Solar Problems

Jon & Nick have a Sat-Phone problem (the solar charge cable is faulty) which means they have to run it on the dry cell batteries only
To save energy they are only switching it on for a minute a day to retrieve relative position data from home.
In the meantime, please post your messages onto this blog or the Atlantic Challenge website and we will relay them on for you.

Buses, Whales and Pirates!

I had a second telephone call from mid-Atlantic today, this time with Jon.
In the first call, Nick described how they had surfed down huge waves, battled with home-sickness and how salt-water can destroy buttocks! Luckily, there are no images available...

For the first 4 weeks of their epic adventure they decided to concentrate on the rowing and didn't check to see what position they were in. When they decided to check they were in second place overall - which came as something of a surprise to them both as they hadn't really been racing up to that point.
Seeing the good position they were in they decided to make a concerted effort and chase down the leaders.

Jon told of a 30ft black whale that had visited them. After circling the boat three or four times it went underneath and the pair decided to jump in and swim with it.
Once in the water the pair were treated to the whale swimming past them about 20ft away.

The current weather is a bit disappointing for them with very little wind and no waves. This makes it harder work to row, but they are determined to keep the pace up.

During the evening, two yachts passed close to the boat - after seeing nothing on the water for four weeks its a bit like buses! One of the yachts passed by about 500m away and they had a chat with the owner who was from Israel and on his way to Barbados!

One of the concerns that passed through their minds was the possibility of one of the yachts being pirates, which is apparently quite common. Fortunately, Captain Hook wasn't on board this time, and after a chat the two vessels parted company and went on their ways.


Nick and Jon are in an excellent position in the race at the moment, and they both find that the telephone calls and text messages they are now getting are working wonders for their moral, so please keep up the contact with them.

Send a message direct to Jon & Nick via satellite

Send a direct message to No Fear via their sat phone at:
http://www.iridium.com/
No Fear text number is 881631573773.
All support gratefully received!

Give the boys from Cornwall your support today...

Swimming with dolphins...

This is part of a message from "Go Commando" - one of the other boats in the Atlantic Race:
"On a separate note, we have been speaking to boat No Fear, the other Royal Marines branded boat. We're jealous as last night they went swimming with dolphins! And all we get is a few lousy Tuna!"

Sounds like our boys are having a good time...

News

Some news on behalf of the boys who started their epic voyage 2nd December.
All is going well and they are maintaining a good position but have experienced some very testing conditions.
If you want to follow their progress click on woodvale events and take it from their.

In the mean time we would like to thank the firms and people that have supported us:-

• York Electrics
• Robbins Timber
• Kazam Media
• Fowey Lions
• Bay Mailing
• May Whetter and Grose
• Todds of Belfast
• The National Hydrographics Office
• Seafields Estate Agents I.O.W
• Arklow Shipping and ships crews
• Shannon Port Authority
• Blue Funnel Cruises
• Royal Marines
• Fowey Regatta Committee
• The Galleon
• Jotron
• Fowey Marine Electronics
• Blakes Paints
• A.L.D Crafts
• Orkney Herring Co
• Harkaan
• Lambay Shipping
• Top Shop Fowey
• Arklow Marine Services
• Upper Deck
• Runcorn Boatmen
• Kitkatz Manchester Pilots

and all the people in Fowey and Cobh that have given so generously and if I have forgotten anybody I apologise profusely, Gill Histon