Friday 31st July- Day 36
- dawnysmiff
- Jul 31
- 3 min read
Image of a sunfish from my pacific crossing in 2023.
Pineapple Friday… and a Chocolate Crisis
It’s Pineapple Friday again!
Hopefully we’ve only got a couple more Pineapple Fridays to spend out here in the open ocean before we reach the UK coastline and begin making our way along the south coast towards Burnham-on-Crouch.
Now that really is something to look forward to.
It’s been another pleasant 24 hours with plenty of sunshine. After everything we’ve battled over the past few weeks, it almost feels as though the Atlantic is finally apologising!
We’re still making the most of a favourable current, although we know it won’t last much longer. Every extra mile it gives us now is one less we’ll have to fight for later.
The forecast is still suggesting we’ll probably be back on the parachute anchor tomorrow, but we’ll keep monitoring the weather and make our decision when the time comes.
As always…
The ocean gets the final say.
We had a couple of interesting wildlife sightings yesterday.
The first was something I’m pretty sure was a sunfish.
It wasn’t swimming in any particular direction, just sort of flapping around on the surface with its large dorsal fin sticking out of the water. I only caught a glimpse of it as we passed, right at the end of my oar.
Because we were moving along at around 2.5 knots, we were soon well past it. The last thing I saw was that solitary fin sticking out of the sea, almost as though it was waving goodbye as it disappeared into the distance.
The second sighting, however…
…I know exactly what it was.
A huge tuna launched itself completely clear of the water about 30 metres behind the boat.
Watching it instantly reminded me of my Atlantic crossing to Antigua with Team Ocean Empower.
Debs and I were rowing when we suddenly heard a huge splash behind us. We both turned around at exactly the same moment to see a tuna, about four feet long, launch itself around four feet into the air just four feet behind the boat.
It was so close that my first thought wasn’t, “Wow!”
It was…
“Please don’t do that again!”
I was genuinely worried it might land in the boat with us.
It was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever seen, and yesterday’s tuna brought that memory flooding straight back.
The night itself was quite cloudy, so there wasn’t much of a night sky to admire.
Fortunately, I’d come prepared with some new playlists.
The first hour and ten minutes of my shift was accompanied by Wham!’s Greatest Hits, followed by a healthy dose of the Best of the ’80s.
With calm conditions, good music and the boat slipping steadily west to east beneath a full moon hidden somewhere behind the cloud, the night shift passed surprisingly quickly.
In fact…
…I actually enjoyed it.
This morning has started cloudy again, but there are patches of blue beginning to appear, so we’re hopeful for another kind day before everything becomes tactical once more, with weather routing, possible parachute anchors…
…and perhaps the return of our movie nights and leisurely coffee mornings.
Before I go…
I have to report that the chocolate situation is even worse than I first feared.
After conducting a full inventory, I’ve discovered I have…
One Snickers.
One bag of M&M’s.
One Twix.
That’s it.
It’s a very sad day.
Don’t worry—we’ve got plenty of proper food and lots of other snacks.
But I’m afraid I’ve made a serious error in my expedition planning.
I completely misjudged the chocolate rations.
And I may never forgive myself.
Dawn
“Together Paul and I are rowing home — the long way round.”
Hometown Row
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