Sunday 9th August- Day 45

Another painful 24 hours.

If you looked only at our photos and videos, with the sun shining, blue skies and calm seas, you’d probably think we were on some wonderful rowing holiday.

The reality couldn’t be more different.

For around 12 hours we were barely making half a knot.

It’s absolutely soul-destroying.

Imagine giving absolutely everything you’ve got—every stroke, every ounce of energy—for a full three-hour shift, only to look at the chart afterwards and realise you’ve barely moved. In some cases, you can hardly see the mileage reducing at all.

That’s mentally far tougher than rowing hard with a decent speed over the ground.

Thankfully, the next 24 hours are looking much kinder.

Not spectacularly fast, but if we can cover around 50 nautical miles we’ll be really pleased with that. That’s a decent chunk taken out of the distance remaining.

Unfortunately…

…after that, things begin to look much more complicated again.

The last day has shown us just how much a head current can slow us down, even in almost no wind.

Now the forecast is suggesting around 10 knots of headwind as well.

That combination could easily mean another spell on the parachute anchor.

When you’re this close to home…

…that’s a difficult thought to accept.

As if currents weren’t enough to think about, we’ve now got another challenge to add into the mix.

The tides.

Out in the middle of the Atlantic we’ve mainly been dealing with large-scale ocean currents—slow-moving rivers of water that flow continuously in one general direction.

As we get closer to the UK, however, the rise and fall of the tide becomes much more important. Unlike ocean currents, tides change direction every few hours as the sea rises and falls under the influence of the Moon and the Sun.

That means we’ll soon have periods where the water is helping us…

…and periods where it’s doing everything it can to stop us.

I’m already working on a new shift pattern so that, whenever we’re rowing against a foul tide, we can have both of us on the oars together.

It’s going to be brutal.

But it’s what we’ll need to do.

The good news is that, once we’re properly on the coast, we’ll have another option.

If the conditions become unfavourable, we can move into shallower water, drop our normal anchor and stay exactly where we are until the tide turns in our favour.

Out here, that’s not possible.

We’re also starting to see far more fishing boats, so choosing somewhere safe to stop requires much more thought than it did in the open ocean.

Despite all that…

We’re both doing well.

We’re fit.

We’re healthy.

And mentally we’re still in a really good place.

We’d both love the Atlantic to give us one final helping hand and a fast run into the UK.

But if that’s not on offer…

We’ll just keep adapting.

One decision at a time.

One shift at a time.

One stroke at a time.

Home is getting closer.

Dawn

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

Hometown Row

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