Saturday 11th July- Day 16

Yesterday marked another little celebration on board...

Pineapple Friday!

If you've followed my previous ocean rows, you'll know this has become a bit of a tradition. Every Friday we crack open a small tin of pineapple. It's amazing how something so simple can become such a highlight when you're living on freeze-dried food. It might only last a few minutes, but for those few minutes we're eating something fresh, juicy and delicious. It certainly lifts morale.

The good news is we made some decent mileage over the last 24 hours.

For the first time since leaving Newfoundland, it actually became warm enough that I rowed one of my shifts wearing just my sports top. It felt wonderful to have the fresh air on my skin instead of being wrapped up in countless layers. It reminded me that, despite how cold the start of this crossing has been, we really are gradually making our way south.

The wind began swinging round to the south-east during the day, which unfortunately isn't what we wanted. A south-easterly is effectively trying to push us back towards where we've come from. Fortunately, there was still a helpful following current underneath us and the wind remained fairly light, so we were still able to make reasonable progress.

As darkness fell, however, the wind continued to build.

We rowed on through the evening and into the night, but by around 6am it became obvious that no matter how hard we pulled, we simply couldn't make any meaningful progress against it.

There comes a point where determination alone isn't enough.

So we made the decision to deploy the parachute anchor, also known as a sea anchor.

It's exactly what it sounds like—a large fabric parachute that opens underwater. Instead of anchoring to the seabed, it anchors to the water itself, creating enough drag to stop the boat being blown backwards too quickly and, just as importantly, keeping the bow pointing safely into the wind and waves. Rather than being pushed broadside-on, where the boat would roll violently, Penny B now rides the weather much more comfortably while we wait for conditions to improve.

Sometimes the quickest way forward...

...is to stop for a while.

So that's where we are.

Waiting patiently for the wind to do what the forecast says it should and swing round into a more favourable direction.

The North Atlantic is once again reminding us that she's the one making the decisions out here.

We'll be ready to start rowing again the moment she lets us.

---

Dawn

“Together Paul and I are rowing home — the long way round.”

Hometown Row

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