| At sea. Atlantic Rowing Race: Row4Life loses both drogues |
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| Sunday, 08 January 2006 | |
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Gill Tickner: Charlie rang in this morning to report having had a difficult night, following a difficult day yesterday. The wind had increased to 20 knots from the East, they had very big waves and a very confused sea state with a swell from the North - desperate to push them South. "It is impossible to get both the oars in the water at the same time, as one side of the boat there'll be a wave and on the other side there isn't!" said Charlie. They struggled with these conditions for most of yesterday and contemplated getting the drogues out to save them from being pushed too far South. They were reluctant to do this, as it would slow them right down and halt progress to the West. However in the night, the wind increased to 25 knots and they felt they needed to get the drogues out to feel safe. "But we lost them both unfortunately. That's life.. It was kind of inevitable as we were using lines that weren't meant for the job, having lost our main line with the sea anchor. So now we are even more in the hands of the weather - and just a little more exposed. We also had problems with our autopilot, but we've got it fixed now thank god and it really helped us point the boat with the stern to the wind. We spoke to Aurura the support boat, who aren't far away from us and they said that the winds were lighter in the West, which also explains the miles difference I guess. Right now we have 24 knots, so even 20 knots would be good in comparison - anything over about 17 knots is difficult for us. So we'll be fine so long as we don't have any more storms between now and Antigua - if we do, we'll get pushed where ever the wind decides to take us." 20 knots is enough to power up a yacht, so it is not at all surprising that these small boats are finding it hard. "We were just about OK without the drogues yesterday, so we'll just carry on. We've been through worse in this boat and it seems to be strong. We definitely have confidence in the boat. It is quite depressing to think that in the last race, the first boat was getting in today! We wish! When we set off, we had 50 days in mind, it's now looking like at least 60, but ho hum.." They are still experiencing the swell from the North but the longer they remain in established Easterly winds, the more likely it is that the sea swell with settle down and come from the East as well. This will help the teams, even if the winds remain this high. In the meantime, this opened up the opportunity for other boats to increase their gain on the Row4Life team, who have moved back down to 9th place. There is very little in it with Atlantic Prince only 10 miles in front. During the course of yesterday Atlantic Prince and Row4Life swapped positions several times, showing how easy it is to gain some miles and then loose them. The fleet will continue to take it in turns to have good and bad days. Everyone has their unlucky days and it is often easier to look forward rather than back - and there are many, may boats behind Charlie and Phil! There has not been time this weekend to plan Antigua as hoped, but this will happen as soon as possible. Very approximate ETA is 29th/30th January, but this is likely to change many times before they get in. Their ETA is now even harder to predict without the luxury of having drogues as explained above. |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 08 January 2006 ) |
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