A post from Tommy's site dated: Tuesday, 28 Feb 2012
Day 39
Shortly after sunrise this morning I reached 1275 miles rowed which means I am now halfway! All downhill from here now...!
Although the weather over the last 10 days has slightly hindered progress, it’s great to have reached when I am. Now no longer leaving the Canaries but starting to work my way down towards Barbados, I will be hoping to catch some days up with the more stable weather and the challenge is to row the second half faster!
Since my last blog the weather has picked up and moved into the NE/ENE which has been good, although it has dropped again over the last 24 hours. The N swell that I was expecting from the storm near to the Azores never materialised which I am thankful for as it would have made for a fairly uncomfortable time and the winds turned meaning I was able to make some good progress south anyway.
Sunday afternoon brought with it my closest encounter with a cargo ship so far. The 274m ‘Genmar Spartiate’ (what a name) came within 1.7 miles of me and at that distance was a pretty impressive sight! I had a good chat with the Captain, Bridge to Bridge as it were, who told me they were sailing from Angola to Philadelphia with 1m barrels of crude oil on board. It took a bit of time for him to understand what I was doing out here and that I had no sails or engine but then wished me well on my way and that was that. Hopefully I won’t be getting any coming too much closer anyway, it is an awesome sight watching these huge ships come out the horizon and go past. So that’s cargo ships ticked off but wildlife is still remaining fairly elusive with just the tuna still knocking about. Saying that I have started to see more and more flying fish about and the ones I find on deck are starting to get bigger. Hopefully soon they will be big enough to eat, apparently pretty good raw with a bit of salt if Mr Hemingway is to be believed. Not sure I packed any salt though...
So this morning I took a couple hours off to celebrate, although festivities were fairly reserved! Also from what I hear there are many people back in the UK more than willing to observe my halfway mark with a drink or 3 so I will leave it to you all and thank you!
For when I left back in December I was given some Christmas cards and presents that I opened today instead, making it my Christmas at sea. Thank you to those of you who gave me something, I received some awesome gifts! Chocolate, cake, biltong, some great stuff. Also I left La Gomera of the honest opinion that this was a dry boat, after today it now seems I have more whisky than ballast water- of course it was Talisker as no other whiskies are available....I hear Glenn enjoys a good game of quidditch?
I also had a list of jobs to do on the boat that I have been holding back on, so the break also gave me the chance to sort them out. It was a quiet morning so made things easier to sort onboard and when I got on the oars this afternoon the weather picked up and had some great hours rowing so all has been good today!
I was able to get through to a few sponsors this afternoon and thank them again for their support, but I thought I would thank them publically here as well. Obviously there are many people who have contributed to this project and I thank each one of you, and at this time I would specifically like to mention Molyneux Rose, Ked Consulting ltd., Orbana, Johnny & Art and Tonic, the Webb family, Jon S & Tim Barker for all their help.
Great news on the fundraising front, we are up to just over £4,400 online for donations and we have also had some fantastic donations given offline and also handed directly to Mind on my behalf so it is going well. Thank you again everyone, every little bit will make a difference. All information on Mind and why I am supporting them is on the website. Please do continue to tell friends and family about my trip and anything people can spare would be hugely appreciated. Online donations can be made via the website, www.SoloAtlanticRow2011.co.uk, whilst you can also hand donations to anyone of the family or into a Mind shop directly.
So halfway there, and with both Simon Chalk’s 8 man team now having left Las Palmas going for a record to Barbados and my birthday creeping up in a couple of weeks, it looks like I’m going to have to find some miles to beat them both in! Thanks everyone, amazing support as always please keep it up!
Hei Tommy. When your blog comes on my `Mac`I sit me down with a `cuppa`Cut out everything around and just read. you have a great talent for writing and making us all your followers feel that we are there with you on Led Endeavour. Can nearly feel the boat rocking and see flying fish......seriously hope that all is going well with your hands and arms and that you have as little as possible of discomfort. Over the last weeks I get to know more about you and the reason for your very brave unselfish act for other human beings that do not have it so good and need all the help we can give them. I appeal to everyone to help Tommy`s aim of 4.000 pounds,let`s make it double,every little helps ,one less bottle of the hard stuff ,give instead to Main. God bless and keep you safe. Bye now!.
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