Boatylicious

We are 4 women rowing across the Pacific Ocean in June 2014 to raise awareness of and funds for WaterAid, Hope and Homes for Children and The Ahoy Centre.

[boatylicious]

Boatylicious v. Hurricane Iselle

With 300 miles to go, we received many messages of support from friends and family willing us to savour the last few days at sea. Little did we know that major hurricane Iselle was 1400 miles away and heading straight for Hawaii, estimated to make landfall within hours of our predicted arrival time. We were left with no choice other than to row as fast as possible to beat Iselle to Waikiki-failing that we would have to be diverted to another island or towed in by the support yacht. Having seen the official race start from a support yacht, we never envisioned arriving at the finish in a support yacht as well! So now having just broken the 100 mile barrier and in sight of land (Maui) for the first time in over 45 days, we are rowing flat out to our friends and family who are already assembling on shore. We've just had another wash, probably the third one of the trip but who's counting.. Looking forward to the next hot shower in Honolulu! So bets are on, if you think Boatylicious win the race against Iselle, please donate to our charities, if you think Iselle beats Boatylicious, then absolutely donate because what else will we have?? http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=boatylicious&isTeam=true

[boatylicious]

Day 43: Celebrations, a Turtle and an Albatross

Numbers have never been so exciting, and checking the GPS chart plotter has become an unhealthy addiction! At the start of the trip, crossing lines of latitude and longitude was worth a celebratory cheer. However, after passing the half-way mark and breaking past the 1000 miles-to-go barrier, we've become obsessed with hitting each hundred-mile marker! Given we lost some miles as a result of our broken steering system, we were ecstatic to record a couple of 65 miler days- our highest so far-celebrated with a secretly stashed bar of Godiva chocolate! It appears that the aquatic wildlife had also been waiting for such an occasion before making their first appearance (after 42 days of nothing!). Whilst rowing (as normal), Aoife was surprised to feel her oars hit a hard object...only to discover she had actually thwacked a poor innocent turtle. Whether he was just curious or intent on avenging the attack, the little guy proceeded to follow us for the next fifteen minutes alongside his entourage of electric blue fish before he headed off east towards California! At night, huge shoals of what appear to be barracuda follow us although as keen as we are to supplement our freeze dried meals with some local sashimi, we are keeping them as friends for now.

Birds have been the most sighted of wildlife so far. We've seen an albatross - perhaps the one Battleborn befriended, although we had no cookies to offer it!   Others include the Storm Petrel, Sooty Shearwater and Parasitic Jaeger. There's one seabird that has an extra long white tail - know what it is Justin Girdler?! We are hoping the presence of white dove-like birds means we are 'fast' approaching land..

[boatylicious]

Water, Water, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink

Like the Ancient Mariner, we’ve come to realise that you can’t underestimate the value of safe and clean water supplies. To produce enough water to keep us going on board we need the sun to come out and power our solar panels so that the water purifier can run for 70 minutes every day. Since our supply is so vulnerable to changes in weather we can’t afford any waste at all and end up consuming less than we do at home — despite the fact that our exertion levels are quite a bit higher than normal! 

Thankfully, we’ll have access to all the water we need once we hit Hawaii, unlike the 748 million people worldwide who go through life with no access to safe water. And while we might get teased about our bucket-toilet, we can’t imagine the dangers faced by millions of girls worldwide who don’t have access to basic sanitation facilities.

Our experience out here means we’re happier than ever to be raising money for WaterAid’s #GirlStrong campaign, which this summer alone is aiming to provide clean water and toilets to 5,000 girls. What’s more, every Water Aid donation made on our page before September will be matched by the UK government (DFID), so your generosity will have twice the impact.

We’re also working with Hope and Homes for Children, who work to ensure that every child grows up in a loving family rather than in institutions. We’re privileged to have the support of families, who stick by us even when we do something as crazy as rowing the Pacific! This adventure wouldn’t have been possible without them and the highlight of the day on-board is receiving their emails and calls and hearing that they’re spreading the word at home.  

So, if you’ve been following us on Yellowbrick, or via our blog, Facebook and Twitter feeds, please please please consider making a donation to one of these incredible campaigns.  Knowing we can contribute to their work makes what we’re doing is worthwhile, even at the toughest moments!

To donate to the Team Boatylicious charities, please visit: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=boatylicious&isTeam=true

[boatylicious]

Day 38: Counting Down the Miles to Hawaii

"Saturday morning: The currents which we've been working against have now swung round to help us. This is what we'd been waiting for to help propel us to Hawaii, however looking at our daily mileage, we're still going super slow compared to what we'd expect. So our attention turned to our problematic steering footplate. Although we we've been coping with it so far, it's become gradually worse and we have come to the conclusion that this is the likely culprit to our reduction in mileage. So we decided to put our DIY skills to the test and take the mechanism apart and investigate. The problem wasn't a simple one, nor one that we have the tools to fix as welding the metal back together was the only realistic option to repair it. So we've had to get creative. Amanda, our on board mechanic*, disassembled and redesigned our steering mechanism to what is hopefully a much simpler and more reliable one. So far after 1 hr of rowing our speed and mileage has picked up, and the crew on board boatylicious are nervously waiting in anticipation to see if this fix holds out for the next 24 hrs, ...and the next 2 weeks.... until we get to Hawaii. Please keep your fingers crossed for our new steering design and hope that it was indeed what is needed to get our daily mileage back up again and have us sipping cocktails on a Hawaiian beach sooner! If it works we'll be so chuffed we'll want to patent it.

*no experience as a mechanic whatsoever, but we have a each adopted a variety of new roles and job titles on board. In other news....

Aoife was hit in the face by a flying fish.

Stanley (our striped fishy friend who has followed us since week one, eating all our left over food) has gone missing! Rumour has it he was concerned with the volume of dead fish being lobbed over board each morning in the clear up from our flying fish attacks), and so he's done a runner to save himself!

We've started re-writing some song lyrics :-)

We've passed the 700nm to go marker & are counting down the miles on the home run to Hawaii now...!

[boatylicious]

Day 33: Boatylicious Girls Have Gone Feral!

"Black oyster  black oyster, black oyster, this is Galen Diana, Galen Diana, Galen Diana..." "This is black oyster" Emily replied half asleep. "Black oyster we are 1.5 miles behind you and thought we'd come and say hello and see how you are doing" "Galen Diana, Look forward to seeing you very shortly.  Out" Expletives sounded from the cabin as Emily announced to her boatylicious crew that the support boat would be on its way in minutes to pay a visit. Better get presentable! The crew had been expecting a visit from the support boat at some point over the 2400 mile journey to Hawaii but thought there may be time to make themselves look less feral and more ladylike. Aoife frantically brushed her long locks, Emily grabbed her silk-sleeping-bag-liner-come-sarong and Amanda and Ingrid made sure they were rowing to the best of their abilities - Ingrid hiding her birds nest hair do with a boatylicious cap and Amanda covering up her bikini! The crew were pretty excited to have visitors after 32 days alone in the massive Pacific -a welcome break from their daily routine. Although seeing the all-male crew of four aboard their luxurious 55-foot yacht and hearing of their fancy meals (freshly caught tuna, beef burritos and pizzas) stirred up some envy!

With less than 900 miles to go until they reach Hawaii, the girls are starting to plan their reunions with loved ones and their reintegration into society. If anyone can recommend any Honolulu/Waikiki-based spas, salons or magicians that can transform these feral beasts into babes, it would be very much appreciated!

If anyone does know of any spas, salons or magicians please email [email protected]!

[boatylicious]

Day 31: Less than 1000 miles to go!

Not only did we smash the half way point yesterday morning, today we passed the less-than-a-1000-miles-to-go mark! However there won’t be any celebratory rum cocktails on board Black Oyster today - motivation is high to crack on. Day 28 was the lowest point of the trip so far..after shipping and weather delays that resulted in us leaving ten days after the first wave and despite battling through opposing winds, it was pretty gutting to discover that we wouldn’t have wind for the next week. Reaching our milestones despite these challenges has meant the last few days have been the best so far and spirits are high.

The warm, calm weather has been kind to our weary waterlogged bodies and has allowed us to get working on our base tans ahead of our anticipated Hawaiian arrival! There have been a couple of semi-cloudless sunrises and sunsets (although the bar for what constitutes as either is pretty low). The stars also put on a blinder of a show and I may have even said that I liked ocean rowing although my feelings change quickly! We’ve been able to leave the bedroom/kitchen/living room door open making the boat feel a bit bigger and a lot more sociable.

So with just under a 1000 miles to go, we still look forward to receiving your messages of support (our favourite time of day) and would be hugely grateful for any donations you can make to our charities; WaterAid, Hope and Homes for Children and The Ahoy Centre.

To message the Boatylicious girls, please email [email protected]

To donate to their charities, please go to: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=boatylicious&isTeam=true

[boatylicious]

A Day in the Life of an Ocean Rower

One thing that has surprised me about ocean rowing is how little time we have to do things and how long they all take. So whilst rowing the other day I turned my thoughts to breaking down what we do out here for those at home who might think that ocean rowing consists of hours, days, months at sea doing a bit of rowing, then chillaxing with a book in the sunshine. Here's the daily breakdown of a typical day on Black Oyster... 12 hrs a day - rowing 2 hrs a day - getting ready for rowing! 10 mins before and after each 2 hr rowing shift is spend putting on and taking off all our wet weather gear, waterproof hats,  gloves and head torches at night. This is ever more time consuming when your fingers are stiff and not working well. We were hoping this time would reduce as the weather gets warmer, but it's looking like we'll need to spend an equal amount of time putting on sun cream! 5 hr 40 mins - sleeping. This is a maximum, it's often less than this. 3 hrs eating - preparing food, boiling water, waiting for the meals to brew, raiding our snack packs. 1 hr a day - stretching, nursing our wounds, bottoms and any injuries. 1 hr a day - blogging, replying to emails, texts, checking the weather. 20 mins a day - free time (brush hair, wet wipe wash, fix all the broken stuff on the boat, clean up and tidy up the boat, reorganise food stores).

We can safely say that we are all looking forward to a decent amount of sleep in Hawaii!

The girls have been sticking to this gruelling daily schedule for over 4 weeks now and still have at least another 3 weeks to go. Please help them to make this worth it and consider donating to their chosen charities at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=boatylicious&isTeam=true

[boatylicious]

Oh, What a Night!

Oh what a night. To celebrate the suns arrival after what seems like forever (I was starting to believe the sun no longer existed), we charged Amanda's iPod for the first time for a fresh set of tunes. Since our sound system broke in week 1, we've been limited to singing through the night to keep each other awake on the oars. However, after 3 weeks, the number if songs we know has become a little repetitive. So we'd like to say a massive thank you to DJ Ed Maxwell-Lyte, for putting together some great personalised boatylicious playlists! Literally made my week to have some good tunes, and probably my best night so far. Great to be able to listen to a whole song in one go rather than just the set of lyrics we know of a song! (Thanks too to everyone who's sent us song lyrics too, Aoife and Amanda are trying to learn a new one each day).

[boatylicious]

Celebrating Ingrid's birthday in the middle of the Pacific!

[boatylicious]

Party Time on Black Oyster

Saturday was a special occasion on board Black Oyster - it was my Birthday (21 again!). After waking up from the rowing night shift, I opened some cards and presents that I'd been saving for the big day. Thanks to all my lovely friends and family who sent birthday best wishes via email and text. I managed to call my close family too via sat phone which was cool! Aboard an ocean rowboat in the middle of the Pacific is definitely the most unusual birthday I've ever had. Normally we row 2 hours on, 2 hours off in shifts. But we decided to make an exception to the rule by all having lunch together on the deck in the sunshine. We tucked into our favourite freeze dried meals followed by pudding.  The girls spoilt me with coveted freeze dried ice cream like the astronauts eat plus freeze dried cheese cake! Delish!  I was also given some luxury cosmetics (sample size- can't let weight slow us down in the race!) plus perfume to mask our not so fragrant feral bodies.

To top it off our cabin hatch became a cocktail bar and special Boatylicious cocktails were shaken in style! There was a choice of:

Mai-Try: Rum plus orange oxylent (electrolyte)

No-jito:  Rum plus lime oxylent (polo mint optional)

Dai-queeri: Rum plus cranberry oxylent

Jamaican chocolate: Rum plus hot choc sachet Jamaican coffee: Rum and coffee

Thanks for a great day. Short kip then the night shift starts again. No excuses for the birthday girl ;)

Ingrid

[boatylicious]

Day 21: Time for a Much Needed Swim

Today we were going to write a blog on 10 Things We Hate About Ocean Rowing but the sun came out, the batteries charged and we took a break from rowing to go swimming!! 21 days on our 24 foot home surrounded by water and today, we finally took advantage of the oversized infinity pool at our doorstep to wash, check for barnacles and stretch out without touching. Happy days. After a long monotonous cloudy week, this is just what we needed.

[boatylicious]

Day 20: Night Rowing

Tonight it rained, not only for the first time since we started our trip, but the first time since we arrived in California back in May. It was proper sideways rain as you'd expect on an ocean, but I can tell you this, despite still being cold, it is so wonderfully refreshing to be pelted in the face with fresh water rather than salt water for a change.

[boatylicious]

The Diet of an Ocean Rower

Getting into a routine food wise on board, eating constantly because by the end of another two hours you're starving again. Some of the freeze dried meals (in a bag, add water) so far include hot cereal with mango, chicken korma and beef chilli. Day 12 was an exciting food day on board Black Oyster, as stocks of Expedition Food were running low, we've decided to start on our Mountain House food packs, bringing a new and more diverse selection to the Boatylicious menu. We're now enjoying lasagne, macaroni cheese, chicken noodles, and have yet to sample our many packs of granola in a bag. Snack packs are also an exciting addition to our daily food, and so far, we're appreciating having a bit of variety, although we're expecting nuts, seeds and trek bars to get a bit monotonous by the time we reach Hawaii.... both rowing pairs (Emily and Amanda, and Aoife and Ingrid) are already spending rowing shifts dreaming of the fresh food and cocktails in Hawaii.  One secret ingredient to our snack packs and slight concern amongst the group is our highest calorie to space ratio product, dymatyze, aka super mass gainer protein shake - 650 calories for half a portion - there's still plenty of daily debate on whether we'll be tanked up and super buff by the time we get to Hawaii, or whether we'll arrive with the more traditional skinny lost at sea look.

[boatylicious]

A Very Music-Less Boat: Song Lyrics Wanted!

Our speaker is still broken, I say 'still' but we haven't done anything to try and fix it other than turn it off and on again, a classic remedy that usually works well for us on land, but no luck here.. Instead we have to sing to keep ourselves entertained and awake but between 4 of us, we know all the words to exactly 3 songs, 2 national anthems and the song from the cartoon postman pat... So instead we get half remembered lyrics and repetitive choruses over and over again... It's also meant no Spanish lessons going on but it's all planned for week 3, we'll be hablo-ing espanol to beat the band by the halfway point! If anyone wants to send us on lyrics, some of our favourite tunes to mangle include Somewhere over the Rainbow and the heart will go on song from Titanic. But now we've got the hang of rationing our solar power, we'll hopefully be able to listen to music more regularly on iPods from now on, it's been a very music less boat recently so conversation has been very varied, mostly silly like the jobs preparing for an ocean rower trains you to be (includes shipping agent, firefighter, and window cleaner) but we'll get onto solving all the worlds problems ASAP

If anyone wants to send the Boatylicious girls some song lyrics to keep them entertained, please email them to [email protected]

[boatylicious]

The Battle for Boatylicious Booties

Hygiene on board is fair to middling, we've all washed our hair but relying on baby wipes for everything else, considering keeping this up when we get back to land, so convenient, but somehow I doubt it. Ingrid’s hair looks like a birds nest having not been brushed for 13 days now, actively considering the possibility of having to shave/chop it all off and start fresh, that honour could go the highest donor/ bidder!

Our other big hygiene issue are looking after our poor bottoms, with a wide range of techniques and skills incorporated. We've been wearing the full spectrum of options on deck from sheepskin and a smile, through silk sarongs, to knickers, to Lycra, up to full on foul weather gear in the battle for the boatylicious booties... Then once our shift is over, there's a lot of air drying, tingly talcum powdering, sudacreming, compeeding, and comparing! All of the gentlemen who ever offered to 'cox' for us on this trip would be horrified at this stage, the modern sophisticated ladies you all know and love on land are rapidly disappearing into four grungy, stinky, knotted authentic ocean rowers. Who knows whether these changes are reversible..... You can take the girl out of the ocean, but can you take the ocean out of the girl?

[boatylicious]

Day 17: A New PB and a Volatile Sea

Spending 24 hours a day out on the ocean we are getting to experience its changeable nature. Some days the Pacific can feel quite benign with gentle waves. The sunrises kiss our faces in the morning and warm our backs in the evenings as we row west.  But more than once, we've been lulled into a false sense of security by a calm-ish looking sea at the start of our two hour shift, only to come face to face with heavy pounders minutes later. These were the 40-60 ft swells we were warned about by previous rowers and they give the impression of a two storey house coming at you at 15 miles an hour! But we've also learnt that it’s the tiny hurlers from unexpected directions (and not the 2-storey high rollers) that end up swamping the deck and result in us spending hours bailing buckets overboard. We have begun to dread night shifts. Not only because it means we each have to get into our wet foul weather gear three times throughout the night but because we cannot see where the waves are until they have deposited themselves right on top of our heads. Most of the trip so far has been spent battling cross winds and taking waves on our beam so over the past two days as we've been coming into slightly more following seas, time spent surfing and the free metres and miles that come with it have been a happy change, leading to a PB over the past 24 hours of 46.9NM! Even just after a couple of weeks we've had a steep learning curve and are becoming much more skilled at reading and negotiating our way across this volatile sea. Over the next few weeks our ocean crossing will be fun and exhilarating. The Pacific already has our greatest respect!

[boatylicious]

Highs and Lows at the End of Week Two

We can't believe we've already been rowing for 2 weeks on our good ship Black Oyster.  After 14 days we've rowed hundreds of miles, with a sobering 1773 to go!  Our strategy is West is Best so we are gradually inching our way to Hawaii.  At the end of each week we've started reviewing the highs and lows as we chat on the oars. Highs Every time we cross a line of longitude we cheer, passed into 127 degrees today, only 30 to go! We are encouraged that we're making good progress and will be closing the gap on some the boats from the first wave soon, eyes fixed on the Green Giants of Pacific Warriors! The famous trade winds are just around the corner. We're hoping they'll help to speed up our journey, maybe not to the point where we can sit drinking rum and vitamin powder cocktails but girls can dream... Every day, we enjoy reading the race report and blogs from other boats, a chance to feel linked to the world beyond our grab rails - thanks to Penny in our race support team for forwarding them. Thanks to satcom Direct we are treating ourselves to a phone call home every 7 days., to celebrate another weeks end. We've been getting some misinformation though on Wimbledon results.... But hearing those voices is worth it no matter the topics! Lows After 2 weeks we are still dressed head to toe in our Musto and Sealskinz wet weather gear.  We underestimated just how cold and wet the jourmey would be, I mean, who would have thought the ocean would be cold or wet, right?? But our bikinis are at the ready for when we hit the warm Trade wind weather. We have all been struck with 'ocean rowers bum.' to varying degrees!! Regular TLC is the order of the day now. We are now fully into our 2 hour on / hour off routine round the clock. The nights can be gruelling but we are beginning to get into a routine, going from fast asleep to fully kitted in 4 minutes is my record, and even faster in reverse! Another huge high this week was hearing the rising totals on our charity fundraising targets, that this effort will achieve more than just personal satisfaction for ourselves is a massive motivator and your generosity in donating cannot be overstated so thank you for your ongoing support there. Donations can be made at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=boatylicious&isTeam=true