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.