This last week has been the longest and most tiring of the crossing so far, not just because of the inevitable effect of 50 days rowing taking its toll on the body, more that the weather has made for some testing rowing conditions.
For the most part of this last week I have had between 10-14 knots of wind and swell of 0.5-1.5m. Often the wind has all but disappeared and along with ever increasing temperatures, one day last week it reached 36°C on deck, it has been heavy going. While most would see these as very idyllic conditions to be in, I can assure you that rowing in them is tough. At times I have also found myself fighting against a swell pushing me north, just to add to the fun and games of it all!
It would seem that these are the sorts of conditions I can expect now as I move in towards Barbados. I know in other blogs rowing in these sorts of conditions has been described as if rowing through wet cement, and that very much sums up what it is like!
I continue to remain in a good frame of mind though as I slowly pass the goals en route. I remind myself that things could be worse, I’m not going backwards for one, and so I have nothing really to complain about and then I just get on with it.
With not many weeks left now I am trying to make the most of the situation I am in and enjoy the relative freedom I have out here. I have no overwhelming urge to reach the finish at this stage which can happen as teams get closer in to land. This may still happen but in the meantime I am being strict with myself that the time to think about the end is when I can see it, until then it is still treating each day as it comes.
Saying that each mile rowed now is one less to go! So I’m sure over the coming days I will start to pick it up a bit, try and get a few more hours in each day and see if I can pick up a day or 2 on my estimated arrival.
So currently I have 673nm to go, about 40 miles to go until ¾’s done. I am also hitting the 2 month mark tomorrow as day 60 although I can’t say it feels like I have been at sea for that long.
Once again thank you to everyone for all the awesome support. I know back home in Kirdford there are a lot of fundraising efforts in place, thank you to Catherine and everyone for all their help, and thank you to the County Times for keeping up the story!
Blogs over the next few weeks may well become less regular as I work on my route in to Barbados. Almost every day though I will update my mileage on Twitter. To see this just click the ‘follow me on Twitter’ button on the homepage (www.soloatlanticrow2011.co.uk) and you will be able to see my feed. Failing that go to the website www.twitter.com/soloatlanticrow for the same site. In both instances you will not need to sign up to anything to see my updates.
Thanks again everyone, not too long now!
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