On Friday I decided to start the day with some humour and cheer, I heard the 10 min shout to get on watch so put on my clothes, grabbed my Red Noses (DJ Boogie and Dr Nose). I put on DJ Boogie because I am always wearing headphones listening to the great Spotify playlists you have shared with me. Niall opened the hatch door to come off watch to see me with a red Nose (I will leave you to imagine the Irish commentary).

So once on deck there was a confused Frenchman and a Dutchman who actually knew what Red Nose Day was. I gave Ralph the Dr.Nose and then got on with rowing. After a while Clément asked how I was feeling because I sounded funny, I replied yes but I am rowing with my red Nose on. This was probably not the greatest idea as it restricted my breathing but I was determined to complete 2hrs which I did :).

During the day we had heavy currents of 2knts pushing us along in the right direction but poor wind and sea state meant we only made 3 - 3.5knts boat speed.

On days where the boat speed is difficult to increase above the current with two people, then we try to use the time of the other to do chores. Ralph & Niall took some time to do maintanace on the watermaker and bilges.

So what else is s great motivator on a boat?

You guessed right it's food and especially sweets and chocolate. I proposed to Niall that we opened The Tuck shop for next ration allocations. The minute he replied yes Clément appeared on deck and Ralph down oars and rushed to the cabin. Both of these guys had consumed everything issued last week and were desperate for more, I on the other hand had about 70% left. My strategy is to eat as little of the things I like until the going gets tough and I need those extra pick me ups, let's see how that plays out. To help ease the other guys pain we do also share a large bar of chocolate between 4 every Tuesday (mid week for rations).

Following the theme of food as a key motivator on the boat we do have some other savoury treats that we can have to add to the meals, these include Chorizo Sausages, various smoked or cured meats, various cheeses & sardines.

Overall the food on board is really nutritional and tasty so a big thank you to our sponsors Summit to Eat @SummitToEat for their support.

The evening was slightly more eventful with fork Lightning and rain Squalls for a few hours, it was actually a nice change and very refreshing so everyone was quite fascinated by the way the sky was lite up by the lightening.

The final watch of the evening and early hours of Saturday were spent Star gazing. I remembered from when on Clipper that I had an App on my IPad to identify the stars. Ralph had a theory that you can tell which points in the sky are planets because they reflect on the ocean unlike Stars, Niall was not convinced so we got the app out to get for Jupiter. Can anyone confirm the theory?

The app turns out to demotivate the rowing team as we ground to a halt whilst we all took in finding the different constellations Pegasus, Ursa Major the great bear (or the plough as most call it) and Hercules.

So apologies for the delay in blog updates, I will put the app away now and get writing the other updates.

Please remember whilst I am taking the time to update you on our Adventure there are others that need our support. Please can you find the time to spread the word and show your support by making a donation to one of the charities I have chosen to support.

https://colinblears.com/challenges/#atlanticrow

Also please can you follow me on twitter @Cblears so you can stay updated with this and future challenges.


From Colin's blog