Solo Atlantic Row 2011

Only a quick update tonight, the swell is sending me all over the place inthe cabin and not much to report on the last few days.The weather has gradually picked up this week which has meant for some goodmiles made. Still not fully there with the routine of it all but it is allgetting more natural, I am dreaming more about being on the boat and thewater than before which helps to adapt to it all I find!The last couple of nights have been pretty strong so not managing to sleeptoo well. Last night the swell was up and coming from all over the place soI stuck a small drogue out (a drogue is used out that back of the boat toslow it down and keep it pointing down wind), this did mean I didn’t make asmany miles but rather be safe at the moment and not risk anything.There was a...

I had some great weather over the weekend which, although in the East, gaveme two 40+ days in terms of miles towards Barbados. The weather turned tothe NE this morning but what a difference a day makes, from 20 knots of windand 3-4m swells yesterday to contend with, today I have blue skies, calmseas and only a small breeze helping me along. After the last couple daysthe boat suddenly feels very heavy!Today was a milestone for me being 10 days into the crossing, the end of thebeginning as I see it. For my first 10 days I’ll be looking at having madejust under 300 miles towards Barbados, not bad considering I had at least 3days in the low 20’s. It also now gives me a target to beat for my next 10days, something I am very positive should be achievable, as long as theweather stays favourable.Before I left home I had...

The rest of my first week has continued as it began in the first three days, although the weather has picked up the last couple days for periods of time and today I have had 15 knots of ENE with some good running swell which will hopefully stick around now. My daily mileage is picking up, I’ll give a running total on Monday when I have completed 10 days. Things are slowly falling into place, the first week was always going to be the hardest for the body at least, but I am noticing I am starting to come physically better than a few days ago. I have struggled to eat all my ration packs, over 5000 calories in each, but am getting through more and more each day and am sure next week I’ll be eating all of them. So far the best meal has been ‘pasta provence’, with the...

Setting off again, I departed San Sebastian marina at 0600 on Saturday 21st January. I was given a second send off, albeit smaller than last time but Robert and Caroline came out to see me off on their boat Aragorn and were joined by Andy and Ludo, some other friends I had made during my prolonged stay in the marina! Flags were flying and horns were blowing, I was even cooked a pre-departure bacon and egg sandwich by Robert which was great and very much appreciated! Aragorn stuck around until just after dawn by which time I was well down the island having had a good following breeze. This then died about 1000 and made the rest of day 1 hard work in a choppy sea and next to no current helping me out. It was great to be back out though so I was not in anyway complaining. For the...

Just a quick one- I was hoping to be away in the morning after a great final test yesterday with the boat performing really well. The wind finally arrived after a very still few days and out in the acceleration zone I got into 25+ knots of winds and the boat handled really well. Had a chat with Stokey (my weather router) last night who explained the winds were moving East Wedensday to Friday so my options were either to get out this morning (Monday) and do my best to get South of El Hierro before Wednesday or wait until the weekend when it is currently looking like I will have at least 3 days of NE's. The risk if I left this morning was that by Wednesday I would have the winds pushing me onto a lee shore and without any support boat this time it really isn't worth the...