Captain’s Blog October

November 10, 2009 – 9:45 am

With the internet connection jerry-rigged into life one more time, we’ve received Mick’s October Captain’s blog which he wrote 7 days ago on November 3rd.

The Continuing Chronicles of “Stinky and Scurfy”

	Chilli For Dinner (Click To Enlarge)

I’m starting to feel a little like a cabaret compare who’s got his braces caught on the mike stand. Every time I try to leave the stage I find myself being hauled back.

So to begin the second ‘extra’ Captains Blog: October 2009.

After the great mileage haul in September we found ourselves although slowed by the beginning of October in exactly the position we’d been aiming for to benefit from seasonally predicted generally westerly winds…… The Pacific proceeded to blow easterlies for over a week, locking us on the sea anchor…. Then North and Southerly Gales, followed by South and Northerly Gales…

There were small sections of wind with some element of West in from time to time but I suspect purely put there by ‘Mrs P’ (Mrs Pacific) to give us hope she could then snatch away from us at the last minute.

As sense of humour tests go this does seem to be rather an extended one and generally on the same theme…. Wind, or more accurately direction of wind.  Despite everything though we seem to be passing the test, humour on board remains intact and we look over the next wave towards that elusive bridge that is now so close and the finish we have worked so hard for.

Our  elusive ‘friendly’ winds apart, October has been as we expected a cold, wet and tough month, but it’s not been without it’s bonuses.

Whale Of A Time

	A Fin Whale (Click To Enlarge)

It’s a measure of how far we’ve come and the experiences we’ve had that when coming out on deck one morning  to relieve Chris, and most importantly allow him to prepare breakfast I was greeted with, ‘Oh yeah and we’ve got a Whale playing with us again.’

I looked to where Chris was gesturing and right on queue the broad back and dorsal fin of a Whale, about 30/35 feet appeared alongside just a few metres away.

‘Oh right,’ I replied, amazingly equally unimpressed,  and set about taking up my position on the oars to bring the average back down again. Quite when and how we got so blasé about having one of the most impressive and glorious creatures on Gods green or possibly blue earth right alongside us I don’t know but it’s an indication of just what an amazing adventure this trips turned out to be, oh and possibly how tired we are…..

With breakfast finished, Chris getting his head down for some well earned ‘kip’ it occurred to me that it might well be the last chance to get any whale footage so I set about filming our traveling companion above and below the water. He seemed incredibly swift in that one minute he’d be at the bow and then in no time he’d be round the stern of Bo and doing a full ‘fly by’ alongside. He was so close I was regularly getting covered in a shower of Whale…. phlegm (I guess you’d call it for want of a better word).

When he came up to breathe either side of Bo at the same time though I realized he was either a very special Whale or we’d actually got two of them playing with us. Reassuringly, it was the latter explanation, one large creature which we’d later identify as a ‘Fin’ Whale around 30 or 35 feet long and a  smaller one possibly a calf, I guess a little longer than Bo in length. The pair of them then proceeded to engage in a game of ‘charge Bo’ which principally consisted of the two Whales….. Charging Bo. They’d generally come from ‘A Beam’ as in from the side, dorsal fin cutting through the waves and then disappearing under the boat just three or four meters away. On occasion and just to keep me on my toes the dorsal fin would stay up and the tail fin would come up and spin the creature alongside ‘Bo’ at the last minute before passing in front of our bow and beginning the next pass.

The remaining whale would come in, in formation with the other, either behind or below in a not dissimilar manner. If this wasn’t exciting enough there then appeared on the scene a third whale the largest of the trio and ‘Charge Bo’ moved from a two player game to group participation event.

Now after six months of the routine we’ve worked out here the last thing you do is wake the other guy unless you have to but at this point I shouted Chris and said, ‘Mate you’ve got to come out and see this.’ He did, and the photos you’ve seen on the blog are just some of the pictures and footage we managed to take between us during the next 6 hours of ‘Charge Bo’.

To cap it all as we eventually resumed rowing and continued on our way, our new friends took to coming even closer to ‘Bo,’ one surfacing, his head right alongside directly under my starboard oar. They also took to stopping or slowing down directly in front of us. Obviously Whales with impeccable taste they didn’t want to loose our wonderful company.

The only drawback to this being I inadvertently ran into one at one point with an ominous double bump. I let out a cheer of, ‘Whoo hoo! I’ve just ran over a Whale!’ then braced myself for the retaliatory tail flick that would easily have dispatched, both Chris and me complete with Bo. Chris simply opened the hatch took one look at me and said, ‘I’m closing the hatch right now…. Enjoy your swim.’

Now why is it we do this again???

Life At Sea (Click To Enlarge)

Nearly There

There’s so much more I’d like to write but as you’ll have picked up from the website the workload has not subsided as we’ve neared our goal, rather it has increased with the added pressure of lack of food. So I’ll keep this brief in the hope that Chris can work one more of his Techno fix miracles to revive our dying internet connection for at least one more link and I’ll get back to the job in hand, helping Chris get Bojangles across the North Pacific Ocean.

We’ve come through and indeed are still fighting some of the hardest challenges of the trip at the moment. Our food is minimal but the latest weather reports suggest we may be able to make it in without resupply, although we have back up in place if we need it. We continue to take no chances regarding safety but we both feel taking resupply when only hours from San Fran’ would be a mistake now the weather’s turned in our favour.

If I needed any further indication of the qualities of my superb rowing partner after this ‘epic’ (you’re going to hear that description a lot regarding this voyage) row the last 10 days have given them in spades. We’ve had weather forecasts that have changed as the weather is ‘want’ to do in this region on a daily basis. Giving us a sure fire finish one day, little chance of getting in the next. Mentally a pretty tough breakfast pill to swallow every day…. Especially when you don’t have breakfast, Chris has continued to deal with this as he has every set back and challenge along the way; with the occasional expletive naturally, a shrug and a laugh then getting down to business to sort whatever we need to do.

When required to row east to have any chance at all of rowing into San Fran’ Chris set about rigging the second rowing position and the pair of us sat at the oars all day and into the night dragging ‘Bo’ not only east but North of East giving us a compass angle to get in regardless of the bleak weather prospects. This was through arctic conditions, 30 knot plus winds, large beam on (side on) seas keeping us perpetually soaked throughout. Baywatch conditions this isn’t.

When the weather prospects then turned in our favour we set about making progress directly to our destination only to be hit by a Southerly flowing current that at one point dragged us backwards. Once again, and remember all this is being done with very limited rations (We’re down to our last 1 and a half tea bags for God’s sake) and at the end of six months monumentally hard work, Chris has stepped up to the mark and we’ve rowed through soul destroying conditions for over 18 hours as I write this with no progress towards our destination but slowly and surely dragging ourselves out of the crippling influence of the current so we can get back to the job at hand; reducing the miles to do to the magic 0…..

We look towards Saturday and certainly the weekend for completion of this…..’epic’ row and as I have been throughout I’m confident we are on course to do that.

Regardless however of what the last days of our adventure bring the fact that we are in this position at all, is in no small part due to the incredible efforts of my partner and friend Chris Martin during every one of the days since we left Choshi on May the 8th. It’s not been easy but then if it was, everybody would do it, wouldn’t they.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, and thank you all for your support and good wishes, from the sponsors who’ve made this trip possible, our wonderful family and friends to the strangers from all over the world who are now contacting with good luck wishes, thank you….. It’s been…. ‘Epic.’

The Final Fundraising Push

If you’ve not done so already, please take a look at our final funraising effort pages!

1. The Big Sponsored Mile Raffle
2. The End Of Voyage Sale