Monday 5th January – Day 21
- dawnysmiff
- Jan 5
- 2 min read
(Covering the last 24 hours)
The past 24 hours have been teasing us. We’ve had a taste of the good stuff, only for the ocean to throw in a proper slog shift for good measure. Still, everything is definitely improving — and given that we weren’t forecast anything particularly special, we’re treating every good spell as a bonus.
🌊 Be Careful What You Wish For
Although we’re really looking forward to bigger conditions, they come with their own challenges.
When it’s flat calm, life feels almost civilised. You can put something down and know it’ll still be there a few seconds later. You can get dressed without bashing into every edge inside the cabin. You can open the cabin door and step out on deck with a reasonable expectation that the ocean will stay outside the boat.
When things pick up, that all changes.
On one crossing a few years ago we had some massive waves, and on more than one occasion a wave made it into the cabin. There are strict rules — not just race rules but our own safety rules — about keeping the cabin door closed. Those rules will continue when this expedition goes independent on the next two legs.
That said, at some point you have to open the door to get in or out — and Mother Nature seems to have a sixth sense for that exact moment. She waits patiently, then delivers a perfectly timed wave straight across the deck.
The same rule applies to getting wet on deck. It only ever rains or a wave hits you exactly ten minutes before the end of your shift. Any earlier and you’d have time to dry off. But no — you arrive in your bunk soaking wet, every time. It’s uncanny.
🚰 A Near-Crisis Averted
The only near-catastrophic episode yesterday involved thinking we had a broken watermaker.
It would build pressure, then conk out just before the pump system kicked in. Not ideal.
We worked methodically through the checks:
Water intake — all good
Pipes and connections — all good
Bleeding air (a bit like a radiator) — all good
Starting without pressure to reduce power draw — all good
But as soon as we closed the valve to build the required pressure… it cut out again.
Finally, we tried resetting the ram (I’ll spare you the technical details), and — hey presto — it worked. Back up and running, and within the hour we had full tanks of water again.
Crisis very much averted.
At the moment, we’ve got a nice breeze, and we’re hoping it sticks around for the next 24 hours.
Onwards.
Dawn
“Together Paul and I are rowing home — the long way round.”
Hometown Row
Leg 1 – La Gomera to Antigua
Leg 2 – Antigua to Florida
Leg 3 – Canada to the UK
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🌐 Or visit the website: www.rowaurora.co.uk
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