Rowing Across the Atlantic - Over 2,500 n/miles!

Excerpt from Lin and Rachel's Blog: 

"by the early hours of the morning it all went mad out there. The wind has increased, the waves are huge, angry and have white tops and we have a lot of cloud cover with some of it tipping rain down."

"You’d think we’d be used to the weather conditions by now as it has been with us for most of the journey so far but the fact is it hurts and knocks the morale when you are being thrown around so much and having the most enormous waves landing on you every couple of minutes. Both of us finish each two hour session with every joint in our bodies aching, our skin sore from the salt water and our clothes soaked through – even our waterproof jackets are no longer waterproof! Still, we try to keep reminding ourselves of the nice days we had recently and we are now constantly longing to get to Antigua. So we’ll crack on and face whatever is thrown at us and look forward to the delights Antigua and getting home have to offer."

"Note to Kim at Yachtpals.com – looks like Rachel and I should travel the world to learn how to sail through all our supporters, what a great way to see the world too."

"So today sees us trying to keep a steady line at around 17 degrees North whilst heading West as fast as we can. The wind is still making that a little tricky but we’re doing ok with that. We’ve also had another small bottle of Champagne as we’ve received the great news that we are now 2/3 of the way there with less than 850 n/miles left to go (Thank you Gordon & Dave). It won’t be long now before we can tell our friends and families when we hope to arrive so they can book the flights – we can’t wait to see you all there and frequently dream of seeing you there when we row into English Harbour.

Why have all these milestones? – To tackle a challenge of this magnitude, you have to break it down into bite size chunks and we apply that to practically everything. It would be quite sole destroying if all we looked at was the big picture of 2,552 n/miles of ocean to cross. The most significant milestone, apart from the finish of course, is the halfway mark, we knew when we got to half way that the other half was the homeward stretch. So breaking down the full distance into milestones keeps our spirits up and help us to focus on something other than a huge challenge. Even our two hour rowing shifts get broken down into smaller bits when we’re rowing, spaced out with water and stretch stops at around ½ hour intervals to help the time pass more quickly. This is something that we brought with us from our dragon boating past and it works well in all walks of life."

"Kim at Yachtpals – It’ll be great to meet up with some Yachtpals in Antigua – if you could let us know how best to contact them when we get there we’ll definitely do that. Or they can just keep an eye out for the pink boat pulling into English Harbour. My friend is sorting out our accommodation and I assume it will be in/around English Harbour area and we hope to be there for a few days at least."

Love & hugs,

Lin & Rachel

Excerpt from Lin and Rachel's Blog:
"We mentioned in a recent blog that we hadn’t seen much wildlife recently, and are hoping that this changes as we get closer to the Caribbean. Today Rachel was rowing just before a handover and spotted a dark patch in the water behind the boat. Concerned that it might be fishing net about to foul up the rudder, Lin popped out to take a closer look. Only to find the biggest turtle in history staring back at her!

This turtle was a good 6 feet long and wide – certainly as wide as the boat, and had a head the size of a rugby ball. Hence we’d like to call him Twickers! He had a good look at the boat then swam off with his entourage of fish, silver ones with yellow tails that looked very tropical. We waited a while to see if we could get him on camera, but like every dolphin we’ve seen so far, he proved to be that little bit too camera shy!

Meanwhile we continue to make good mileage, and it’s hot, hot, hot out here at the moment. We’re getting kinder conditions at night, but it still doesn’t make up for only getting sleep in one and a half hour sessions!"

"Our next milestone is getting very close now, so the Champagne Charlotte’s will be cracking open another little bottle in the near future! For anyone who is interested, the best estimate for our arrival in Antigua is 15th Feb, based on completing over 40 miles a day. Our families arrive on 14th, so even if we slow down due to conditions, they should be able to see us arrive.

If you are in Antigua and want to find out more, look out for the boats already in English Harbour and ask for the Woodvale Challenge office where they should be able to help. "

Love and Hugs Lin & Rachel

Only two weeks to go.  Keep safe, and we're watching.

LO

Excerpts from Lin and Rachel's Blog - Friday, 01 February 2008: "With our families now having booked flights and accommodation, we are hoping to make landfall on 16th February – but of course the Ocean may have other ideas by then! Yesterday we made huge progress West, but most of that was on rough water and steering rather than rowing. By 1am, conditions were pretty horrible on deck and as Lin is suffering a little from her injury, we decided to drift for the rest of the night. Safety comes first on this boat.

This morning we woke to find a wild and untamed sea outside. The waves are massive and frequently come over the gunwhales, but it’s still sunny, very windy and we can laugh about it at the moment! Bizarrely, we’re worried about arriving in Antigua too soon – after two and a half months of trying to go as fast as possible! "

Saturday, 02 February 2008: "We had the great news last night from Caroline in Antigua, that we have just 550 n/miles left to go. This means that we have rowed over 2,000 n/miles so far – we still find it amazing that we’ve been able to do this. It doesn’t matter how many people tell us we’re awesome, brave, courageous etc. we think we’re just regular ordinary people living our dream."

Monday, 04 February 2008: "The sea remains heavy and we’ve seen multiple squalls of rain over the last few days, especially in the morning and just before the sun goes down. You know when they’re coming too – the sea gets bigger and the wind whips up, then you get drenched by big rain drops that hurt! Unless of course you sprint back to the cabin in time! The only good thing about the squalls is that we’ve seen some fantastic rainbows.

We made back our 15 miles above 17 degrees North quite well, then got blown South a couple of miles. We managed to minimize this, both during the day and at night, but started rowing yesterday at 16 degrees 54 minutes North. Despite heading North all day, we only made back half a mile and every time we stopped, the Southerly drift kicked in again. It’s pretty soul destroying, though the saving grace is that we were still making great miles West.

So, amid howls of ‘but I don’t want to go South’ from Rachel, we tied off the steering again, put a Scott Mills podcast on and settled down with our ‘less than 500 miles to go Champagne’ for the night. It was a quiet night and we both slept better. With both rowers in the cabin the temperature often gets unbearable and it’s tricky to sleep any way other than flat on your back. Not normally comfortable after the first few hours!

This morning we woke up early and switched on the GPS, only to find that we were actually further North than we had been at any time yesterday. Typical! All that effort rowing yesterday to get nowhere, then we go to bed and make better progress! So now we’re ploughing North and West, hoping to get back to the vicinity of 17 degrees North as soon as possible."

Tuesday, 05 February 2008: Things are a little quiet on the boat at the moment – even between the two of us. Probably due to the desperation to just get there now and us constantly thinking about the things we’re looking forward to when we reach land. Also in our own minds, we’re reflecting on what we have done so far and how we can use the experience in the future – whether to further our careers or to take on a complete change of direction – who knows where this will lead us.

Shortly after the blog was sent yesterday, Lin spotted a dark patch in one of the waves and quietly said to Rachel to get a camera ready. The reason Lin spoke quietly is because we think we may have scared some wildlife off with our excited shouts to the other in the past.

Very quickly the dark patch was spotted again and yes, we had whales visiting us again. There were at least two of them and they were swimming around and under the boat again for around ½ hour. This time, Rachel managed to get some great photos too."

Love and Hugs to you all from Lin & Rachel

From Lin and Rachel's Blog: "In our desperate bid to stay as close to 17 Degrees North as possible, we found the elements didn’t want to play ball and sent us 15 miles too far South. So yesterday and last night we found ourselves having to grit our teeth and row so hard to claw it all back. As usual, this meant going sideways onto the waves which in turn means getting soaked all the time.

I’m sure some of you will be thinking “Well what did you expect in the middle of the Atlantic?” and you’d be right to think that. However, the consequences of constantly getting soaked with sea water is a bit like this:-

Imagine sitting on a load of that lovely sea salt that we all buy because it’s a bit posher than the regular salt!!! Now wriggle around on it for 2 hours, have 2 hours rest then repeat that 24 hours a days. Guess what? You won’t have a great deal of skin left on your bottom and it will be extremely sore. Believe us, it does bring tears to your eyes!

To try to ease the enormous discomfort this brings, in our breaks we clean the salt away, add yet more Sudacreme and try to dry off the clothes we were wearing in the last session. We’ve now even taken to wearing our carrier bags around our waist to try to stop the salt water getting on our shorts and acting as a kind of spray deck that you would use in kayaking. This is working pretty well so far but some of the waves are so huge, nothing will stop them getting you."

"We marked reaching 400 nautical miles with a difference last night. This time we celebrated with a mini Baileys each and Rachel opened the gift from Hilary which was a really nice make up set. Need to make sure we look our best when we get into English Harbour. "

"Yachtpals.com – thank you for forwarding messages from Antigua Yacht Club and Aleida from ABSAR.

Aleida it would be great to meet up when we arrive along with Caroline from ABSAR – perhaps we could all meet at the Antigua Yacht Club if they don’t mind accommodating us and our family for a few drinks.

Antigua Yacht Club – we nearly contacted you recently to see if you could help us find some accommodation but a friend has managed to sort that out now. Perhaps we could come to the club with our family for a few drinks and meet up with the people from ABSAR and members of Yachtpals.com who have been supporting us throughout the race. "

Caroline ABSAR – We hear you’ve been in touch with our families. Rachel and I would love to visit the school that’s been following our progress and answer any questions the students may have. We will be staying in Antigua until around 29th February.

Love and Hugs to you all from Lin & Rachel

Hi Kim, Lin and Rachel,

First of all, great news Lin and Rachel that you are so close to us. Antigua is waiting for you. I hope the wind which will be so strong this coming week will blow you this time right to the finish line. We are thinking of you out there!!! You guys will make it and Caroline and I can't wait to witness the finish of all your hard work!!!

Kim if you or somebody else want to come on the Absar boat let us know. If you still need any help for accommodation let me know.

Fantastic to host your party at the Antigua Yacht Club. Maybe Kim you can give me a ring so we can discuss what else you have in mind.

Again all my best wishes..cu very soon!!!!

Aleida

ABSAR (Antigua Barbuda Search and Rescue)

From Lin and Rachel's Blog:

"Since we’ve been out here on our epic adventure, we have acquired a number of supporters and it seems quite a few will be in Antigua when we get there.

We will have to clean the boat down, unpack everything and repack her ready for shipping back to the UK. This will entail getting rid of all the ballast water, cleaning the cabins, disposing of our rubbish, washing and repacking our clothes (some will just be ditched as they really aren’t that nice any more!), taking out the flares and remaining gas as these are shipped separately and basic clearing up.

We will also need a few days to recover, get our land legs back again and get over land sickness, which we have both suffered before (not looking forward to that bit) but this shouldn’t take more than 2-3 days. We may even go and get our hair done, a massage and facial too – bliss!

We’ve had the nod to go to Antigua Yacht Club for drinks one evening – we think it would be a great idea to perhaps hold a questions and answer session for members of the yacht club and members of Yachtpals.com maybe on our first Friday evening there.

We’ve also heard that there is a local school where the pupils have been following the race and we’d be happy to pop along one day to answer any questions the pupils may have.

We’d love to take a tour of the island and do the normal tourist things – we’ve heard you can hire a taxi for the day and they’ll take you to all the sights and tell you all about them so that may be a good idea. Our accommodation has a BBQ and swimming pool so we will probably spend plenty of time there and invite any other rowers who get in around the same time as us (we’ve already spoken to Elin & Herdip on Dream Maker about this). If anyone has any other suggestions, we’d love to hear them as we’d hate to miss out on things while we’re there.

In the meantime, we continue to battle the rough seas and high winds that have returned today and try to stop ourselves going too far South – this is becoming more and more important the closer we get as the finish line is only a mile wide! We’ve now got less than 200 miles to go (188 according to our GPS) so another bottle of champagne is about to be cracked open and we have one ready for 100 miles to go and one for first sight of land, then the last one to spray everywhere when we step foot on dry land! Getting there slowly!!!!"

"Kim @ Yachtpals.com – thank you for relaying messages about Antigua Yacht Club and ABSAR. We’ll definitely go to the yacht club and hopefully have the chance to meet up with some members of Yachtpals. As there will be 5 members of our families out in Antigua, it would be a bit difficult to say who would like to go on the rescue boat so we think it would be better to have them all waiting for us together."

Love and Hugs to you all from Lin & Rachel

Excerpts from Lin and Rachel's Blog:

"This will be the last blog from the boat as the next will be on dry land! How good does that sound after the emotional rollercoaster of the last 76 days."

"It would appear our tracking unit isn’t working again and as we’ve now put the liferaft back in it’s position, we’re unable to change the fuse again so we’re now sending regular position updates to Race HQ. According to our GPS we have just 24.5 nautical miles left to go. We have to contact Antigua and Barbuda Search and Rescue when we get to 20 nautical miles to go and they will meet us at the finish line."

"Thank you so much for all of the support we have had during our challenge. We’ve had over 1,200 messages so far and they’re still coming in. It has been incredible how many people have been in touch and from so many different countries too.

However, remember to keep reading our blog as we will be adding to it from Antigua – there is some news from our journey that we haven’t yet shared with you!!!

We’ll also be posting updates about events that we have lined up (Brixham Try A Boat Weekend in May and Women’s Henley Regatta in June) and we intend to have a big campaign closing party to celebrate our achievement towards the end of June, which is when we officially finish the campaign with Breast Cancer Care.

This is Barbara Ivy – almost mission accomplished! Estimated time of arrival 10.30pm GMT (6.30pm local time).

Love and Hugs to you all from Lin & Rachel"

www.atlanticrowingchallenge.co.uk
www.justgiving.com/atlanticrowing

Barbara Ivy crossed the Finish Line at 23.12GMT last night (16-02-08)!!! 

The UK rowing team is now safe and sound, and I'm sure enjoying some much needed rest, and time with their families. 

Lin and Rachel told me in an email weeks ago that one of the reason they did this was because someone told them they could not do it.  Well, you did it!  We knew you could!

Over 2,500 nautical miles, 2 months at sea, and over 65,000 pounds raised for Breast Cancer Care.  We are so proud of you!

- Kim 

Hi Kim,

It was great to witness their finish with Liam on board on the ABSAR boat. Wow, very much impressed.

We met the family and they had the warm welcome with a lot of horn blowing and flares when they entered English Harbour. They also mentioned that they really appreciate your support very much!

Here are some photos I took. It was night time so not easy to have very good ones. Amanda of Woodavale and

other family member took photos as well.

All the best, Aleida

Lin and Rachel enter English Harbour

English Harbour - Antigua

English Harbour - Antigua

CONGRATULATIONS from BUNNY FROM CANADA I FOLLOWED YOUR TRIP ALL THE WAY!!!WOW LOVE THE PHOTO FINNISH!!!

The bit that we didn't tell you all, about the day that Barbara Ivy capsized! (from Lin and Rachel)

In our last blog from the Ocean, we hinted that there was something we hadn't mentioned that you might be interested to hear about. But now we're back on dry land, we can fill in the gaps and tell you all about the terrifying day that we suffered a capsize and Barbara Ivy rolled over a full 360 degrees.

Last Saturday, 9th February, we were following our normal rowing routine. Having been blown South during the night (yet again) we were making our way North and West on a bearing of 300-330 degrees (NW-ish). As usual, this meant that we were crossing the waves at an angle and broadside to the wind. This was the day after we'd been soaked by the huge wave coming into the cabin in the night.
This didn't pose any particular problem, it was something we'd done numerous times before it was just uncomfortable and meant that we got very wet.
In the early afternoon, Lin came out of the cabin to cook lunch and Rachel stored the oars (as we always did), and continued steering the boat while Lin prepared the food.

Suddenly, Rachel spotted the God Father of all waves building up. 'Watch out' she shouted to Lin, who whipped round like lightning to close and lock the cabin door as it was slightly open to dry it out from the previous days soaking. As Lin turned round and braced herself, the wave changed direction, swirled round and broke violently and broadside over Barbara Ivy.

We didn't stand a chance, and it all happened so quickly that we barely knew what was going on. As the water filled the boat, she tipped up and in a flash we were over. Rachel wrenched her foot out of the steering shoe, and seeing light and bubbles, kicked out for the surface. Lin hung on to the stowed oars and as we went under, just kept reminding herself to hold on.  As she saw daylight, she knew it was OK to let go.

We popped up next to each other, barely able to comprehend what had happened. A quick check ensured that we both seemed OK and there were no serious injuries. You could say that luckily we were clipped on to the boat by our safety harnesses, but it wasn't luck as the rule on our boat was that if you were outside, you were harnessed on. This probably saved our bacon in more ways than one.

Bizarrely at this point, Lin (aka Guts Griesel) spotted her Cod and Potato lunch floating past, and grabbed the sealed bag to throw back in the boat for later on! Rachel meanwhile was able to use the grab ropes down the side of the boat to help her back in, and was then able to help Lin in.

Both of us went into automatic pilot, we checked all the kit onboard and made sure that none of the dry bags were missing. Next, we bailed the boat and as one of the oars had broken, changed it for a new one. We also discovered that the kettle and cooker, which had been loose on deck, were wedged under opposite gunwhales, the spoons were still tucked under the ropes fastening the liferaft, our rubbish bag was still there, and the matches were dry! The only items that Neptune had been able to claim were Rachel's sunglasses, a compass (we had a spare!), Lin's left hand glove, a drinks bottle and the toilet lid which was broken anyway!

Naturally, the emotions developed later on after the adrenaline rush had settled. We know how lucky we were to come out of this incident with just a few bruises to show and a story to tell - others have not been so fortunate. We reported the capsize to Race Control but asked them not to tell anyone. We knew we only had around a week to go and although the option of rescue is always available, it's not an option that we wanted to exercise. We intended to finish the race, but did not want to worry our families and supporters unnecessarily as we were safe and well, if somewhat shaken up by the experience.

That night we put out the sea anchor and stayed inside to regroup and get some confidence back (we still remembered to drink our 300 nm to go champagne though). The next day, whoever was resting stayed on deck to support whoever was rowing and in this way, we got through it. But it wasn't all plain sailing, we both had other massive waves hit us broadside in the following days, giving flashbacks and leaving us shaking, tearful and terrified in the rowing seat.
But we made it through the week and the welcome in Antigua was all the more precious because of it. Once we were both safely on dry land, we told our families and now that they know we are OK, we can tell you the story too.

We can assure you that we are fine now, although some of the bruises are still there and the memories will stay with us forever. We've always had complete confidence in Barbara Ivy, and this simply proves that her design and build are second to none and she truly is a legend amongst Ocean rowing boats (she still holds the record for the fastest 4 man crossing).

76 days, 11 hours and 12 minutes at Sea
(from Lin and Rachels Blog)

At 11.12pm (GMT) on 16th February 2008, Ocean rowing boat Barbara Ivy crossed the official finish line at Cape Shirley, Antigua - winning the women's pairs class of the race!

After all the trials and tribulations of our final weeks at sea, our last night was perfect. Clear skies, with the moon and stars lighting our way and for once, the wind and waves helping us go in the right direction.

We rowed through the night and at our shift change around 4am, Lin came on deck to take over. The moon had just set and Rachel whispered 'just look over my shoulder and tell me what you can see!'. With great excitement, Lin spotted the glow of Antigua, 35 miles away.

As dawn broke, the glow disappeared and despite straining eyes at every opportunity, we didn't see land until around lunch time. On this last day, we rowed through a couple of squalls and saw some of the calmest water. We even managed to both wash our hair.

In due course, we reached the 20nm to go point and radioed ABSAR to let them know that we (along with 2 solo rowers) were on our final approach! On we rowed, with excitement building. At 10nm to go, we made our next call to ABSAR and fixed in the second rowing position so that we could both row together for the final few miles.
We put on our special 'homecoming' outfits, kept clean and dry especially for the occasion, set our waterproof speakers on deck and set off together, singing away to the music. Shortly after, the sky clouded over and our jackets were back on as the rain fell, and fell and fell some more! Antigua disappeared from view and we just used the GPS co-ordinates to guide us to the 1nm long finish line, South of Cape Shirley lighthouse.

At 5nm to go, we made our final call to ABSAR, who cheerfully said they would see us in a while. Excitement was reaching fever pitch and as the sky cleared, Rachel turned around to see if Antigua was back in view. With a squawk, she dropped the oars and Lin turned around too. Antigua was there, and now very close indeed as we could see beaches, breaking waves and houses and smell the land, green and tropical.
The wind turned NE again and we were blown a little too much South, which meant a final push across the waves to maintain our position as close to shore as we dared. As it got darker and see the mass of Cape Shirley. With a mile to go, we were singing away when the ABSAR Rib boat appeared out of nowhere with a roar and scared the bejeebers out of us!

Everyone was cheering and shouting, and they had a special visitor on board. Liam, Lin's 13 year old son stepped out to the bow from the shadowy figures, a very special moment for us all as she hadn't seen him for 3 months. With a cry of 'Oh my God, it's my boy!' happy tears followed!

The finish line was marked with a chorus of horns and hooters, laughing and crying we stopped rowing and hugged tightly. We'd only gone and blooming done it!
English Harbour is a mile further on and we followed the ABSAR boat round the headland and into the channel. By now it was completely dark and a photographer in a tiny dinghy made us jump as he came up alongside. As we rowed past the Fort supporters lit up flares, which allowed us to see the whole harbour. There were dozens of yachts now in view with their crews on deck, all cheering and sounding horns and hooters. Slowly we made our way to the quayside where what seemed like hundreds of people were waiting with more flares lighting our way. We passed a waterside bar who, when they realised that we were a women's crew, set off a massive cheer to welcome us in.

We navigated round some boats and pulled up (perfectly parked!). It was hard to make out faces in the light of the flares, but we eventually picked out our families and other familiar people. As we got covered in champagne, there was another surprise too as Lin spotted Rachel's brother and his partner in the crowd, and pointed them out - we had no idea that they were going to be there!

We set off our own flares and Lin cracked open a very special bottle of champagne - the one that we won on Ready Steady Cook!

Finally it was time to step onto dry land again, slightly easier said than done, but there were plenty of helping hands as we stepped up, wobbled, and nearly fell over!! More champagne was pushed towards us as the happy tears flowed amidst laughter and the best hugs we've ever experienced!

After more photo's we had to get back on the boat to collect our belongings and found it much easier to stand again! Eventually, we were able to make it back to the villa to enjoy the luxury of a first meal - consisting of tea and buttered toast! Next we were able to reacquaint ourselves with the miracles of showers, flushing toilets, running water, plates and cutlery, clean, dry sheets and beds that don't move!!
It's been an emotional and overwhelming few days, especially now that you know the full story of our adventures at sea! But it's the best feeling to be back on land, with loved ones around us again.

We'll have to spend a few days sorting out the boat, but will keep you updated on what we're up to and will continue our blogs while we're here and back in the UK. So please keep reading and we hope you enjoy them.

As ever, love and hugs, Rachel & Lin xx