Sunday 5th July- Day 10
- dawnysmiff
- Jul 5
- 2 min read
Another 24 hours of fog.
Another 24 hours without seeing the sun.
The cloud and mist continue to plague us. We haven’t seen the sun for around three days now, and with no clear skies we’ve also missed out on the spectacular night skies that have become one of my favourite parts of ocean rowing.
The wildlife seems to have disappeared too. Other than the odd bird, it’s been strangely quiet.
Talking of birds though…
One decided it had declared war on our VHF aerials!
I was tucked away in the cabin when I kept hearing this strange “boing… boing… boing…” coming from outside. At first I couldn’t work out what on earth it was.
When I poked my head out of the cabin, there it was—a seabird repeatedly swooping down and pecking the top of the aerial before pulling away and circling round for another attack.
Every successful hit sent the aerial wobbling backwards and forwards with another loud “boing!”
Quite what the aerial had done to offend it, I’ve no idea!
The first eighteen hours of the last 24 were another proper slog.
A north-running current kept pushing us higher than our intended course, so despite rowing hard we weren’t quite making the progress we’d hoped for. Thankfully, things have improved over the last few hours. We’ve now found ourselves in a lighter current with a gentle tailwind helping us along, and it’s been lovely to see the boat speed creeping back into the three-knot range at times.
It’s amazing what a difference that makes to morale.
As the evening drew in, we were treated to one spectacular sight. Around the horizon a thunderstorm began to build. We watched flashes of lightning dance between the clouds, briefly illuminating the dark sky before disappearing again. It stayed well away from us, thankfully, but it put on quite a light show as the storm slowly worked its way around the horizon. Moments like that remind you just how powerful the atmosphere can be out here in the middle of the Atlantic.
One thing I hadn’t appreciated yesterday was just how deceptive fog can be.
During one of my rowing shifts I’d warmed up nicely from the effort, so I wasn’t wearing my waterproof jacket. It wasn’t actually raining, so I thought I was fine.
What I hadn’t realised was that the moisture from the fog had completely soaked into my fleece.
By the time I came off shift it was surprisingly wet.
So once again I’ve found myself trying to dry clothes in a cabin that’s already damp, with nowhere obvious to hang them and no sunshine to help. Thankfully I packed plenty of spare warm layers, so I’m absolutely fine—it’s just another one of those little frustrations that comes with life on the North Atlantic.
Hopefully tomorrow we’ll finally see some sunshine.
It would be nice to remember what it looks like!
And finally…
Good luck today, England, in the World Cup! We’ll be cheering you on from somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.
Dawn
“Together Paul and I are rowing home — the long way round.”
Hometown Row
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