Wednesday 15th July- Day 20
- dawnysmiff
- Jul 15
- 2 min read
We're back on the parachute anchor.
Yesterday actually gave us a glimpse of what this crossing can be like when everything comes together. From around 9am we had some fantastic rowing conditions. The boat was moving well, our speed was good and, most importantly, we were making progress in exactly the direction we wanted to go. Every mile ticked off felt like a real achievement.
Despite the seemingly endless grey skies, damp clothing and blustery weather, we were genuinely enjoying being back on the oars.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to last.
Almost exactly as the forecast predicted, by around 6am this morning the wind had swung back into a headwind. Before long it became clear that holding our course—or even making meaningful progress—was becoming virtually impossible.
So, once again, out came the parachute anchor.
Rather than waste precious energy fighting conditions we simply can't beat, we've chosen to sit it out and wait for the next opportunity.
We could be here for a while.
I'll admit it's incredibly frustrating.
To go from making great progress with high morale to sitting stationary in the middle of the Atlantic is a tough mental adjustment. Ocean rowing is all about momentum—not just physically, but mentally too. When you're ticking off the miles you feel like you're achieving something every hour. Sitting on the anchor, even though it's absolutely the right decision, feels like pressing pause on the adventure.
Hopefully there'll be a weather window sometime in the next 24 hours that allows us to get the oars back in the water. At the moment it looks like any opportunity may be fairly short-lived, but we'll take whatever the Atlantic is willing to give us.
One thing we're watching carefully now is our battery power.
There's absolutely no cause for concern—we have plenty of fresh water, plenty of food, and with the autopilot not being used while we're on the parachute anchor our power consumption is actually quite low.
What it does mean, however, is that we can't sit here with Starlink switched on browsing the internet all day!
In fact, as I write this, the Starlink is plugged into my own power bank rather than the boat's batteries to save every bit of power we can. Once I've downloaded the latest weather information, made our plan and sent this blog home, it'll all be switched off again.
Then we'll go quiet until the next update.
Please don't worry.
We're safe.
We're well.
We've got everything we need.
We'd just much rather be rowing towards a sunny UK than sitting in a damp cabin in the middle of the Atlantic wondering what the weather will do next.
Hopefully tomorrow's blog will have better news.
Until then, I'll keep you posted through social media whenever I can.
---
Dawn
“Together Paul and I are rowing home — the long way round.”
Hometown Row
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