A sight for sore eyes!

After speaking to Nick & Jon previously and posting the outcome of the conversation on this very blog, I did mention that we were probably lucky that there were no images of their battered and bruised backsides...
...seems I may have spoken too soon.
After losing contact with Row4Cornwall due to problems with their satellite phone, all we have been able to do is watch their progress on the Woodvale website as their little dot steers its way across the Atlantic.
Today, we have two new images for you.
The first shows a healthy looking pair of Atlantic rowers, all smiles and looking like they are just starting rather than over halfway through their adventure:


The second however shows exactly how much the journey has taken out of parts of their clothing and bodies (not for the faint-hearted!):

Keep up the pace guys, at the moment you are only 23miles behind the first pairs boat and we wll feel that you have it in you to win!

Images courtesy of Woodvale Challenge.

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

The Training Row: A few valuable lessons learn't

We decided a long time ago that we would try and get out in the boat as much as possible before the race as this is the closest to replicating the race you can get. Particularly when you train in the sea. Therefore we decided to row to the boat show.
We left on a sunny morning in early September starting our shift patterns. The sea for the first 24 hours was incredibly flat calm and so we managed to get to Start Point in 24 hrs (about 60 miles). We then had to decide whether to go straight across Lyme Bay or go the whole way around. We went for it! We thought as conditions were calm we should make it to Portland Bill within 24 hrs. 15 miles in and about 02:00am I came out of the cabin to see Jon was rowing straight into a headwind. After a debate we decided to drop the anchor. We only just made the bottom with 75 metres of rope and whilst on the anchor decided that being out this far against the tides and the wind might not work. We heaved the ancor in which took about half an hour and was bloody hard work. We then made a temporary drogue out of a couple of buckets which managed to keep us on course for Tor bay.
The next morning moral was a bit low but we continued to row the long way round, rowing past the MSC Napoli was interesting. The next day we decided to go for Portland Bill. We were warned that you had to have the tide and the wind with you and you had to be dead close to the shore or miles out. We were about 4 miles out. However I think we ended up right in the race as we were surfing 12 ft waves which were very frequent and often almost broaching the boat. It was about 18:00 and we came to the decision that we would have to get nearer land or the Northerlys were going to take us a long way out to sea. We both got on the oars for 5 hrs and managed to row across the waves and anchor off warborrow bay. We will never go round the Bill again!
After struggling to heave the anchor in again we set off for St Albans head. On the chart there was some messy stuff around here and we looked as though we had avoided it. We were rowing past the head, but in the distance out to sea we could see waves breaking. We thought nothing of it as they were 200 metres away. They got closer and closer and in the end we were surfing again, but this time these waves were breaking all around us. We had to row solidly together for an hour to get near the cliffs where remarkably it was calm. However we were rowing against a tide at about 2 nm's per hr with 2 on the oars for about 3 hours. We were knackered. Jon saw a speedboat cruise by and grabbed the vhf and asked for a quick tow into Swanage which was only a mile away. Thanks to thee owners of AVIDA. We were going a little fast at one point though as they were towing us through some severe awsh and the boat almost capsized, we were jumping from side to side to keep her upright. Still that was a buzz and we were glad to be in Swanage where the people were so nice. Thanks to Tom Greesty who lent us his moorings and tendor for the night.
After a few hours sleep we were determined to get to the boat show that day. We set off so the tide would be with us all the way unti we got into the Solent. We just made it into the Solent as the tide was turning. I watched Jon on the oars, his speed was rapidly decreasing. We were going round Hurst point and the tide ahd just changed. We both got on the oars again and beasted it for half an hour to get round hurst point which we did. We felt so good at that point as we knew we had pretty much made it.
We rowed against the tide with little progress for most of the day but when the tide turned and we were both on the oars we managed 7 knots. By the time we got into Southampton water it was getting dark. We had decide whether to dodge ships in the dark and get there that night or moor up and wait another day. We went for it, with 1 man on watch at all times. We were about 100 metres from the boat show and things had gone okay when a red funnel ferry rounded the corner and steamed towards us. We didn't hang around.
We made it onto our berth at about 22:00 that night, 4.5 days after setting off from Fowey. This was a really great learning curve and were glad we had done it.