Day 56 - Light Bulb Moment

	A Light Bulb (click to enlarge)

Yesterday evening the wind had picked up quite a bit and the waterproof jackets were back on. I was on the last shift before dinner and rowing along quite happily when “Donk!” my oar hit something.

Turning round to see what it was gave me a bit of a surprise as a giant light bulb floated by. At this point I was certain that I had either been drinking from the wrong bottle or had lost way too much sleep. It was however, real! It also came complete with it’s very own eco system and had plenty of barnacles hanging off it and about 5 crabs too. The bulb is from the navigation light of a fairly large boat which had obviously thrown it overboard when it had broken. It’s very impressive to see that mother nature finds a use for these things and it was providing a welcome home to several members of the marine community.

We’ve been thumped around a bit as a front passes by us but all is good. We’re just about to have an early lunch (2 hours after brunch which is 2 hours after breakfast) and stick the sea anchor in before battening down all hatches and waiting until either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

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Day 55 - New Seats And Sunrise

	Mick And The Sunrise (click to enlarge)

The best thing about starting a brand new month is that we get to open a brand new sheepskin pad. The comfort level suddenly increases multiple times over and although we never really look forwards to sitting down for a stint at the oars at least we’re less likely to wince whenever we sit down. The foam padding that we have for between the sheepskin and the wooden seat has become rather compressed and now closer resembles a sheet of paper than the camping mat that it has been cut from. However by cutting a seat shape out of the older sheepskin pads and adding them to the new seats we’ve upped the comfort once again. My bottom is positively squealing with pleasure.

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Day 54 - Will You Start The Fans Please

	Brian And His Fans (click to enlarge)

After a significant period of day after day of good miles in hot sunshine we’re getting a bit tired.

Mick set the alarm clock yesterday for the same time that it was at that moment and didn’t realise until 2 hours later when I shouted him awake.

I started a stretch in the cabin to relieve some back pain and woke up 2 hours later in the same position.

Both of us are craving every meal time (doubly so for Breakfast) and even Beef Bolognasty is edible although still very much bottom of the list.

So turning our engineering minds to the problem I think we’ve found a solution (see photo).

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Day 53 - June Captain’s Log

As it’s the end of June today, Mick takes over the reins of the blog writing for a day in his month’s end Captain’s log.

For somewhere that has already proved how changable it can be the weather in the North Pacific has been somewhat more stable in the last few days allowing us to get into a rhythm of rowing interchanged with rest. We’re ticking off the miles with a ruthless efficiency and look forward to more of the same in July. Only one additional comment from me is good luck to all the Molesey crews and the Hampton School 1st 8 racing at Henley Royal Regatta over the next week.

Captain’s Log - June

Welcome to the second 25% of the ”Mick Blog”. Hope we’ve kept you entertained as we’ve careered through June:

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Day 52 - Confusion

An Albatross In Flight (click to enlarge)

Firstly I’ve finally managed to snap an Albatross in flight. Normally they appear without warning to have a look at us. They’ll then proceed to wheel round for a second look before realising that we’re not going to give them any fish and fly away so that by the time I’ve got the camera out they’re long gone. This one thankfully hung around a bit more, even landing near the boat and paddling over before, being unable to keep pace, it gave me an incredulous glance and set off in the opposite direction.

Sleep deprivation has finally caught up with me and has started to cause it’s secondary effects, namely confusion. It all started last night when I was brushing my teeth.

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Day 51 - It’s Hot… Damn Hot

An Albatross (click to enlarge)

Another roasting hot day out here. There’s a light wind from the east and swell from the south but we’re continuing to make reasonable progress. All good news.

The heat is completely overpowering though. We’ve made a sort of make-shift blind for the cabin door from a towel and we’ve got one fan blowing out the stale air from inside and the other sucking in cooler air (but only marginally) from the outside. It looks like some sort of strange tent but it does work and the cabin has now become habitable during the hottest hours of the day.

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Day 50 - Fog And Baking Sun

As the sun went down last night it had all the makings of a beautiful evening. A sliver of moon shining down on a flat calm ocean with a clear sky, no wind at all and stars shining by the bucketload. Then there was the pip…pip………pip….pip of the sea me alarm (our radar enhancer). It beebs everytime it senses the pass of another vessels radar, so we knew something was close. Mick noticed it first on his watch before I crawled out of the cabin, a fishing boat just to the north of us. Not moving very fast and unlikely to be a problem with such good visibility.

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Day 49 - Time For Little Jobs

A Rainbow (click to enlarge)

With an easterly wind and no option but to sit on the sea anchor, we’ve been sitting on the sea anchor and getting on with little jobs that needed doing. Yesterday afternoon we had started to catch a southerly current that was going to take us very close to the 11 metre sea mount just to our south so we took to the oars and tried to make some miles north. With the easterly wind picking up we ended up going backwards but in a north easterly direction. Mick announced that there was a rainbow which was brilliant and reached across half the sky creating a huge bridge.  It became a double rainbow just after I had dived inside because of the rain.

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Day 48 - Surprise Storm And Sea Mount Dodging

The ocean is full of surprises and last night was no exception. We were expecting a bit of rain and a light easterly wind as a decreasing low came to visit us a second time. What we got was a gale force wind that whipped the sea up into the second largest storm we’ve yet encountered. Bouncing around the sweaty cabin is horrible and far more draining than rowing on the oars. We can’t open the cabin hatch (despite Mick’s constant efforts to) because the waves simply break over the stern of the boat and then splash cold water on our heads. Not great. Anyway we survived and were greeted this morning by some hazy sunshine that soon changed to a beautiful sunny day, even if there was an easterly wind we could at the very least make some water and top up the batteries.

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Day 47 - Battling On

Last night we were in a brilliant position. The wind had died altogether so we were treated to a sea that was as flat as a millpond and the sunset was sensational. Normally there’s the noise of the water lapping against the boat and waves and wind but yesterday, absolute silence.

Unfortunately this was not to last. As we ventured further and further into the gap between the two seamounts the wind built. Gradually at first and then by 4am this morning it became impossible to make a decent course.

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