF MILE OF EX. 272M SHOULD GET US TO 17 IN 3 DAYS. X
13:00, 22nd February – end of Day 49
One more step up the leader board today to 13th place, as SOM moved ahead of EX for the 3rd time this month – briefly overtaking them on 3rd and 7th Feb. Overall not a great day for the boys, or the two crews ahead (RW, OS) or behind (EX, NY) – these 5 boats average under 25 nm compared with a fleet average of 37 nm. They seem to have fallen into a pocket of weak to adverse winds that are not shown on the PassageWeather.com maps on the Woodvale site. Hopefully this will not last too long. Will update the 5-day average ETA tomorrow, but it’s not looking good.
Elsewhere in the fleet, JJ now has under 200 nm to go to the finish, the boats up front continue to pump out DMG24s in the 50 to 60nm range, while poor old Tess at the back has averaged just 17 nm DMG to date and at this rate will be rowing until the 7th of June – dangerously close to the hurricane season!
Received 19:02 GMT;
DMG 24 AT 112 IS ODD WAS 30+ AT 260. FLWING EX LAST NIGHT. THEY MUST HAVE DONE MORE THAN 1!
... and at 19:04;
HEADING S. BESET BY SOUTHERLIES. AT THIS RATE WELL RUN OUT OFF FOOD! XX
Sent at 20:09 GMT;
2CRYPTIC?112 WAS PERCENT OF FLEET AVG! EX DID 18M DMG TO 13:00,U DID 37. 1 WAS THEIR LEAD. RW WAS 27M AHEAD. UVE 80DAYS FOOD?XX
Received at 06:27 GMT;
AH! JUST PASSED WITHIN HALF MILE OF EX. 272M SHOULD GET US TO 17 IN 3 DAYS. X
13:00, 22nd February – end of Day 49
One more step up the leader board today to 13th place, as SOM moved ahead of EX for the 3rd time this month – briefly overtaking them on 3rd and 7th Feb. Overall not a great day for the boys, or the two crews ahead (RW, OS) or behind (EX, NY) – these 5 boats average under 25 nm compared with a fleet average of 37 nm. They seem to have fallen into a pocket of weak to adverse winds that are not shown on the PassageWeather.com maps on the Woodvale site. Hopefully this will not last too long. Will update the 5-day average ETA tomorrow, but it’s not looking good.
Elsewhere in the fleet, JJ now has under 200 nm to go to the finish, the boats up front continue to pump out DMG24s in the 50 to 60nm range, while poor old Tess at the back has averaged just 17 nm DMG to date and at this rate will be rowing until the 7th of June – dangerously close to the hurricane season!
13:00, 21st February – end of Day 48
Stats for the day; 38 nm, 112%, gaining on 7 ahead and 6 astern, including all the nearest followers; took 20 nm out of EX’s lead and 14 out of RW’s so looking good for a possible move up the leader board tomorrow.
Unfortunately the ETA is now slipping into the 3rd week of March; today’s prediction is 16th and 5-day average is 15th.
Sent at 15:33 GMT;
13:00.14.11RW-27DMG,34M251T.OS-24,32M246.EX-1,5M203.U.NY+20,23,79.PS48,56,98. NF49,57,92.YR DMG24WAS112% OF FLEET AVG2DAY-WELL DONE!XX
Stats for the day; 38 nm, 112%, gaining on 7 ahead and 6 astern, including all the nearest followers; took 20 nm out of EX’s lead and 14 out of RW’s so looking good for a possible move up the leader board tomorrow.
Unfortunately the ETA is now slipping into the 3rd week of March; today’s prediction is 16th and 5-day average is 15th.
Sent at 15:33 GMT;
13:00.14.11RW-27DMG,34M251T.OS-24,32M246.EX-1,5M203.U.NY+20,23,79.PS48,56,98. NF49,57,92.YR DMG24WAS112% OF FLEET AVG2DAY-WELL DONE!XX
13:00, 20th February – end of Day 47
Progress over that last couple of days has shown that it’s not all downhill from here – there may well be a few more low DMG days to go before the boys can enjoy that cold beer on the beach in Antigua. For a while last night the chart suggested that NY was back on his sea anchor, although it could have been a GPS glitch because the retrograde step was not visible on the progress map at 13:00.
The stats for the day; 35 nm DMG24, 105% of the fleet, pulling away from NY and closing in on EX, their lead now down from 66 nm on Tuesday to 21 at 13:00 today. Notably VC has averaged 50 nm DMG for the last 5 straight days vs 43 for SOM – so is definitely benefiting from the lower latitude.
Received 14:23 GMT;
HAS LTD INT SAID ANYTHING ABOUT THEIR RUN IN WITH A MARLIN ON THEIR WEBSITE? AMAZING! POOR MARLIN.
Sent at 15:50 GMT;
NO.WHAT WAS A MARLIN DOING ON THEIR WEBSITE? VISIONS OF THEOLDMANANDTHESEA! 13EX NOW JUST -21DMG. OS-30. GO GET’EM.
Received 14:23 GMT;
MARLIN LAUNCHED ITSELF AT THEIR BOAT. PUT A HOLE IN THE HULL AND LEFT ITS BEAK IN THE SIDE OF THEIR BOAT!
Sent at 15:50 GMT;
OUCH!FINE TROPHY!!DO HEAD DOWN TO 17N.EXTRA HALF DEG S WILL STILL PAY DIVIDENDS OVER THE LAST WEEKS.CONGRATS ON THE 1K MARK!XX
07:00, 20th February – Day 47
Progress at 01:00 showed the boys at 999 nm DMG to the finish line with a 1.2 knot VMG24, so they must have crossed the 1000 nm line just after midnight.
Sent at 08:10 GMT;
NY,HAD ENUF OF THE NORTH,NOW HEADING 200T!CROSSED YR TRACK10M AFT. SUGGEST WAYPT 17N47W,252T.VC DID50DMG24TO07:00,STH IS GOOD!
Progress over that last couple of days has shown that it’s not all downhill from here – there may well be a few more low DMG days to go before the boys can enjoy that cold beer on the beach in Antigua. For a while last night the chart suggested that NY was back on his sea anchor, although it could have been a GPS glitch because the retrograde step was not visible on the progress map at 13:00.
The stats for the day; 35 nm DMG24, 105% of the fleet, pulling away from NY and closing in on EX, their lead now down from 66 nm on Tuesday to 21 at 13:00 today. Notably VC has averaged 50 nm DMG for the last 5 straight days vs 43 for SOM – so is definitely benefiting from the lower latitude.
Received 14:23 GMT;
HAS LTD INT SAID ANYTHING ABOUT THEIR RUN IN WITH A MARLIN ON THEIR WEBSITE? AMAZING! POOR MARLIN.
Sent at 15:50 GMT;
NO.WHAT WAS A MARLIN DOING ON THEIR WEBSITE? VISIONS OF THEOLDMANANDTHESEA! 13EX NOW JUST -21DMG. OS-30. GO GET’EM.
Received 14:23 GMT;
MARLIN LAUNCHED ITSELF AT THEIR BOAT. PUT A HOLE IN THE HULL AND LEFT ITS BEAK IN THE SIDE OF THEIR BOAT!
Sent at 15:50 GMT;
OUCH!FINE TROPHY!!DO HEAD DOWN TO 17N.EXTRA HALF DEG S WILL STILL PAY DIVIDENDS OVER THE LAST WEEKS.CONGRATS ON THE 1K MARK!XX
07:00, 20th February – Day 47
Progress at 01:00 showed the boys at 999 nm DMG to the finish line with a 1.2 knot VMG24, so they must have crossed the 1000 nm line just after midnight.
Sent at 08:10 GMT;
NY,HAD ENUF OF THE NORTH,NOW HEADING 200T!CROSSED YR TRACK10M AFT. SUGGEST WAYPT 17N47W,252T.VC DID50DMG24TO07:00,STH IS GOOD!
13:00, 19th February – end of Day 46
Not a good one for the boys today, they and NY seem to have hit a pocket of adverse winds and are having to work hard to make progress. Just 30 nm knocked off vs 41 for the fleet. ETA slipping to the right …
Received at 14:16 GMT;
SOUTHERLY WIND & SWELLS TODAY. MISSED END OF MSG AFTER BOOKIN... HOW ARE VOC DOING?
Sent at 14:40 GMT;
14.U TOOK NY AGAIN!TRY NOT2DRIFT2FAR N.10VOC-59DMG AT16N32 45W10.OS-33,EX-35.MSG ENDED..BOOKING FLIGHTS NXT WK!XX
Received at 18:24 GMT;
WOW THATS SOUTH. WINDS HERE NOW WESTERLY. LOST END OF MSG AGAIN! WHAT DATES U TRAVELING? X
Sent at 14:40 GMT;
NY NOW ON C ANCHR!VC 2ND MOST STHLY.KK AT16N13 48W28!GOOD2GET2 17N.NO DATES YET,BOOKING NXT WK.1K MILESTONE2MORO!XX
Not a good one for the boys today, they and NY seem to have hit a pocket of adverse winds and are having to work hard to make progress. Just 30 nm knocked off vs 41 for the fleet. ETA slipping to the right …
Received at 14:16 GMT;
SOUTHERLY WIND & SWELLS TODAY. MISSED END OF MSG AFTER BOOKIN... HOW ARE VOC DOING?
Sent at 14:40 GMT;
14.U TOOK NY AGAIN!TRY NOT2DRIFT2FAR N.10VOC-59DMG AT16N32 45W10.OS-33,EX-35.MSG ENDED..BOOKING FLIGHTS NXT WK!XX
Received at 18:24 GMT;
WOW THATS SOUTH. WINDS HERE NOW WESTERLY. LOST END OF MSG AGAIN! WHAT DATES U TRAVELING? X
Sent at 14:40 GMT;
NY NOW ON C ANCHR!VC 2ND MOST STHLY.KK AT16N13 48W28!GOOD2GET2 17N.NO DATES YET,BOOKING NXT WK.1K MILESTONE2MORO!XX
13:00, 17th February – end of Day 44
And from par, back to top form on Day 44, with 56 nm DMG24 (3rd best of the race), 119% of the fleet’s average, taking 14th back from NY and gaining 7 nm on OS, 8 on VC and an amazing 23 on EX, the three boats ahead. With a couple of days of steady progress, the latest ETA is now 10th March. To put the uncertainty range around that … if they average their best ever 59 nm DMG24 from here to the finish, they will arrive at 23:30 on the 7th March! if they average 57 nm, the mean of their top 10% of days, it will be 15:00 on the 8th, if they average 45.5 nm, the mean of all days above 30 nm, they will be there just in time for elevenses on the 13th. So, let’s call it 10th March plus or minus 2 days.
Sent at 17:50 GMT;
13:00.11EX-43DMG,49M,268T.VC-35,105,205.OS-34,38,273.U.NY0,10,358.PS+45,60,124.U GAINED 7 ON OS,8 ON VC,23 ON EX 2DAY. RACE IS ON AGAIN!XX
And from par, back to top form on Day 44, with 56 nm DMG24 (3rd best of the race), 119% of the fleet’s average, taking 14th back from NY and gaining 7 nm on OS, 8 on VC and an amazing 23 on EX, the three boats ahead. With a couple of days of steady progress, the latest ETA is now 10th March. To put the uncertainty range around that … if they average their best ever 59 nm DMG24 from here to the finish, they will arrive at 23:30 on the 7th March! if they average 57 nm, the mean of their top 10% of days, it will be 15:00 on the 8th, if they average 45.5 nm, the mean of all days above 30 nm, they will be there just in time for elevenses on the 13th. So, let’s call it 10th March plus or minus 2 days.
Sent at 17:50 GMT;
13:00.11EX-43DMG,49M,268T.VC-35,105,205.OS-34,38,273.U.NY0,10,358.PS+45,60,124.U GAINED 7 ON OS,8 ON VC,23 ON EX 2DAY. RACE IS ON AGAIN!XX
DAY 43
GOT CLOSE TO NYAMEZELA SO WE MET UP AND HAD A CHAT. PETER (SOLO ROWER) SEEMED V LONELY AFTER 6 WKS AT SEA!
GOT CLOSE TO NYAMEZELA SO WE MET UP AND HAD A CHAT. PETER (SOLO ROWER) SEEMED V LONELY AFTER 6 WKS AT SEA!
DAY 42
FELL ASLEEP ON MY NIGHT SHIFT. WOKE UP 2 FIND I WAS STILL ROWING AT FULL PACE!
FELL ASLEEP ON MY NIGHT SHIFT. WOKE UP 2 FIND I WAS STILL ROWING AT FULL PACE!
Personal Reflections
With Adam & Jimmy’s trip dedicated to raise funds for Save the Children, Alison asked me to write a bit about a trip I made last week to some of our work in Niger and Nigeria. View More..
With Adam & Jimmy’s trip dedicated to raise funds for Save the Children, Alison asked me to write a bit about a trip I made last week to some of our work in Niger and Nigeria. View More..
07:00, 15th February – Day 42
Checking progress after the 07:00 update it was pretty clear that SOM and NY were going to be within shouting distance during the day.
Sent at 08:40 GMT;
07:00.14.U MAY SEE NY CA.2M BEARING 120T TODAY.YOUR BEARING 235T TO 240T LOOKING GOOD.TOP 19 NOW PASSED HALFWAY.1JJ650M TOGO. 2QB950M. XX
13:00, 15th February – end of Day 42
Amazing! After 42 days at sea, 1440 nm from the start and 1190 to the finish, SOM and NY met in mid Atlantic late this morning.
Received at 14:37 GMT;
WE DID! BOY WAS HE GLAD TO SEE US. V LONELY BUT WELL. SWAM OVER AND SHOOK HANDS, EXCHANGED GIFTS.
By 13:00 he was 1 nm ahead on a slightly more northerly track – the third time they have traded places in the race. Now all they have to do is catch him up again! Overall a return to great form today, clocking up 94% of the fleet average DMG24, while also shedding over half a degree of latitude (wish they’d done that last week). On a distance traveled basis they made 113% of the fleet average (still counting the top 21), better than half the crews ahead, and that including the social break noted above, so definitely putting in major effort. Their aggressive move south is a bit of an overcompensation methinks – my advice was 18N, preferably 17N45, by Friday. At this rate they’ll be there tomorrow! Looks like the last two boats in the "top 21" TP and SMA will also pass the half way during Day 43.
Sent at 18:00 GMT;
13:00.15.MUSTB NICE2C HIM!NOW ALL U HAVE 2DO IS CATCHIM AGAIN!GOOD PUSH S XLNT.SUGGEST WAYPT17N30 44W, CA 256T. WILL PUT U SOUTH OF MOST.XX
Checking progress after the 07:00 update it was pretty clear that SOM and NY were going to be within shouting distance during the day.
Sent at 08:40 GMT;
07:00.14.U MAY SEE NY CA.2M BEARING 120T TODAY.YOUR BEARING 235T TO 240T LOOKING GOOD.TOP 19 NOW PASSED HALFWAY.1JJ650M TOGO. 2QB950M. XX
13:00, 15th February – end of Day 42
Amazing! After 42 days at sea, 1440 nm from the start and 1190 to the finish, SOM and NY met in mid Atlantic late this morning.
Received at 14:37 GMT;
WE DID! BOY WAS HE GLAD TO SEE US. V LONELY BUT WELL. SWAM OVER AND SHOOK HANDS, EXCHANGED GIFTS.
By 13:00 he was 1 nm ahead on a slightly more northerly track – the third time they have traded places in the race. Now all they have to do is catch him up again! Overall a return to great form today, clocking up 94% of the fleet average DMG24, while also shedding over half a degree of latitude (wish they’d done that last week). On a distance traveled basis they made 113% of the fleet average (still counting the top 21), better than half the crews ahead, and that including the social break noted above, so definitely putting in major effort. Their aggressive move south is a bit of an overcompensation methinks – my advice was 18N, preferably 17N45, by Friday. At this rate they’ll be there tomorrow! Looks like the last two boats in the "top 21" TP and SMA will also pass the half way during Day 43.
Sent at 18:00 GMT;
13:00.15.MUSTB NICE2C HIM!NOW ALL U HAVE 2DO IS CATCHIM AGAIN!GOOD PUSH S XLNT.SUGGEST WAYPT17N30 44W, CA 256T. WILL PUT U SOUTH OF MOST.XX
07:00, 14th February – Day 41
Progress to 07:00 indeed shows that SOM is moving pretty much due south, having traced a neat ampersand (&) with their course over the last day and a half!
Sent at 08:53 GMT;
07:00.14.TURN2WAYPT WHEN CONDITIONS ALLOW. U+NY BOTH HEADING DUE S. JUST NEED2GET BELOW18, PREF17N45 BY FRI 00UTC,WITH MIN LOSS OF DMG.XX
The Friday deadline is set by the PassageWeather.com forecast, which shows another low passing through at the end of the week, with more erratic, contrary winds above 18N.
13:00, 14th February – end of Day 41
The boys managed to pull back into double figures today with 14 nm made good. Although just 68% of the fleet average, it includes nearly half a degree of progress to the south, that will insure against any further troubles ahead. The 4-day slide down the leader board from 11th to 14th was arrested today, with SOM holding on to 14th place, and keeping MA 6 and NY 12 nm astern. However, MA made double SOM’s DMG24 and may well be up to them soon. The boys held 14th for a week from 14th to 21st January – let’s hope they do it again from the 14th Feb! ETAs are off the chart again due to the weather – if progress holds through this week I’ll make another update come Friday.
Progress to 07:00 indeed shows that SOM is moving pretty much due south, having traced a neat ampersand (&) with their course over the last day and a half!
Sent at 08:53 GMT;
07:00.14.TURN2WAYPT WHEN CONDITIONS ALLOW. U+NY BOTH HEADING DUE S. JUST NEED2GET BELOW18, PREF17N45 BY FRI 00UTC,WITH MIN LOSS OF DMG.XX
The Friday deadline is set by the PassageWeather.com forecast, which shows another low passing through at the end of the week, with more erratic, contrary winds above 18N.
13:00, 14th February – end of Day 41
The boys managed to pull back into double figures today with 14 nm made good. Although just 68% of the fleet average, it includes nearly half a degree of progress to the south, that will insure against any further troubles ahead. The 4-day slide down the leader board from 11th to 14th was arrested today, with SOM holding on to 14th place, and keeping MA 6 and NY 12 nm astern. However, MA made double SOM’s DMG24 and may well be up to them soon. The boys held 14th for a week from 14th to 21st January – let’s hope they do it again from the 14th Feb! ETAs are off the chart again due to the weather – if progress holds through this week I’ll make another update come Friday.
01:00, 13th February – Day 40
Looks like the boys are now starting to pay a big price for their relative northerly position. Many in the northern half of the fleet have slowed significantly since the 13:00 update, with SOM and KK being the only two to turn in negative DMGs. VC has maintained a 37 nm DMG24 to 01:00 and have now stormed ahead, gaining 24 nm!! since 13:00 yesterday. The following eloquent quote, late yesterday from another avid race follower, pretty well sums it up … "Arrghhhhh!"
Received at 02:57 GMT;
BEEN AT SEA ANCHOR SINCE FRI14.00 WHEN SOLO ROWING SLOWED TO -VE KNTS.
and 03:03 GMT;
HOW LONG DO YOU THINK THESE CONDITIONS WILL LAST? ANY OTHERS ON SEA ANCHOR?
Sent at 06:44 GMT;
07:00.14.ONLY U+KK ON–VE DMG24, BUT MOST AHEAD HAVE SLOWED. VC STILL AT FULL SPEED,NOW 17M AHEAD :-(( EXPECT WIND2TURN N CA 21UTC. MORE… FRC1 NE BY MONDAY,UP2FRC2TUES.U MUST GET BELOW 18N!SAME CONDITIONS AGAIN AT19N BY NEXT FRI+EXPECT MORE LOWS LATER. ALL FEELING4U GUYS!XX
13:00, 13th February – end of Day 40
The boys have lost an average of 17 nm on the fleet over the last 24 hrs, gaining only on one boat ahead – KK, and that by just 2 nm. Zooming in on their track it looks like they have turned west and started to make progress again in the last couple of hours before this update, so the worst may hopefully be over. Received at 14:19 GMT, as if in reply to me writing that … OFF SEA ANCHOR AT 10.30. MAKING 1.5KNTS ROWING 2UP INTO WIND AND SWELL.
Replied at 15:25 GMT;
SUSPECTED AS MUCH FROM YR TRACK AT13:00.ONLY VC AHEAD MAKING1.5KTS, AVG IS 0.6 LAST24HRS.13OS27NM,0.6KT.U.15NY-8NM,0.4KT.WAYPT18N43W!!XX It will be interesting to see if the frustration of knowing that they’ve lost half a day’s distance on the fleet will make them take heed this time.
Looks like the boys are now starting to pay a big price for their relative northerly position. Many in the northern half of the fleet have slowed significantly since the 13:00 update, with SOM and KK being the only two to turn in negative DMGs. VC has maintained a 37 nm DMG24 to 01:00 and have now stormed ahead, gaining 24 nm!! since 13:00 yesterday. The following eloquent quote, late yesterday from another avid race follower, pretty well sums it up … "Arrghhhhh!"
Received at 02:57 GMT;
BEEN AT SEA ANCHOR SINCE FRI14.00 WHEN SOLO ROWING SLOWED TO -VE KNTS.
and 03:03 GMT;
HOW LONG DO YOU THINK THESE CONDITIONS WILL LAST? ANY OTHERS ON SEA ANCHOR?
Sent at 06:44 GMT;
07:00.14.ONLY U+KK ON–VE DMG24, BUT MOST AHEAD HAVE SLOWED. VC STILL AT FULL SPEED,NOW 17M AHEAD :-(( EXPECT WIND2TURN N CA 21UTC. MORE… FRC1 NE BY MONDAY,UP2FRC2TUES.U MUST GET BELOW 18N!SAME CONDITIONS AGAIN AT19N BY NEXT FRI+EXPECT MORE LOWS LATER. ALL FEELING4U GUYS!XX
13:00, 13th February – end of Day 40
The boys have lost an average of 17 nm on the fleet over the last 24 hrs, gaining only on one boat ahead – KK, and that by just 2 nm. Zooming in on their track it looks like they have turned west and started to make progress again in the last couple of hours before this update, so the worst may hopefully be over. Received at 14:19 GMT, as if in reply to me writing that … OFF SEA ANCHOR AT 10.30. MAKING 1.5KNTS ROWING 2UP INTO WIND AND SWELL.
Replied at 15:25 GMT;
SUSPECTED AS MUCH FROM YR TRACK AT13:00.ONLY VC AHEAD MAKING1.5KTS, AVG IS 0.6 LAST24HRS.13OS27NM,0.6KT.U.15NY-8NM,0.4KT.WAYPT18N43W!!XX It will be interesting to see if the frustration of knowing that they’ve lost half a day’s distance on the fleet will make them take heed this time.
13:00, 12th February – end of Day 39
Oh dear! Worst day of the race so far for our boys relative to the fleet, with their 26 nm beating only KK (making just 4 nm!) and NF (23 nm) in the top 21, and a full 16 nm behind the 42 nm fleet average. Ouch! I fear that their northerly position is going to cost them dearly over the next couple of days, as VC is now just 7 nm astern and at 16N53’ likely to be very much less (perhaps even completely un)affected by the depression passing through to the north. OS passed SOM again today, to end to day back in the same 12th & 13th positions that they occupied for most of the second half of January. Weather over the next couple of days (and who knows how many times over the next month) is going to favour southerly boats. The top 6 positions in the race have seen no changes since 8th Feb, although there is still a surprising degree of change in the rest of the fleet (Head of the Race chart for 12th Feb attached).
Sent at 17:40 GMT;
13:00.13:-(OS PASSD AGAIN2DAY. TRYHARD2MAKE MORE NM S OR U WILL PAY FOR YR NTHRLY POSITN. VC–7NM AT17N40W LIKELY2PASS U TMORROW.ARGH!XX
Oh dear! Worst day of the race so far for our boys relative to the fleet, with their 26 nm beating only KK (making just 4 nm!) and NF (23 nm) in the top 21, and a full 16 nm behind the 42 nm fleet average. Ouch! I fear that their northerly position is going to cost them dearly over the next couple of days, as VC is now just 7 nm astern and at 16N53’ likely to be very much less (perhaps even completely un)affected by the depression passing through to the north. OS passed SOM again today, to end to day back in the same 12th & 13th positions that they occupied for most of the second half of January. Weather over the next couple of days (and who knows how many times over the next month) is going to favour southerly boats. The top 6 positions in the race have seen no changes since 8th Feb, although there is still a surprising degree of change in the rest of the fleet (Head of the Race chart for 12th Feb attached).
Sent at 17:40 GMT;
13:00.13:-(OS PASSD AGAIN2DAY. TRYHARD2MAKE MORE NM S OR U WILL PAY FOR YR NTHRLY POSITN. VC–7NM AT17N40W LIKELY2PASS U TMORROW.ARGH!XX
Day 39
WHERE ARE THE TRADE WINDS? WINDS SENDING US IN THE WRONG DIRECTION AGAIN.
WHERE ARE THE TRADE WINDS? WINDS SENDING US IN THE WRONG DIRECTION AGAIN.
Day 38
SURELY WE WILL GET SOME TRADE WINDS SOON! THE ONLY WIND WEVE HAD RECENTY IS DUE 2 R HIGH CALORIE DIET.
SURELY WE WILL GET SOME TRADE WINDS SOON! THE ONLY WIND WEVE HAD RECENTY IS DUE 2 R HIGH CALORIE DIET.
Day 36
APPEARANCE IS BEGINING TO CHANGE. WE NOW LOOK LIKE RED BEARD THE PIRATE AND MING THE MERCILESS JNR
APPEARANCE IS BEGINING TO CHANGE. WE NOW LOOK LIKE RED BEARD THE PIRATE AND MING THE MERCILESS JNR
01:00, 8th February – Day 35
Awake at 2:30am with an urgent need to check on progress … Now pretty clear from the 01:00 update that, although the boys have been doing well, those further south are doing better, and may well be putting in a lot less effort! Forecast shows that this high pressure ridge is going to persist, and conditions could get worse later in the week, so some strong indications that they need to get back to the south of the fleet.
Sent at 02:35 GMT;
GOODMORNG! 11:-( EX CAME BACK! BOATS STH OF 19N HAVE 0.2 TO 0.3 KNOTS FROM WIND. LIKELY2PERSIST. 12VC18! SUGGEST WAYPOINT 18N 40W.XX
13:00, 8th February – end of Day 35
Hmm! I believe, in the parlance of the financial industry, this is what is commonly referred to as "a reversion to the mean", the day that deflates your belief that you could actually beat the index! The boys lost ground on every boat in the top 21 save one – OS – turning in a hard earned 46 nm against a fleet average of 55 nm. Ouch! OS, a little further south, managed just 41 nm. Over the last 5 days SOM has delivered 231 nm against a fleet average of 232. It’s pretty clear that the local conditions are now greatly favouring boats further south.
Sent the following at 14:17 GMT;
11.TOP20BOATS ALL SOUTH OF U GAINED10NMAVERAGE ON U LAST24HRS.UNLESS UHAVE PRBLM,MUST B DUE2WIND N CURNT.NEED TO GET SOUTH!XX This will seem costly in the short term – VC and RA, just 13 and 21 nm adrift, will certainly pass them – but, with 4 weeks left to row, losing 10 nm a day could add up to an extra 6 days and more if another nasty low comes their way. I’m hoping that the 19:00 update will show they have turned onto a bearing close to 236T towards the suggested waypoint.
Awake at 2:30am with an urgent need to check on progress … Now pretty clear from the 01:00 update that, although the boys have been doing well, those further south are doing better, and may well be putting in a lot less effort! Forecast shows that this high pressure ridge is going to persist, and conditions could get worse later in the week, so some strong indications that they need to get back to the south of the fleet.
Sent at 02:35 GMT;
GOODMORNG! 11:-( EX CAME BACK! BOATS STH OF 19N HAVE 0.2 TO 0.3 KNOTS FROM WIND. LIKELY2PERSIST. 12VC18! SUGGEST WAYPOINT 18N 40W.XX
13:00, 8th February – end of Day 35
Hmm! I believe, in the parlance of the financial industry, this is what is commonly referred to as "a reversion to the mean", the day that deflates your belief that you could actually beat the index! The boys lost ground on every boat in the top 21 save one – OS – turning in a hard earned 46 nm against a fleet average of 55 nm. Ouch! OS, a little further south, managed just 41 nm. Over the last 5 days SOM has delivered 231 nm against a fleet average of 232. It’s pretty clear that the local conditions are now greatly favouring boats further south.
Sent the following at 14:17 GMT;
11.TOP20BOATS ALL SOUTH OF U GAINED10NMAVERAGE ON U LAST24HRS.UNLESS UHAVE PRBLM,MUST B DUE2WIND N CURNT.NEED TO GET SOUTH!XX This will seem costly in the short term – VC and RA, just 13 and 21 nm adrift, will certainly pass them – but, with 4 weeks left to row, losing 10 nm a day could add up to an extra 6 days and more if another nasty low comes their way. I’m hoping that the 19:00 update will show they have turned onto a bearing close to 236T towards the suggested waypoint.
Day 33
An even better day today, knocking off 38 nm DMG24, 109% of the fleet average, and taking back 11th position from OS – the 5th time these two boats have swapped positions in the race so far! The weather seems to be taking its toll on a few boats again. Crews at about 19N (including SOM) are sitting in a high pressure ridge at the southern extremity of the fierce depression still heading for NW Europe, while boats down at 18N are experiencing slightly more favourable conditions with following winds (see the DMG24s of VV and MA). Although the boys are well north at 19N58 they are doing very well in these conditions and gained once again on 5 boats ahead (including 22 nm on JJ – he must be having a sleep again!) and 6 astern.
With 5 days of steady progress since the bad weather hiatus, it’s time to update the ETA guesstimate again. Latest 5-day averaged ETA for SOM is now 9th March, just two days later than the estimate made on 23rd January. At that time I ventured to take off 10% of the remaining time for faster progress after the turn west and 5% for better weather! Well, the latter allowance was certainly ill judged, so I’m just going to stick with the base estimate this time. Putting an uncertainty range around that I’d say with reasonable confidence that it will be between 5th and 16th March … but I’m not offering odds!
An even better day today, knocking off 38 nm DMG24, 109% of the fleet average, and taking back 11th position from OS – the 5th time these two boats have swapped positions in the race so far! The weather seems to be taking its toll on a few boats again. Crews at about 19N (including SOM) are sitting in a high pressure ridge at the southern extremity of the fierce depression still heading for NW Europe, while boats down at 18N are experiencing slightly more favourable conditions with following winds (see the DMG24s of VV and MA). Although the boys are well north at 19N58 they are doing very well in these conditions and gained once again on 5 boats ahead (including 22 nm on JJ – he must be having a sleep again!) and 6 astern.
With 5 days of steady progress since the bad weather hiatus, it’s time to update the ETA guesstimate again. Latest 5-day averaged ETA for SOM is now 9th March, just two days later than the estimate made on 23rd January. At that time I ventured to take off 10% of the remaining time for faster progress after the turn west and 5% for better weather! Well, the latter allowance was certainly ill judged, so I’m just going to stick with the base estimate this time. Putting an uncertainty range around that I’d say with reasonable confidence that it will be between 5th and 16th March … but I’m not offering odds!
Day 32
Another good day for SOM, with a DMG24 of 46 nm, 98% of the fleet average, gaining distance on 5 boats ahead and 5 behind. The tussle between SOM, OS, EX and NY continues, with EX pulling ahead and passing OS to take 10th place while the boys dropped back to 12th by a couple of miles.
Sent at 18:03 GMT;
13:00UR12.AHEAD OS1NM,EX6HW14ASTERNNY5VOC36NF54.FORCE10AT44N45W!! ERRATIC FORCE1TO2 AT19N NEXT48HRS.JJ PASSED HALFWAY DAY30.U2SOONXX
Another good day for SOM, with a DMG24 of 46 nm, 98% of the fleet average, gaining distance on 5 boats ahead and 5 behind. The tussle between SOM, OS, EX and NY continues, with EX pulling ahead and passing OS to take 10th place while the boys dropped back to 12th by a couple of miles.
Sent at 18:03 GMT;
13:00UR12.AHEAD OS1NM,EX6HW14ASTERNNY5VOC36NF54.FORCE10AT44N45W!! ERRATIC FORCE1TO2 AT19N NEXT48HRS.JJ PASSED HALFWAY DAY30.U2SOONXX
Day 24
Received at 13:56 GMT;
YO! KEEPING MOTIVATED BY THINKING WHICH BOATS AHEAD. COULD YOU CONFIRM DISTANCE & BRNG OF 3 AHEAD. CONDITIONS LANGUID!
Sent at 16:29 GMT;
13:00UR11.BOAT,DMG,DIST,BRNG.8IS RW-26,84,201T.HW-11,30,203EX-2,85,90.U OS+8,10,106VC31,124,163NY36,42,94.U GAIN4NM ON EX,3ON HW LAST24HR
Received at 13:56 GMT;
YO! KEEPING MOTIVATED BY THINKING WHICH BOATS AHEAD. COULD YOU CONFIRM DISTANCE & BRNG OF 3 AHEAD. CONDITIONS LANGUID!
Sent at 16:29 GMT;
13:00UR11.BOAT,DMG,DIST,BRNG.8IS RW-26,84,201T.HW-11,30,203EX-2,85,90.U OS+8,10,106VC31,124,163NY36,42,94.U GAIN4NM ON EX,3ON HW LAST24HR
Day 30
SAW THE FIRST SHARK TODAY... THEYRE COMING! DIVING KNIVES AT THE READY.
GREAT RELIEF TO BE BACK ON THE OARS. and replied at 14:36 GMT; XELLENT RESTART!!V WELLDONE.13:00UR10=OS. AHEAD EX11NM,DM15. ASTERN HW1,NY6NF35VOC45. GT CIRCLE WAY TO GO!U DID WELL THRO THE WEATHER:-)
SAW THE FIRST SHARK TODAY... THEYRE COMING! DIVING KNIVES AT THE READY.
GREAT RELIEF TO BE BACK ON THE OARS. and replied at 14:36 GMT; XELLENT RESTART!!V WELLDONE.13:00UR10=OS. AHEAD EX11NM,DM15. ASTERN HW1,NY6NF35VOC45. GT CIRCLE WAY TO GO!U DID WELL THRO THE WEATHER:-)
Day 29
19:00, 1st February
So, VV took 6th place back from RW at about 18:00 and our boys have taken 12th from NY and should be back up to double figures in the right direction by tomorrow morning. HW is just 20nm ahead and still moving backwards, so who knows – 11th next? All but 5 of the top 23 are now into positive DMGs over the last 24hrs, although the average is still just 5nm.
01:00, 2nd February
Looks like the boys have had a very good restart, making the 5th best DMG24 to 07:00 – behind the top three boats plus VV – and taking 11th place from OS since yesterday evening! They gained over 10nm on 4 boats ahead and are now just 9nm behind HW, who are still recording negative a DMG24. They are within 20nm of 8th place, compared to 42nm on the 26th Jan, before the bad weather hit.
13:00, 2nd February
After taking a clear lead on OS, NY and HW at the 07:00 update SOM was briefly up to a clear 10th place and ended the day 10th equal with OS at 1680nm to the finish. Their DMG24 of 35.6nm was 5th in the fleet, and they have wisely started out smack on the great circle heading to maximize DMG from every mile rowed. OS, NY, HE and RA all rowed a greater distance, but made less DMG. With all the top 23 crews now making way, it’s time to sum up the winners and losers from the last week. At the top of the list (no surprises once again) is JJ, who was far enough west to be less affected by the low pressure system, and gained 93nm on the average position of the top 23 from 13:00 on 26th Jan to 13:00 2nd Feb. Next up MA, a full 2 degrees further south (at 18N) on 26th, had negative DMGs on two days only (just –4nm!) and gained 34nm on the fleet average over the same period. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to gain them a position, they have been 20th since 23rd Jan, so the extra miles to take the southerly route have not paid off … yet ! Next come a group comprising QB, RA, VV and SOM that gained 15 to 25 nm on the fleet; VV may be partly due to their push south starting early on 25th Jan (although they still accumulated a negative DMG of 30nm over 4 days, compared with just 21nm for SOM). However, I suspect that these four boats gained most for the simple reason that "when the going gets tough, the tough get going!" Certainly for SOM, the massive push they made into the weather on Day 23 and the punchy start on Day 29 were the main contributors to their gains. Character! Received the following at 12:17 GMT;
19:00, 1st February
So, VV took 6th place back from RW at about 18:00 and our boys have taken 12th from NY and should be back up to double figures in the right direction by tomorrow morning. HW is just 20nm ahead and still moving backwards, so who knows – 11th next? All but 5 of the top 23 are now into positive DMGs over the last 24hrs, although the average is still just 5nm.
01:00, 2nd February
Looks like the boys have had a very good restart, making the 5th best DMG24 to 07:00 – behind the top three boats plus VV – and taking 11th place from OS since yesterday evening! They gained over 10nm on 4 boats ahead and are now just 9nm behind HW, who are still recording negative a DMG24. They are within 20nm of 8th place, compared to 42nm on the 26th Jan, before the bad weather hit.
13:00, 2nd February
After taking a clear lead on OS, NY and HW at the 07:00 update SOM was briefly up to a clear 10th place and ended the day 10th equal with OS at 1680nm to the finish. Their DMG24 of 35.6nm was 5th in the fleet, and they have wisely started out smack on the great circle heading to maximize DMG from every mile rowed. OS, NY, HE and RA all rowed a greater distance, but made less DMG. With all the top 23 crews now making way, it’s time to sum up the winners and losers from the last week. At the top of the list (no surprises once again) is JJ, who was far enough west to be less affected by the low pressure system, and gained 93nm on the average position of the top 23 from 13:00 on 26th Jan to 13:00 2nd Feb. Next up MA, a full 2 degrees further south (at 18N) on 26th, had negative DMGs on two days only (just –4nm!) and gained 34nm on the fleet average over the same period. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to gain them a position, they have been 20th since 23rd Jan, so the extra miles to take the southerly route have not paid off … yet ! Next come a group comprising QB, RA, VV and SOM that gained 15 to 25 nm on the fleet; VV may be partly due to their push south starting early on 25th Jan (although they still accumulated a negative DMG of 30nm over 4 days, compared with just 21nm for SOM). However, I suspect that these four boats gained most for the simple reason that "when the going gets tough, the tough get going!" Certainly for SOM, the massive push they made into the weather on Day 23 and the punchy start on Day 29 were the main contributors to their gains. Character! Received the following at 12:17 GMT;
Day 29
FINALY GOT GOING AGAIN! RELIEF. SEEM 2 BE MAKING PROGRESS THROUGH FLEET.
FINALY GOT GOING AGAIN! RELIEF. SEEM 2 BE MAKING PROGRESS THROUGH FLEET.
Day 28
STILL STUCK ON SEA ANCHOR. HOPE WEATHER WIL TURN TOM. CABIN NOT DESIGNED 4 2 MEN! VERY COSY!
STILL STUCK ON SEA ANCHOR. HOPE WEATHER WIL TURN TOM. CABIN NOT DESIGNED 4 2 MEN! VERY COSY!
Day 24
SW WINDS RISING TO 30KTS. FORCED 2 USE THE SEA ANCHOR. NOT MUCH FUN,BUT CAN GET SOME SLEEP AT LEAST.
SW WINDS RISING TO 30KTS. FORCED 2 USE THE SEA ANCHOR. NOT MUCH FUN,BUT CAN GET SOME SLEEP AT LEAST.
Day 23 - 07:00, 27th January
The 07:00 positions show that the adverse winds have started to affect the most northerly boat in the fleet – KK being pushed back about 5nm in the period to this update. There may still be advantage in pushing south into the wind as every nm south will mean slightly weaker opposing winds for the next 5-6 days and a faster exit from the low as it eventually moves to the east. Send the following to the boys from the Blackberry on arrival at the Edjeba Learning Village in Warri at 06:23 UTC;
KK NOWFORCED BKWARDS AS LOW MOVES SE. STRONGLY ADVISE HARD PUSH SOUTH IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.
I suspect it is too late but had to send one more encouragement.
Day 23 - 13:00, 27th January
A truly magnificent effort from the boys over the last 24 hours as the weather has deteriorated on them. They beat every boat ahead on DMG in the last 24 hrs and all but two boats behind them.
Following message was received from the boys at 14:46 UTC;
LAST MSG GARBLED. BLACKBERRY? ADVICE FROM SC WAS IMPOSSIBLE TRYING TO AVOID SYSTEM…
...SO ROWED 2UP STRAIGHT AT IT! SLOW GOING, COVERED 18NM IN 18HRS. ON SEA ANCHOR AS OF 2PM GMT.
"SC" refers to Simon Chalk the boss of Woodvale. They must have put in a tremendous effort, making 30nm while all but two boats ahead made less than 20nm and KK lost 6nm on the day (being a full degree and a half further north than SOM). Send the following congratulation at 20:30 UTC;
YR FINEST HR.HEROIC EFFORT TODAY,V WELL DONE!UNMATCHED DMG!!ANY CHANCE IN NEXT4DAYS2PUSH HARD,2UP,TO SSW2EXIT LOW SYSTEM ASAP!XX
The boys 24hr DMG at 30nm was a full 167% of the fleet average of 18nm, an amazing effort, and gaining on EVERY OTHER BOAT IN THE FLEET, apart from MA (well south) and RA. Clearly all bets on arrival times and positions are now off until we see how they emerge from the next 5 or so days of desperate boredom. Any crew that is prepared to sit on their oars and pull against the wind is going to come out with a tactical advantage. One more encouragement (!) to end the day at 21:00 UTC
ADVERSE SW-WSW FORCE 3TO4 4CAST TILL MONDAY 12:00.CREWS WITH GUTS2PULL WHEN POSSIBLE WILL GAIN THRO THIS HARDSHIP.DIG DEEP,GO FOR IT!XXX
The 07:00 positions show that the adverse winds have started to affect the most northerly boat in the fleet – KK being pushed back about 5nm in the period to this update. There may still be advantage in pushing south into the wind as every nm south will mean slightly weaker opposing winds for the next 5-6 days and a faster exit from the low as it eventually moves to the east. Send the following to the boys from the Blackberry on arrival at the Edjeba Learning Village in Warri at 06:23 UTC;
KK NOWFORCED BKWARDS AS LOW MOVES SE. STRONGLY ADVISE HARD PUSH SOUTH IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.
I suspect it is too late but had to send one more encouragement.
Day 23 - 13:00, 27th January
A truly magnificent effort from the boys over the last 24 hours as the weather has deteriorated on them. They beat every boat ahead on DMG in the last 24 hrs and all but two boats behind them.
Following message was received from the boys at 14:46 UTC;
LAST MSG GARBLED. BLACKBERRY? ADVICE FROM SC WAS IMPOSSIBLE TRYING TO AVOID SYSTEM…
...SO ROWED 2UP STRAIGHT AT IT! SLOW GOING, COVERED 18NM IN 18HRS. ON SEA ANCHOR AS OF 2PM GMT.
"SC" refers to Simon Chalk the boss of Woodvale. They must have put in a tremendous effort, making 30nm while all but two boats ahead made less than 20nm and KK lost 6nm on the day (being a full degree and a half further north than SOM). Send the following congratulation at 20:30 UTC;
YR FINEST HR.HEROIC EFFORT TODAY,V WELL DONE!UNMATCHED DMG!!ANY CHANCE IN NEXT4DAYS2PUSH HARD,2UP,TO SSW2EXIT LOW SYSTEM ASAP!XX
The boys 24hr DMG at 30nm was a full 167% of the fleet average of 18nm, an amazing effort, and gaining on EVERY OTHER BOAT IN THE FLEET, apart from MA (well south) and RA. Clearly all bets on arrival times and positions are now off until we see how they emerge from the next 5 or so days of desperate boredom. Any crew that is prepared to sit on their oars and pull against the wind is going to come out with a tactical advantage. One more encouragement (!) to end the day at 21:00 UTC
ADVERSE SW-WSW FORCE 3TO4 4CAST TILL MONDAY 12:00.CREWS WITH GUTS2PULL WHEN POSSIBLE WILL GAIN THRO THIS HARDSHIP.DIG DEEP,GO FOR IT!XXX
Day 23
A terrible storm has affected the progress of the whole fleet. Adam and Jimmy have made a colossal effort to try and keep their position as stable as possible and prevent the wind and waves from pushing them backwards too much. They are succeeding far better than most other boats in the race. Well done boys! However Adam contacted Alice to complain of having too much downtime and to say that he was feeling a little bored... So he was told of a secret harmonica she had hidden on board to help pass the time, this was his reply...
ON THE SEA ANCHOR. ARGH! PLENTY OF TIME TO LEARN THE HARMONICA. XXX
So, although you'll never witness Adam's naked harmonica playing you can at least picture him out there, in the 'big blue' trying to play the blues in the buff. Enjoy!
A terrible storm has affected the progress of the whole fleet. Adam and Jimmy have made a colossal effort to try and keep their position as stable as possible and prevent the wind and waves from pushing them backwards too much. They are succeeding far better than most other boats in the race. Well done boys! However Adam contacted Alice to complain of having too much downtime and to say that he was feeling a little bored... So he was told of a secret harmonica she had hidden on board to help pass the time, this was his reply...
ON THE SEA ANCHOR. ARGH! PLENTY OF TIME TO LEARN THE HARMONICA. XXX
So, although you'll never witness Adam's naked harmonica playing you can at least picture him out there, in the 'big blue' trying to play the blues in the buff. Enjoy!
Day 22
AS THE SUN SET WE WERE VISITED BY SOME WHALES. THEY SWAM WITH US FOR 2HRS AND CAME AS CLOSE AS 10M.
AS THE SUN SET WE WERE VISITED BY SOME WHALES. THEY SWAM WITH US FOR 2HRS AND CAME AS CLOSE AS 10M.
Day 21
CHAFING HAS REACHED POINT WHERE SITTING WITHOUT PAIN IS A DISTANT MEMORY. WATRMKR NOW WORKS!
CHAFING HAS REACHED POINT WHERE SITTING WITHOUT PAIN IS A DISTANT MEMORY. WATRMKR NOW WORKS!
Day 19 - 07:00
After a careful re-look at the DMG/distance traveled numbers for the last few days (the boys had dropped to 88% overnight) I decided it was time to throw caution to the wind (!) and encourage something that I’m sure they had been thinking hard about for some days … sent at 11:01 GMT; JJ TURNED TO 262T AT20N. TIME2CONSIDER WAYPOINT AT19N35W?? UR13PASSED NF ON22ND.SENDING POSITIONS AFTER 13:00.VOC NO DATA SINCE20TH!XX and the response at 12:34GMT;
AGREED! NOW TURNING TO 265. SOUNDS LIKE SOME BAD WEATHER ON 30TH? A waypoint is a target you aim for in planning an ocean passage. From their 07:00 position at 20°09’N 28°39’W the waypoint at 19N 35W would bring them much closer to the shortest distance great circle route, and raise their DMG/distance to about 99%, gaining an extra few nm per day on anyone still heading SW.
Another strong encouragement was that B3 is now down to 17N – latitude of the finish line – and their DMG progress has shown no increasing trend since they were at 23N on Day 4, suggesting limited current benefit in going further south. The weather outlook is actually not bad at their position for the next week – there are a couple of lows blowing through at higher latitudes, but below 20N they should feel no more than some light erratic winds and slightly higher swells for a couple of days (hopefully!)
13:00 positions update … end of Day 19
13.3Q134,285RC117,273P116,270V88,261RW89,311N73,298E68,291H58,269D38,270O21,260.14NF8,173.27-30NOT BAD.WINDS BCOME LITE ERRATIC.SWELL3-4M.XX The boys retained 13th position for the second day, although 24hr progress was not great – 40nm on the DMG (88% of fleet average), the first day since 12th Jan (when the battery problem first hit) that the boys have not made up ground on any boat ahead of them and only on 5/10 of those behind. I've added Team Panasonic (TP) to the top 22 to make a top 23 now, since he has stormed up from 23rd to 16th in the last week.
Actually may be 17th depending on where exactly VOC is right now … still no GPS ping from them. Positions in the fleet seems to be settling down somewhat – this is the first day that there has been no position change in the top 16 boats, apart from the resolution of NY and EX who were in a tie for 8th yesterday. It’s 5 days since my first line honours prediction and time for an update. The 5-day average ETA and position have been pretty stable with the boys ETA now predicted at 7th March (vs 6th before) and SOM predicted to finish in 12th (vs 10th).
Over those 5 days the unaveraged ETA has varied from 1st to 12th March to give you an idea of the variability. That’s another 43 days on the water; taking off 10% for the direction change from here on, another 5% for overall better weather conditions than they’ve had so far, and I’d put ETA at 28th Feb or 1st March. Podium positions are now predicted for JJ (surprise!), KK, and QB.
After a careful re-look at the DMG/distance traveled numbers for the last few days (the boys had dropped to 88% overnight) I decided it was time to throw caution to the wind (!) and encourage something that I’m sure they had been thinking hard about for some days … sent at 11:01 GMT; JJ TURNED TO 262T AT20N. TIME2CONSIDER WAYPOINT AT19N35W?? UR13PASSED NF ON22ND.SENDING POSITIONS AFTER 13:00.VOC NO DATA SINCE20TH!XX and the response at 12:34GMT;
AGREED! NOW TURNING TO 265. SOUNDS LIKE SOME BAD WEATHER ON 30TH? A waypoint is a target you aim for in planning an ocean passage. From their 07:00 position at 20°09’N 28°39’W the waypoint at 19N 35W would bring them much closer to the shortest distance great circle route, and raise their DMG/distance to about 99%, gaining an extra few nm per day on anyone still heading SW.
Another strong encouragement was that B3 is now down to 17N – latitude of the finish line – and their DMG progress has shown no increasing trend since they were at 23N on Day 4, suggesting limited current benefit in going further south. The weather outlook is actually not bad at their position for the next week – there are a couple of lows blowing through at higher latitudes, but below 20N they should feel no more than some light erratic winds and slightly higher swells for a couple of days (hopefully!)
13:00 positions update … end of Day 19
13.3Q134,285RC117,273P116,270V88,261RW89,311N73,298E68,291H58,269D38,270O21,260.14NF8,173.27-30NOT BAD.WINDS BCOME LITE ERRATIC.SWELL3-4M.XX The boys retained 13th position for the second day, although 24hr progress was not great – 40nm on the DMG (88% of fleet average), the first day since 12th Jan (when the battery problem first hit) that the boys have not made up ground on any boat ahead of them and only on 5/10 of those behind. I've added Team Panasonic (TP) to the top 22 to make a top 23 now, since he has stormed up from 23rd to 16th in the last week.
Actually may be 17th depending on where exactly VOC is right now … still no GPS ping from them. Positions in the fleet seems to be settling down somewhat – this is the first day that there has been no position change in the top 16 boats, apart from the resolution of NY and EX who were in a tie for 8th yesterday. It’s 5 days since my first line honours prediction and time for an update. The 5-day average ETA and position have been pretty stable with the boys ETA now predicted at 7th March (vs 6th before) and SOM predicted to finish in 12th (vs 10th).
Over those 5 days the unaveraged ETA has varied from 1st to 12th March to give you an idea of the variability. That’s another 43 days on the water; taking off 10% for the direction change from here on, another 5% for overall better weather conditions than they’ve had so far, and I’d put ETA at 28th Feb or 1st March. Podium positions are now predicted for JJ (surprise!), KK, and QB.
Day 19
From Jimmy and Adam - "TODAY WD HAVE BEEN XMAS DAY HAD WE LEFT ON TIME SO OPENED OUR PRESENTS. THANK GOD FOR JAFFA CAKES!"
From Jimmy and Adam - "TODAY WD HAVE BEEN XMAS DAY HAD WE LEFT ON TIME SO OPENED OUR PRESENTS. THANK GOD FOR JAFFA CAKES!"
Day 18
From Jimmy and Adam - "WAS RWING ALONG AT 1AM WHEN SUDDNLY WAS HIT SQUARE IN THE FACE BY A 25CM FLYING FSH! USED IT AS BAIT 2 CTCH DORADO"
From Jimmy and Adam - "WAS RWING ALONG AT 1AM WHEN SUDDNLY WAS HIT SQUARE IN THE FACE BY A 25CM FLYING FSH! USED IT AS BAIT 2 CTCH DORADO"
Day 17
It was possible to finally make an interpolation of the 13:00 positions (at 2am on the 21st!) from the website, which showed the boys had indeed retained 14th and had crossed the 2000nm line at about 16:30 – just into Day 17. It has been a good (interpolated!) 24 hours for Spirit of Montanare, in fact the best for 5 days, turning in 48nm DMG (102% of the fleet’s average) and gaining ground on 5 boats ahead as well as 7 behind.
Avid surfers of the Woodvale weather page may have spotted the nastiness brewing up for the middle of next week. This is definitely one that will favour boats in more southerly positions. If the boys keep on their current track they should be close to 18N 32W by then, and will miss the worst of it – expect current tracks to continue through next week, with the right turns delayed until closer to 18N!
It was possible to finally make an interpolation of the 13:00 positions (at 2am on the 21st!) from the website, which showed the boys had indeed retained 14th and had crossed the 2000nm line at about 16:30 – just into Day 17. It has been a good (interpolated!) 24 hours for Spirit of Montanare, in fact the best for 5 days, turning in 48nm DMG (102% of the fleet’s average) and gaining ground on 5 boats ahead as well as 7 behind.
Avid surfers of the Woodvale weather page may have spotted the nastiness brewing up for the middle of next week. This is definitely one that will favour boats in more southerly positions. If the boys keep on their current track they should be close to 18N 32W by then, and will miss the worst of it – expect current tracks to continue through next week, with the right turns delayed until closer to 18N!
Day 14
Perhaps the most interesting news of the day (apart from the glitch on the Woodvale site that left us without a 13:00 update!) was the decision by the B3 team to head for Barbados, completing the crossing on a line of longitude basis, to take advantage of more favourable winds and currents. So, how will this impact on the tactics of the racing crews? They have a specific finish line to cross just outside English Harbour, but the implication of the B3 decision is that informed crews with undoubtedly reconsider a direct dash to 17°N, or perhaps even marginally below that.
Finally we got an update of the 13:00 positions for most of the boats at about 19:45 – unfortunately 6 boat including SOM were still showing 07:00 positions, so a bit of extrapolation was necessary. If the extrap is correct, the boys indeed still ended Day 14 in 14th position – having been re-passed by OS but catching RA to leave them level pegging. VOC now only 2nm adrift (both boats based on extrapolated positions) – so the steady run at 14th could end tonight!
From the boat tracks it is now clear that, over the last 2-3 days, 3 boats (RA, HW and Mission Atlantic (MA)) have stepped away from the ca. 250T track that the fleet has been mostly following, striking out on a ca. 225T track towards a more southerly route. In the short term they are losing DMG as a result but may gain in the long run. Some tactical advice for the boys will follow, after a bit more analysis!
With Day 14 completed, most crews will now be about a quarter of the way into the crossing, so … time to start estimating arrival dates. This may be a bit premature but it’s hard to resist the temptation! Based on 5-day average DMG, their current ETA is 7th March, with SOM finishing in 10th place. Line honours predicted for JJ (no surprise there!) followed by KK, RC and VOC!! I’ll update this estimate every 5 days or so.
Perhaps the most interesting news of the day (apart from the glitch on the Woodvale site that left us without a 13:00 update!) was the decision by the B3 team to head for Barbados, completing the crossing on a line of longitude basis, to take advantage of more favourable winds and currents. So, how will this impact on the tactics of the racing crews? They have a specific finish line to cross just outside English Harbour, but the implication of the B3 decision is that informed crews with undoubtedly reconsider a direct dash to 17°N, or perhaps even marginally below that.
Finally we got an update of the 13:00 positions for most of the boats at about 19:45 – unfortunately 6 boat including SOM were still showing 07:00 positions, so a bit of extrapolation was necessary. If the extrap is correct, the boys indeed still ended Day 14 in 14th position – having been re-passed by OS but catching RA to leave them level pegging. VOC now only 2nm adrift (both boats based on extrapolated positions) – so the steady run at 14th could end tonight!
From the boat tracks it is now clear that, over the last 2-3 days, 3 boats (RA, HW and Mission Atlantic (MA)) have stepped away from the ca. 250T track that the fleet has been mostly following, striking out on a ca. 225T track towards a more southerly route. In the short term they are losing DMG as a result but may gain in the long run. Some tactical advice for the boys will follow, after a bit more analysis!
With Day 14 completed, most crews will now be about a quarter of the way into the crossing, so … time to start estimating arrival dates. This may be a bit premature but it’s hard to resist the temptation! Based on 5-day average DMG, their current ETA is 7th March, with SOM finishing in 10th place. Line honours predicted for JJ (no surprise there!) followed by KK, RC and VOC!! I’ll update this estimate every 5 days or so.
Day 13
From Jimmy and Adam - "DAY 13. WEATHER IS HOT & WATER FLAT. TRYING TO CATCH SOME DORADO USING TIKA MASALA RATIONS AS CHUMP!"
14.J130,249K145,303RC86,245Q78,293D66,268P69,247E56,261RW65,311V32,266N10,284H27,339RA42,350N40,187.16VC19,142.BATTERY IMPROVED? Still sitting tight at 14th – amazingly the only boat in the top 22 to have stayed in the same position at the end of each of the last four days. The chart of relative positions (see attachment) still shows amazing volatility – one would expect positions to have settled down a bit as they reach the end of the second week. However, leaving aside JJ and KK who are in a league of their own and have exchanged the lead twice in the last three days, the top 10 pairs are still within 70nm, and there are three within 8nm ahead of our boys! Among movers up, the last four days has seen NY move from 16 to 12, VV from 13 to 9 and RC from 6 to 3. In the other direction RW has dropped from 4 to 8, and OS from 12 to 15. Any glitch from the battery problem seems to have been overcome – the boys 24hr DMG to 13:00 was 98% of the fleet average (I’m only counting the top 22 boats here, leaving out the guys who will be on the look out for hurricanes come May!).
From Jimmy and Adam - "DAY 13. WEATHER IS HOT & WATER FLAT. TRYING TO CATCH SOME DORADO USING TIKA MASALA RATIONS AS CHUMP!"
14.J130,249K145,303RC86,245Q78,293D66,268P69,247E56,261RW65,311V32,266N10,284H27,339RA42,350N40,187.16VC19,142.BATTERY IMPROVED? Still sitting tight at 14th – amazingly the only boat in the top 22 to have stayed in the same position at the end of each of the last four days. The chart of relative positions (see attachment) still shows amazing volatility – one would expect positions to have settled down a bit as they reach the end of the second week. However, leaving aside JJ and KK who are in a league of their own and have exchanged the lead twice in the last three days, the top 10 pairs are still within 70nm, and there are three within 8nm ahead of our boys! Among movers up, the last four days has seen NY move from 16 to 12, VV from 13 to 9 and RC from 6 to 3. In the other direction RW has dropped from 4 to 8, and OS from 12 to 15. Any glitch from the battery problem seems to have been overcome – the boys 24hr DMG to 13:00 was 98% of the fleet average (I’m only counting the top 22 boats here, leaving out the guys who will be on the look out for hurricanes come May!).
Day 12
Must have been a frustrating day for the boys – after their best day on Day 11, knocking off 57nm DMG they were down to 39nm today; it seems that the watermaker problem may have cost them about half a knot relative to the fleet over the last 24hrs - or maybe it was a bit of relaxing fishing! (How does that saying go ... Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day!) They will not know it yet but the solo rower Peter van Kets in Nyamezela, sitting about 40nm south of them, caught them up today based on DMG to Antigua. They still managed to close in on Ocean Summit, Red Arrow and No Fear ahead, but Vision of Cornwall made up 13nm DMG and could pass them in two days at current pace.
Must have been a frustrating day for the boys – after their best day on Day 11, knocking off 57nm DMG they were down to 39nm today; it seems that the watermaker problem may have cost them about half a knot relative to the fleet over the last 24hrs - or maybe it was a bit of relaxing fishing! (How does that saying go ... Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day!) They will not know it yet but the solo rower Peter van Kets in Nyamezela, sitting about 40nm south of them, caught them up today based on DMG to Antigua. They still managed to close in on Ocean Summit, Red Arrow and No Fear ahead, but Vision of Cornwall made up 13nm DMG and could pass them in two days at current pace.
Day 9
From Jimmy and Adam - "DAY 9. BATTERIES ALMOST FLAT & HAVING TO PUMP FRESH WATER MANUALY. HOPING BAT WILL RECOVER!"
From Jimmy and Adam - "DAY 9. BATTERIES ALMOST FLAT & HAVING TO PUMP FRESH WATER MANUALY. HOPING BAT WILL RECOVER!"
Day 9
Steve (Adam's Dad) has been updating the boys daily with tactical updates on their position via the Sat phone. They had their best day so far on Day 9. Their 24hr DMG (distance made good) by 7pm was 4th in the fleet, and they may catch Vivaldi tomorrow if they keep that sort of pace up... Watch this space! Steve's been making the tactical updates as concise as possible to avoid too much being lost if it's truncated by the phone capacity. This was the update they received on Day 9:
1300UR14.JJ103,257KK84,298QB74,265RW71,283PA68,257EX60,279RC60,239NF51,272DM52,265RA58,303.20VOC33,96.YR24HR DISTANCEIS6THINTHEFLEET
This is how to decipher it - Abbreviated boat name, followed by first number is distance from them in nautical miles, second number is bearing from their position in degrees true (not magnetic).
Steve (Adam's Dad) has been updating the boys daily with tactical updates on their position via the Sat phone. They had their best day so far on Day 9. Their 24hr DMG (distance made good) by 7pm was 4th in the fleet, and they may catch Vivaldi tomorrow if they keep that sort of pace up... Watch this space! Steve's been making the tactical updates as concise as possible to avoid too much being lost if it's truncated by the phone capacity. This was the update they received on Day 9:
1300UR14.JJ103,257KK84,298QB74,265RW71,283PA68,257EX60,279RC60,239NF51,272DM52,265RA58,303.20VOC33,96.YR24HR DISTANCEIS6THINTHEFLEET
This is how to decipher it - Abbreviated boat name, followed by first number is distance from them in nautical miles, second number is bearing from their position in degrees true (not magnetic).
Day 5
The weather turned in their favour during the night and the boys instantly recognised the arrival of long awaited north-easterly winds. Buoyed with enthusiasm they got straight back to their scheduled rowing pattern and made excellent progress over the next 24 hours. During their rowing breaks Jimmy and Adam both jumped in for a swim and have fully embraced ocean life... even the nudity!
The weather turned in their favour during the night and the boys instantly recognised the arrival of long awaited north-easterly winds. Buoyed with enthusiasm they got straight back to their scheduled rowing pattern and made excellent progress over the next 24 hours. During their rowing breaks Jimmy and Adam both jumped in for a swim and have fully embraced ocean life... even the nudity!
Day 3
Challenging weather interrupted initial sterling progress during day 2 and 3. The boys had to accept their position and sit on the sea anchor for most of the time to avoid being blown too far east. The winds and waves pushed them in the wrong direction for what seemed like an eternity and Jimmy struggled with severe sea sickness. In a bid to pass the time Jimmy and Adam could do nothing more than wait for a break in the clouds and nurse two huge blisters that had already developed on Jimmy's left foot.
Challenging weather interrupted initial sterling progress during day 2 and 3. The boys had to accept their position and sit on the sea anchor for most of the time to avoid being blown too far east. The winds and waves pushed them in the wrong direction for what seemed like an eternity and Jimmy struggled with severe sea sickness. In a bid to pass the time Jimmy and Adam could do nothing more than wait for a break in the clouds and nurse two huge blisters that had already developed on Jimmy's left foot.
Day 1
The adrenaline was surging on the morning of the start. Six weeks of delays had sharpened the competitive spirit and Adam and Jimmy finally left La Gomera at 13.30 hours on January 4th 2010. They made a strong start with winds and current in their favour and rowed aggressively throughout the day sticking to their punishing 2 hourly timetable. The highlight of the day was a brief rest bite thanks to the arrival of some inquisitive dolphins, who swam next to and under the boat for over 15 minutes and seemed to enjoy the unexpected company of the Spirit of Montanaro as she embarked on her epic adventure. During the night the boys experienced some "exciting swell" which gave them a taste of things to come...
The adrenaline was surging on the morning of the start. Six weeks of delays had sharpened the competitive spirit and Adam and Jimmy finally left La Gomera at 13.30 hours on January 4th 2010. They made a strong start with winds and current in their favour and rowed aggressively throughout the day sticking to their punishing 2 hourly timetable. The highlight of the day was a brief rest bite thanks to the arrival of some inquisitive dolphins, who swam next to and under the boat for over 15 minutes and seemed to enjoy the unexpected company of the Spirit of Montanaro as she embarked on her epic adventure. During the night the boys experienced some "exciting swell" which gave them a taste of things to come...
News Update - 31st December 2009
For more information about the race and to track our progress, please see the race website www.atlanticrowingrace09.com
Jimmy & Adam
La Gomera, 31st December 2009
News Update - 15th December 2009
Today the race organisers announced a further delay to the race start. Dependence on the weather is in the nature of this sort of challenge, but the delays have been very frustrating for everyone
in the camp, all of whom have put their lives on hold.
See below for the race organiser's announcement.
Jimmy & Adam
La Gomera, 15th December 2009
www.atlanticrowingrace09.com/news/article/6/race-start-date-now-29th-december-2009
Race start date now 29th December 2009
15 Dec 2009 10:37 GMT
Following this mornings weather meeting the race will now start on Tuesday 29th December 2009. All competitors must report to the Woodvale Challenge office no later than Sunday 27th December.
As I am sure most of you are now aware, the Spanish authorities stipulate the conditions that crews can safely leave the Canary Islands. The conditions off shore and to the south west of the islands are over and above the guidlines set out by both the Spanish Port Authority and Woodvale Challenge Ltd. These conditions would indicate that crews would struggle to leave the islands safely given the current forecast.
This forecast is due to remain unchanged for the next 10 days, however, by 29th the condtions should reverse. Crews will not only be able to leave the island safely, but will also benefit from north eastly winds that will help push the crews towards Antigua and hopefully break some records along the way!
With all the administration complete for the race we can try and look forward to Christmas at home followed by a short stop in La Gomera before the start of the Atlantic Rowing Race 2009.
See below for the race organiser's announcement.
Jimmy & Adam
La Gomera, 15th December 2009
www.atlanticrowingrace09.com/news/article/6/race-start-date-now-29th-december-2009
Race start date now 29th December 2009
15 Dec 2009 10:37 GMT
Following this mornings weather meeting the race will now start on Tuesday 29th December 2009. All competitors must report to the Woodvale Challenge office no later than Sunday 27th December.
As I am sure most of you are now aware, the Spanish authorities stipulate the conditions that crews can safely leave the Canary Islands. The conditions off shore and to the south west of the islands are over and above the guidlines set out by both the Spanish Port Authority and Woodvale Challenge Ltd. These conditions would indicate that crews would struggle to leave the islands safely given the current forecast.
This forecast is due to remain unchanged for the next 10 days, however, by 29th the condtions should reverse. Crews will not only be able to leave the island safely, but will also benefit from north eastly winds that will help push the crews towards Antigua and hopefully break some records along the way!
With all the administration complete for the race we can try and look forward to Christmas at home followed by a short stop in La Gomera before the start of the Atlantic Rowing Race 2009.
News Update - 14th December 2009
The fleet was informed last week that the race would be delayed until Wednesday (tomorrow), due to an issue that the race organisers had with shipping the necessary safety flares for the fleet
from the UK out to La Gomera. Whilst frustrating for many of the competitors, we were happy for a couple of extra days to get acqainted with some of the equipment we have had fitted since we
arrived - upgrades to our GPS and solar regulator and a new set of batteries. We also took the opportunity to go for further outings and to test our watermaker, sea anchor and cooking drills at
sea. A taste of the ocean swell has also led to some tweaks to our rowing positions. I´m pleased to report no further sea-sickness, thus far.
In order to give the fleet something to look forwards to, and to give the families who were due to leave on Sunday/Monday something to watch, a short race was put on for the crews on Sunday afternoon. Thirty boats thrashed around two circuits of a triangular course and we were pleased to cross the line in second place.
A meeting was called at 11am today to give the fleet an update on the weather system that is currently forming in the mid-Atlantic. The result of this unseasonal weather is that there has been a further delay of the start for between four and seven days. This is extremely disappointing for all of us and the challenge now will be to remain focused. In the race camp, all eyes are on the weather and we remain on 48 hours notice to leave.
For further updates on the race please refer to this website or the race website, www.atlanticrowingrace09.com
Jimmy & Adam
La Gomera, 8 December 2009
In order to give the fleet something to look forwards to, and to give the families who were due to leave on Sunday/Monday something to watch, a short race was put on for the crews on Sunday afternoon. Thirty boats thrashed around two circuits of a triangular course and we were pleased to cross the line in second place.
A meeting was called at 11am today to give the fleet an update on the weather system that is currently forming in the mid-Atlantic. The result of this unseasonal weather is that there has been a further delay of the start for between four and seven days. This is extremely disappointing for all of us and the challenge now will be to remain focused. In the race camp, all eyes are on the weather and we remain on 48 hours notice to leave.
For further updates on the race please refer to this website or the race website, www.atlanticrowingrace09.com
Jimmy & Adam
La Gomera, 8 December 2009
News Update - 29th November 2009
We arrived in La Gomera on the evening of 19th November. Opposite the Marina is the ‘camp’ where the 31 ocean rowing boats taking part in the 2009 Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race have
been parked up for final preparations. Stepping off the evening ferry from Tenerife and seeing the fleet brought a rush of excitement and anticipation. It was one of those milestone moments in
which the race suddenly grew much closer.
The week that followed was occupied with scrutineering, meeting the other crews and making final additions to the boat – a backing plate for the bow towing eye, a stern bridle for the drogues, some work on the electrics and a lot of splicing! With final sign-off complete, the Spirit of Montanaro was lowered into the water yesterday evening. We have enjoyed spending time with the other crews. Each has a different story to tell and has taken a different journey to the start line. As the days have passed a real sense of anticipation has grown in the camp.
With the boat now in the Marina, we went for our first ‘blue water’ row early this morning. As the sun rose, a strong Northerly created some exciting swell and gave us our first taste of sea sickness (literally in Jimmy’s case!). In a week we will be on the Ocean. The beginning of the race, but also the end of the three-year journey that has brought us, with your support, to the start line.
Jimmy & Adam
La Gomera, 29 November 2009
The week that followed was occupied with scrutineering, meeting the other crews and making final additions to the boat – a backing plate for the bow towing eye, a stern bridle for the drogues, some work on the electrics and a lot of splicing! With final sign-off complete, the Spirit of Montanaro was lowered into the water yesterday evening. We have enjoyed spending time with the other crews. Each has a different story to tell and has taken a different journey to the start line. As the days have passed a real sense of anticipation has grown in the camp.
With the boat now in the Marina, we went for our first ‘blue water’ row early this morning. As the sun rose, a strong Northerly created some exciting swell and gave us our first taste of sea sickness (literally in Jimmy’s case!). In a week we will be on the Ocean. The beginning of the race, but also the end of the three-year journey that has brought us, with your support, to the start line.
Jimmy & Adam
La Gomera, 29 November 2009