Nautical Nurses Making Waves

Returning to normality

2008-02-23T00:35:00.000-08:00

Well I finally sit down to try and put in words how I feel after landing!
For once I am speechless.

The last 12 hours on Dream Maker were the longest, most nerve racking, and tense hours of my life. Fear, apprehension, uncertainty and a touch of sadness that it was all about to come to an end. Most stressful of all, would my parents and my sister be there in time? The tooth ache and effect of the antibiotics on my stomach made the experience even harder.
The welcome we had was beyond my wildest dreams. Flares, fog horns, cheers! It seems that everyone in Nelson's dock joined in to welcome us ashore. The sight of my sister and parents on shore was the most overwhelming feeling of emotion I've ever experienced. It was also very special that Rachel & Lin (Barbara Ivy) who knew our experience and feelings more than anyone else were also there to greet us, having landed 24 hours earlier.
We had done it! We had proved everyone that doubted us wrong! We had rowed across the Atlantic! It was (and still is) too surreal for me get my headaround, to believe, I have to pinch myself and say, "Yes Elin, you have done it".

I've now just spent a wonderful week on the Antiguan beach with my Mum, Dad & sister, quality time before returning to the UK for some normality. I can't wait! But hope I'll adjust, what will I do with all my free time....?! Yesterday we went sailing and today we took a helicopter ride over Montserrat volcano, so the amazing experiences continue while I'm out here.

As many of you know by now, shortly after landing I found my sea legs, or was it my Caribbean rum legs? Either way I somehow managed to stand on my phone - crushing it to pieces and loosing EVERYONE's number which explains why I have not contacted as many people as I would have liked by now. Please forgive me; it certainly wasn't because I wasn't thinking of you. So everyone that has my number, please text/ call me and let me have yours.It will help me on my road back to normality. . . .

In the next week or so, Herdip & I will sit down to look through all our photos, and we'll post some here for you all to see, and share some more of our experiences. Before then though, I really need to thank so many people for helping us across every wave and through every storm.
Ian Roots for teaching us to row,
Lucy Jameson (our Number 1 fan, and close friend!) for making the HISC facility a possibility),
All the Jameson boys (big & small) for letting us be part of your weekend lives whenever we needed help & support.
Mike Baker & Frank for always being there to get us in and out of the sea for our training runs and out of the sandbanks when we got it wrong.
Jo Barode for making that crucial contact possible, and organising the most amazing valentine's ball.
Jamie Hopkins (and everyone at Mapeley) - our "knight in shining armour" for making our dream come true in the most amazing way, with the most amazing support that we could have ever wished for. It was certainly beyond what is normally expected from a sponsor.
Chris Moon & Juliette Reynolds for getting our heads ready for the challenge. Simon, Tony & Amanda at Woodvale for being our "big brother" out there.
Amy Cole our blog editor for helping us keep the outside world updated on ourexperiences
Sinead Bryan for flying over to take such fantastic photos and to be mychampagne supplier!
Our families for withstanding the worry.
Bobl Penllyn a phellach am gymryd cymaint o ddiddordeb a chefnogaeth Each and every single one of you that sent us messages of support. We can not start to express how much they meant to us. They were certainly the key that kept us going.

I also want to express how much it meant to us to develop such a close rapport with other boats in the fleet. Our time together in La Gomera, our communication while out on the sea and the words of support now back on land was and still is very special. I feel we've made friendships of a unique bond. So (in order of completion) to Pura Vida, Gquma, No Fear, Unfinished Business, The Reason Why, Ocean Summit & Barbara Ivy in particular - Please keep in touch.

So for the time being, it's not really an "over and out", just a "stand by on 16" ...

A word from Elin

2008-02-19T07:56:00.000-08:00

I've had a phone call from Elin just now - she wants to let everyone know that she is fine, everything is great and she's looking forward to being back in the UK.
She would like to pass her thanks to everyone for their messages of support and apologise for not being in contact before now.
I think we understand the last 48 hours has been overwhelming! and Elin's voice certainly sounded full of emotion!!

True to form (you may recal an earlier blog about Elin having a knack of breaking things) Elin has stood on her mobile phone and smashed it to pieces! This means both her and Herdip are without their phones, and on opposite sides of the island . . . . so barely able to contact each other let a lone the rest of us (who said life on land would be simple?!).

We wish them many happy showers, fresh dinners and fine wine as they relax with loved ones in the sun!
(Amy)

A word from Herdip in Antigua

2008-02-19T01:06:00.000-08:00

Well I am sitting in dream Maker all docked up in Antigua. This is really hard doing this last blog from land. Feel very emotional at the moment.
Coming in to land was rather weird, I didn't know what to expect. The reception we had was amazing and overwhelming. I staggered off the boat right into the arms of loved ones who I had missed so so much.
I found the row quite difficult at times. I have never been so emotional in all my whole life, if it wasn't for Elin and all the support via the phone and email I don't know how I would have coped. There were ups and downs throughout the trip, I think I have learnt a hell of a lot about myself, it’s really hard to put into words.
I want to thank everyone who believed in us and were there for us, you have all been amazing, you will never understand what it meant to read your messages, you were our lifeline.
Over and out,
All my love
Herdip

DREAMS COME TRUE!!!!

2008-02-17T13:12:00.000-08:00

The girls have safely arrived in Antigua!! Literally as I type they are 500 yards away from family and friends waiting to greet them . . . .

tissues, champagne and some sturdy support for wobbly legs are on hand . . . . .

Officially, boat Number 17 Dream Maker crossed the Finish Line at 19:37GMT on 17-02-08

I'm sure I speak for all who have followed these two courageous and sensational women over the past 78 days in wishing them a MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS!

You have risen to the challenge, beaten the elements and achieved what you dared to dream.

We are all so very proud of you!

(a poem from a loved one) To an Ocean Rower

2008-02-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

I held on to the tips of your oars last night
Lightly, so that you would not notice me;
I felt the sea wash over my hands and my face, as a thousand stars danced beneath your blades.
Did you feel me?

I sat next to you in a storm as you tried to eat, your hands curled, cracked and cold, your belly tight.
I heard the squalling rain scream as it tore against your roof.
A show of strength with its own applause, an audience of one.
Did you notice me?

I laid beside you in your cabin while you slept, silently, so as not to wake you;
I held you fast against the bow of your boat while your dreams plotted new memories;
the foundations of a different course, a firmer bearing.
Did you hear me?

I watched you as we spoke and saw the words you wrote to me.
I tried to plant a giant's might within you:
it was already there, polished by every stroke and each nautical mile.
I was with you last night, and soon, at the end of an ocean,
You will see me.

Last blog from the ocean!!!!

2008-02-16T13:42:00.000-08:00

Yet another day without rowing to get our timing for tommorrow right, we may have to anchor for a short while as well but fingers crossed we won't need too.
We are pretty bored at the moment but last night was one of the most beautiful nights out of the whole 11 weeks, it was really light, the moon and stars were out and it was relatively calm. It was rarther amazing.
We did a live radio show this morning on Radio Sloent which Jo Bardoe had organised, it was a nice surprise.
Elin has a massive tooth ache and was drugged up to the hilt last night with pain killers and antibiotics, I did offer to help pull out her tooth but she wouldn't let me!! So her first stop will be a dentist not the bar.
We have a party organised with Barbara Ivy as soon as we land, can't wait.
This will probably be our last blog from the waters, the next will be from dry land.

A busy weekend ahead . . . .

2008-02-15T07:45:00.000-08:00

Well another day at sea not rowing! It’s the most ridiculous situation to be in, but we rowed for 4 hours yesterday and covered far too much mileage! So surfing all day today (a.k.a more like drifting!).

Thank you Lucy J (our number 1 fan) for your very witty email - “I think it is so funny that 2 women so well known for being late everywhere are now bobbing around in their trusty rowing boat in fear that they will be too early!!!” - we just don’t know what you mean!!
(Please tell Henry & Rupert that we are still wearing our friendship bracelets with pride!)

We had a little chat with solo rower Paul (Spirit of Fernie) last night as both of us were concerned about a close “unknown vessel”. Paul’s wife & children are eagerly awaiting him in Antigua, so he is doing his utmost to get there for them as soon as. Go Paul Go!

Tomorrow Herdip’s beloved sister, Bindi is showing that the mad family gene is dominant in them all as she jumps out of an aeroplane … sadly it’s not above us to drop off much needed chocolate supply … but a sponsored skydive in Hampshire for our cause! Good luck Bindi – we think you are mad, fab & brave! Hope that loads of people sponsor you.

Tonight we are GUTTED to be missing out on Jo Bardoe’s Valentine’s ball. We’ll be thinking of you every second, wondering what you’re having to eat, what will be the last dance and how much champagne you lucky people will get to drink. We are so jealous & would have done anything to have the opportunity to dress up & be all “lady like” to join you. Can’t wait to hear all about it, and how much money was raised. Thank you Jo, Victoria, Judy, Patsy, Caryn, Lucy, Louise, and Hannah for working so hard to make the ball possible.

On another note, we’ve been having calls from the media! If all is to be believed we will be in Saturday’s Sun newspaper and live on Radio 5 at21:00 GMT tomorrow. Look & listen out for us …….

Happy Valentines! - we are surfing toward land

2008-02-14T06:39:00.000-08:00

Another hard slog at the rowing . . . . NOT. . . . we have not rowed since 03.00 because we are surfing fast enough, it is now 13.00 and we have already done 21 miles. We only have to do 36miles a day to make sure we arrive after our families and friends in Antigua on Sunday. I remember the days we rowed like mad women and only ever managed 19 miles!!! Well Elin has had a good hair wash and creamed up her spots while I have had a much needed snooze. We will be raring to go once on land!!!
Elin is sitting here wondering how many Valentine cards she has waiting for her at home(and who she would like them off), I haven't the heart to tell her it is dreams we are making come true not miracles. Nothing much else too report other than Happy Valentines to all, enjoy those chocolates.

Making the most of the last few days at sea

2008-02-13T05:21:00.000-08:00

Well having been out at sea 10+ weeks we thought we’d seen pretty muchall wave action there was, but last night we were taken by surprise. Herdip had been out on the oars, and was keen to swap after being knocked by a few express trains. I was busily trying to clean up the rice pudding from the footwell (our shared night snack) as I’d managed to spill it when hit unexpectedly by those waves. (Don’t tell Herdip but I was actually trying to scoop her share back into the pack!). Moments after I stepped out, I was stood in the gully adjusting my PVC tog when unexpectedly from no where I was hit by an almighty wave, beam on. Thank fully Dream Maker stood her ground well, but I was DRENCHED and stood, nearly knee high in water. I had to bilge pump three bucket loads of water out just to see my feet again. But despite all the sloshing noise, wind and roaring waves I could still hear Sister Sidhu laughing her head off in the cabin! It has to be said it was very funny . . . .

I’m afraid that we do have a confession to make though (you better sit down for this one Jamie!). We’re not actually rowing as hard as we should be any more! No I can assure you it’s not because we’ve given up . . . . let me explain . . .
After the bitter disappointment of missing one set of friends in Antigua having calculated our ETA sooo wrongly, when it came to doing the maths second time around we based them on the conservative average of 30 – 35 nautical miles a day. Calculations over, flights booked – job done! The very next day we started doing 40+nm a day, which has continued since! And so at this rate we would be at the airport welcoming our friends and family in rather than have them at Nelson’s dock yard welcoming us . . . . so as a result we’re taking it easy! We sleep for two shifts at night, we rest in the oppressive heat of the midday sun and we don’t row in squalls! But still we manage to row 40+nm a day … what is going on?!
We’re preparing for few days sat on anchor . . . . .

Allergic to land?

2008-02-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

Well here we are – the start of our 10th week on the Atlantic, and still not a 100% sure when the referee is going to call full time on this game, but we are certainly well into injury time now.
A busy and eventful weekend was had. A good influx of emails, messages and phone calls, so thank you all for that.

Karen & Duncan (people not ducks) flew over our heads back to the UK after a lovely holiday in Antigua (thanks for rubbing it in guys!) and they didn’t even drop us a chocolate supply from the air! Can’t wait to see you though guys.

A merchant navy ship passed us in the early hours of the morning, on the way from Trinidad to Spain. The Captain was very excited about our venture and was on the radio for ages asking endless questions. I couldn’t bring myself round to asking him to be quiet because he was well and truly disturbing my precious sleep time, but when he explained that they were travelling at 18 knots (compared to our 1.5!) I did kind of go off him!! He then explained that they all spend 3 months at sea with 2 months off, to which I replied “Well we will have been at sea nearly 3 months - and when we eventually get to Antigua we plan to take 10 years off!”

Ocean Summit boys phoned us yesterday to share the delight of their landing. Well done boys, we are very pleased for you!!. It gave us a bit of a boost to push on. We’ve also been getting messages of support from No Fear, gquma, Pura Vida and The Reason Why, which already make us feel like we’ve made new firm friends, and are now in a very special “club”.

And today, finally, on day 71 Herdip decided to dip her feet in the big blue. After much build up she finally went over board. Not wanting to over do it on the first time she didn’t put her head under water or get one strand of her hair wet, but she was visited by a beautiful flying fish. Neil Shah – I’m afraid that since she didn’t’ let go of he side it still doesn’t prove or disprove your theory that Indians can’t swim! Her dip in the sea did mean that she has now doubled the number of times she’s had a wash this month.

And lastly having not sneezed once for months, the last 48 hours we’ve noticed that both of us have been sneezing regularly. Now we’re sure it’s not a cold, so can only imagine that its signs of an allergy to land as we get closer …

Happy Birthday today to Lindsey, hope Mickey (the mouse) gave you everything you dreamt of.

Pen Blwydd Hapus yn 6 oed hefyd i Non Wyn, edrych ymlaen i dy weld di.

Questions to ponder

2008-02-10T02:31:00.000-08:00

This time I’m not going to be modest …and just shout HOORAY! My boys won again! Da iawn fechgyn! Thank you Cole & Jameson reporters for such fab commentary! Luckily Herdip didn’t fall of her seat this time. Grand Slam dreams very much alive!

So our days continue, as we battle nearer towards land! 318 nm to go, we are now aiming to land late on the 17th …so fingers crossed!

Yesterday we had a casualty! Herdip snapped one of our spoon come forks in half! We considered duck tapping it back together, but thought it was a job too much for duck tape even. So now we just share the one precious spoon come fork we have left which puts much more pressure on the “licking clean” ritual! This is even more high pressure now that we have only 118 baby wipes between us left, equating roughly to six wipe each a day – so clearly not to be wasted on anything other than essential business!

For those wizards at search engines out there, and with nothing better to do on a February weekend, there are a couple of topics that we have been pondering over, and we’d love to know the answers!
Firstly, our nail beds have turned luminous white, especially on our right hands … any idea why??
Secondly, what (if any) is the difference between the hair follicles’ on your head compared to the rest of your body?! If there is no difference – why has the hair on our legs now (finally!) stopped growing?

Oh the mind of an ocean rower!!

p.s HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY SIMMY

A sponsor who's not afraid to get his hands dirty for the cause!

2008-02-08T02:51:00.000-08:00

Well we have fantastic news to report today! (Well we actually found out a few days ago, but it’s taken till now for the news to sink in). Thanks to Jamie & Mapeley’s efforts we have a further £25,000 added to our fundraising campaign! Jamie had been busy cleaning windows at Euston tower in support of our effort and the response he received was beyond expectations. If we’d have known, we could have skipped the ocean rowing effort, and just cleaned windows ………ONCE AGAIN THANK YO SO MUCH JAMIE!

We’ve literally been blown away by the news! And now find ourselves travelling over 2 nm an hour with the help of ENE winds, Antigua is just getting that little bit closer once more! One out of every five wave catches us beam on, but hey, we’re not complaining. What’s a drenching now & again! We’ve given up on dry clothes mostly by now anyway. We rank our clothes on the following scale
1 = soaking
2 = very wet
3 = wet
4 = damp
5 = cold to touch, possibly damp.
Anything 3 and above is a bonus to wear. We now just need to develop a scale for salt encrusted clothing, might just do that over the weekend!
Night times are different however, as we have the most amazing outfit! Our PVCs! No joking! BLACK PVC on the outside, and a lovely warm fleece lining. For bottom part, we have “pre-bent shorts” which has low cut waist especially, unfortunately they were designed for men, so we do have excessive unwanted material at the front, but still they are cosy on those cold dark nights. And of course a matching top, Herdip went for the long sleeve look, while I have the short sleeved number. So at the end of her last shift in the day, Herdip steps into the cabin, and for the first shift of the night …..out steps CATWOMAN! It looks as close to a leather jumpsuit as you could get! I just hope it comes with some special powers to get us there quicker ...…

The secret is out! - well done dips.

2008-02-06T08:35:00.000-08:00

Last night was spent salivating as to what topping we would have had on our pancake if we were at home! We then discussed what we would abstain from over Lent. Being Sikh means that Herdip doesn’t really need to consider it but she was very happy to come up with suggestions for me. Out of my four favourite things in life, coffee, chocolate, champagne and … oh…three I meant three favourite things in life, we tried to consider which one I should give up. But then I thought to myself, I’ve actually been without all three (four) for close on nine weeks now already, so I’m not planning to abstain from any of them for any more!
Instead I’ve decided to give up rowing . . . .

Now being in a 24 foot rowing boat means that there’s NO chance of privacy. Secrets go right out the window. I’ve tried to sneak a few in, secrets that is, but “pop” out they come! Unless you're Herdip by the looks of it! Not only has she managed to hide an Options sachets (which we ran out of on our THIRD WEEK!), today she even popped out a Haribo Supermix bag. (HOORAY! It had 11 Ginger men!). Such was my surprise and delight I’ve not thought of questioning her of how many other little “secrets” she has stored, but at least now I know why she’s been so keen to push me overboard to clean the hull, it’s to give her time to raid the treats supplies! As long as she keeps making them appear now and again, and continues to share I’m more than happy!
For all the other secrets we’ve made the obligatory pact “What goes on tour, stays on tour”!

The rest of the day we’ve been very busy rewiring our broken charging plug (well 12 volt socket to be precise). Now, no jokes about how many nurses does it take to change a light bulb please! When sleep deprived, wind swept and panic setting in that we would be without sat phone, laptop (our lifeline) or ipods for the reminder of the “trip” it was a high pressured job! With three pin options and only two wires there were many combinations for us to work our way around. It didn’thelp that neither of us could remember what colour the live wire should be!
Well we are blonde & dippy remember! But finally, hey presto another challenge overcome and our sat phone is now charging beautifully! Phew!

Herdip – get back on the oars, I’m abstaining for Lent remember!

P.S Now that the Coppers have landed (Mission Atlantic) we can give it some welly, we were just too scared of being done for speeding before!! Well done boys!

Uncomfortably close . . . . (to each other and surrounding vessels)

2008-02-05T05:08:00.000-08:00

Last night was quite nice because we actually got to row and the bonus being we were moving in the right direction! It was a relief not to have to spend another night in the cabin with two of us in there. I'm sure I poked my toes in Elin's nostrils a few times that night, didn't dare inspect my toes in the morning!!! The other problem with sharing the cabin is that your body tends to seize up really quickly, so you get backache, your hands cramp up too, which is not particularly pleasant. Hopefully we won't have to do it again, fingers crossed.

Tomorrow (6th), is going to be an emotional day for Elin for personal reasons, we had anticipated to be on land by now but unfortunately we are not, however I have the matter in hand . . . . . I had hidden a packet of ginger haribo men for her to cheer her up so shhh don't tell her till tomorrow. The other night she was fixated on chocolate and we promised we would not have our chocolate treat ( by the way this is chocolate from the grab bag , as you know our supplies finished quite a while ago) till we had reached the 500 mile mark. I don't know how she restrained herself, it must have been torture, because it took us hours to get to the 500 mark. I did however cave in to her demands by giving her a hot chocolate drink I had stashed away for such emergencies!!!

We have also had a lot of traffic at night from one cargo ship to another, it’s a bit like the M1 down here, must be getting near land. By the way my fantastic idea of using the LED light from the bow cabin works like a dream :-)

Time for repairs as progress is slow

2008-02-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

Well the observant amongst you will have noticed that it has taken us 34 hours to do 18 miles! Painful to say the least! Now as much as I’d like to attribute our slow progress to excessive partying following the Welsh win or over indulging upon arriving at the 500 mile mark, sadly it is not the case!

There are three other clear reasons.

Firstly, following my accurate prediction of a Welsh win, I’m afraid that I have a rather sad sponsor on our hands! Now I don’t know if the average Joe Blogg out there knows how difficult it is to find a corporate sponsor for an Atlantic rowing race, especially since neither of us rowed or had previously been out to sea (not to mention the failed attempt statistics!!). So when you get a sponsor the key is to keep him happy at all times! With that aim in mind, we decided that if we stayed out at sea a few days longer, he’d think that he was getting more “days” for his money!!!And hopefully, it would give him time to recover from the English defeat! (Sorry Jamie!)

Secondly, our fundraising campaign! Everyone by now will know how passionate both of us are about metabolic medicine, our patients, and the much needed research in the area. So potentially the longer we are out here, the more time it allows for news of our attempt to be shared amongst the “masses”! The more people that get to hear, the more people that will donate (hopefully!). So for every day we are out here, please tell another person (your great Aunt, the person sat next to you at the bus, your ex, we don’t care who, just tell everyone) and fingers crossed . . . . we’ll soon reach our target!!

Thirdly, the wind! We have once again found ourselves stuck with strong north easterly winds, seriously pushing us off course, so all we can do (whether we want to or not!) is to hang on tight!
So with nothing much to do today, I had a play with the steering, and found it didn’t work so well. On further inspection I found that two pins on the rudder had snapped and the wooden padding on the bracket had fallen off. Nothing major, but repairs that needed attending to, and called for another trip “down under”! An hour later, with some success and the barnacles (can’t believe how quickly those little rascals grow!) once again scraped off …it was no wonder I was feeling “jet –lagged”. So now we’re happy to sit here, top up our sun tan and pray for that elusive easterly!

Welsh boys inspire!

2008-02-03T09:25:00.000-08:00

Well where do I start, the temptation of course is to go straight and talk about the Welsh win, but I’ll be good and bore you with some rowing news first.Every day now feels pretty much the same, all 63 of them. We row, we eat, we sleep, we row, we eat, we sleep. Over & over & over again. To add to the monotony of it all we now have our daily squall, regular as clockwork between 10 and 11am (Herdip caught it badly today). After a few days of good mileage I guess we shouldn’t feel too aggrieved that we are now sitting in the same place thanks to strong northerly winds, just trying to maintain our position above 17 degrees north.

So now ….rugby!
At 16:30 I duly sang “Hen wlad fy nhadau” and prayed that the strong winds we had here were not impacting on my boys in Twickers! The Jameson reporters were complete stars and sent me an update at every exciting moment of the game, Ian just about managed to leave out any bias from the commentary too! So when the Welsh tries started to come in I started jumping up and down (as much as one can do in a cabin that’s not high enough to sit up in even!)… I then desperately tried to remember all the words to Max Boyce song (…and they were singing, Land of My Fathers, ar hyd y nos) to wait for final whistle & confirmation that our boys had won! HOORAY!!!!!!! They had done it! I was ecstatic!!!! Da iawn fechgyn! I just soooo wish I could have been there to celebrate!

Two things happened at that exact moment. We were hit by a big freak wave which hit us beam on, threw Herdip off her seat and flooded the deck big time (not good!) …BUT …on a positive side, and there’s always a positive … Herdip while lying waist deep in the blue stuff was struck with a moment of genius thinking ….Now as you know we’ve been without compass light for a few weeks now, which has made night rowing very difficult (practically impossible!) and it was really getting to us. Well Herdip’s amazing, fantastic & awesome idea was to remove the L.E.D light wired in our forward cabin (just storage for random things) rewire it along deck and attach it to compass! So that’s what we did!!! Our boat builder might have been cringing if he had seen our attempt (duck tape all the way!) but hey presto - it works!

We were slightly annoyed that the wind hindered us being able to put her fine idea into its full potential, and settled for a second nights sleep in the cabin. Woken up this morning by our SeaMe bleeping I stuck my head out of the hatch door, only to see one very bright star in an otherwise very dark night. When the SeaMe started to continue bleeping widely out of control I decided it was time for a second look …….duck it……the “bright star” was now attached to a great big yacht, merely a few meters away and heading straight for us! Herdip jumped on the VHF and I grabbed for the flare. It was so close that I also started shouting – hoping that there was someone on deck … seconds later (felt like hours) we get a response over VHF, they had seen us, and swerved out of our way! Our legs were shaking! In the “pleasantry” conversation that followed, they asked “Are you in a dinghy?” …sometimes I feel like we are!

And so with batted breath we wait for the adventures of our ninth week on the Atlantic to unfold … roll on Antigua (PRETTY PLEASE!)

P.S HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID! HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT DAY, LOVE & MISS YOULOADS. MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE.

Dribble?!! did we really need to know this?! :-)

2008-02-01T08:20:00.000-08:00

Well the weather is as unpredictable as a stroppy teenager! Take yesterday for example, we were rowing hard struggling to get a mile in an hour, and the sun was so hot we were rowing in our bikinis. Within no more than 5 minutes the bright blue sky had turned black, completely, and we had the biggest, longest, hardest spell of rain (aka squall) we’ve had since being out here. It hurt as it landed on my skin with such force, and I could hardly keep my eyes open to peep at the compass as they were stinging. It stopped just as it was time to swap shifts (good call Herdip!) and again within minutes we had bright blue skies & hot sunshine, I didn’t even need to get my towel out - I was dry within minutes.

A bonus was that immediately after we got some great “wave action”. Goodwind, massive waves, all at a perfect 270 degree bearing we need. We made some good mileage in a few hours, which was good, because a few hours later it changed again, the wind turned into a really strong south easterly, pushing us north leaving us unable to row. It did mean we had a six hours rest/sleep in one go though, which should recharge us slightly for the forthcoming days/weeks till we land …a bonus since we are now on rations of snacks every other day …

Herdip & I have been getting increasingly worried about a newly developed habit though. We’ve both started dribbling! Excessive dribbling! Now luckily so far, it only happens at night … but the amount is worrying! As I’ve said before,, we sleep in 90 minute stints, minus the getting out of (mostly wet) rowing clothes, going to toilet, eating quick snack, and the 10 minute wake up the call the other end, it usually leaves 60 minutes sleep time! Now being the ladies we are, neither of us have experienced any dribbling while sleeping before, but now we find ourselves waking up in puddles of the stuff …to an extent that we fear it may cause us severe fluid loss and dehydration! What on earth could be causing it? The heat? Dreams of fresh food causing us tosalivate? We just don’t know! We are bewildered …and of course pray that it stops immediately on arrival in Antigua! Most unbecoming of a lady …

Apart from that, not a lot to report, we had a lovely chat with Rachel & Lin on Barbara Ivy today, to discuss outfit and nail varnish colour for our landing in Antigua! Important issue to discuss at this stage of the game

Chatting up men - Atlantic style

2008-01-30T06:03:00.000-08:00

Last night on my shift at about 23.00hrs I noticed a light and asked Elin to have a look, she groaned at me because she thought it was just another star that I thought would be amazing for her to look at. My feeling about it not being a star were correct, it was quite a large cargo vessel. We tried to make contact but had no joy, so Elin went back to sleep and I kept a watchful eye on it.
In the middle of my row I had to use the bucket (duty calls), and this ship seemed quite large and close now, I quickly did my stuff and called Elin to radio them. Trying to wake Elin up was a mission in itself, I think I scared all the flying fish away with all my shouting!!! Anyway, success, they spoke to us and Elin had quite a conversation with them, but we were asked a few odd questions!!
Ship crew "How many crew are you"Elin "Two of us"Ship crew "two female crew, hmmm we are all male crew"There was a pause from Elin then, probably thinking , right do I ask if there are any ginger men on board or not!?! Thankfully she didn't.
Then the most important question was asked by the ship crew, "what are your coordinates?”. We told them, he obviously looked at his and replied "oh yes we are very close." My thought on that was no s**t Sherlock.
They asked what side of the ship we could see and to all you cynics out there we didn't say the green light side - we said starboard like all true professional seamen and women. They were also having problems spotting us on their radar system and I was told to do several checks on our systems which seemed fine, he finally got back and said " yes I now have you on my rudder", well it sounded like that to me! I think he meant radar! Elin found this image of us on their rudder hysterical.
After several other personal questions about age etc we bid them farewell and a safe journey to London, England all the way from South America.

P.S Char, Elin and I are very pleased about all the interest from your students and would be more than happy to do a Q&A session on our return, a big thank you to all the pupils.

DreamMaker, the smoothest bottom on the Atlantic

2008-01-29T06:39:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to say it too loudly, so I’ll whisper, but it actually feels like the wind is with us today! Having said that we were increasingly frustrated that our daily mileage was still not what we wanted it to be, so at 6:00 local time today I jumped into the big blue to scrape off the barnacles. My previous attempt had been less than successful, a wave had pulled Dream Maker away from me, and as I reached to grab her I dropped the scraper. Following that I’d avoided the thought of doing it again, but Dream Maker was seriously feeling sluggish so it couldn’t be ignored any more. Thirty minutes scrapping today and the hull was as soft as a baby’s bottom (not mine!!). A few big fish came by to inspect my work too. So fingers crossed …

Yesterday had been a rather low day. I cried all day (all because of non-rowing things) … so there were tears and snot everywhere & I sympathise with every baby & toddler out there having their noses wiped with baby wipes as we speak.
We had a special Sidhu moment, where Herdip patted me on the shoulders and said “there there”, and for a while I was better!
We were sharing one pair of musto deck shoes as a squall had drowned the other, which meant I was bare footed steeping out of the cabin. I slipped and landed with my coccyx on the hinge of the hatch. I HOWLED! It was agony. The second howl which you may of heard was not my echo, but that of Herdip’s when she had to inspect the site of impact!!
When a text later that day made me all emotional again, Herdips words “well if you’re going to cry, get on the oars first” was the perfect response to finally snap me out of it! So on with the rowing!

Another Sidhu special moment which I actually forgot to share with you was that of the hand held bilge pump. As I’ve mentioned our automatic one has packed in, and so, as if our biceps don’t have enough to do, we now pump all the water out with hand!! It’s a simple design … a nozzle, a pump and a pipe to direct the water away (into an empty bucket). So I was bemused, worried and hysterical to watch Herdip pumping water for some time … out of the bucket and into our boat …… I think it’s time we got home!

If not for any other reason, but she’s also now gone the whole time (54 days!) without washing her hair … she insists it’s in some stage of self cleaning or something … yeah right!!

Thank you to Sally & Clint for your navigation and weather advice. Much appreciated.
And a massive thank you to everyone involved in the Valentine’s ball for your messages. As the days go by, we struggle to see how we can make it there in time, but even without us, I’m sure you’ll have a FANTASTIC time, with Jo Bardoe at the helm, I know you will. Enjoy & savour every last bit of bubble for us, and we’ll look forward to meeting you all at the next event that Jo organises … oops sorry Jo!

Get the walking frames on standby

2008-01-28T01:11:00.000-08:00

Well, we have been eight weeks out on the ocean by now, fifty-six days in a small boat, one thousand three hundred ‘n forty four hours on the oars. Time has no other relevance to us any more.
In all that time we estimate that we have stood up, fully weight bearing for a total of one hour 56 minutes. For two minutes each day we stand up in the gully to brush our teeth. We sometimes manage to do it without holding on these days . . . . such sea farers we have become! The rest of the time we lie down, sit, crouch or squat. At least we’ll have something other than champagne to blame for falling over in Antigua.

We’ve completely ran out of chocolate, it was our own stupid mistake (how did two girls get it so wrong?!). We have no spare battery for the compass light, my silly mistake again. But we're finding ways to navigate without it ... and breathe a sigh of relief every morning that we are still on track!
But we’re both determined young ladies, and we won’t give the swell an upper-hand. We thought no one could be more stubborn than us two, but the wind still tries to out do us. We just won’t concede to that, and we’re very pleased to say that things are looking up. Herdip got very excited with her “wave action” last night (her words!). I wasn’t quiet as excited as I had the top hatch open for some breeze during my break, and got completely drowned by one! My chilly con carne meal was now full of sea water! Double yuck! She suffered herself later on though in one of the biggest, longest, wettest squalls we've had since we've been out here.

We’ve responded to the challenge differently, but we’re both very much still united as friends. This is a mammoth adventure; a journey we hope will soon come to an end. Weekends for us are the hardest; we’re missing out on fun with our friends. All being well there’s just two more to go, so we plead with you don’t forget about us at the weekends, send your witty stories, juicy gossip and messages of support so we can smile and chuckle between our times on the oars. If there's no gossip, just make something up, we won't know the difference ... (no jokes though please, we still have the lot from Christmas to read).

We made it down to 750nm at 19:30GMT today and look forward to our last toffee sweets and tea to celebrate tonight. yummy!

More people are now planning to be in Antigua for our arrival, which is GREAT! WE CAN’T WAIT! And you never know, Duncan might even get an ear infection that would delay their homeward bound date a few days …(sorry Dunc) …although his ear might need to fall off waiting for us two!

A little joke to finish …
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Herdip Herdip who?
Herdip in, the ocean will be finished before you know it!

…we’ll let you guess which boat in the fleet came up with that one!

A poem from Gles (Elin's sister)

2008-01-26T12:41:00.000-08:00

Dreamakers voyage leaves from La Gomera
Family and friends all there to cheer her

Elin and Herdip row hard in their boat
Both relieved and pleased to find it float

Dreamaker crashing through wave after wave
All at home think you girls so brave

Rowing hard day and night
Those flying fish give you such a fright

That nasty wind takes you here and there
We at home cry, its just not fair

We read your blogs and you make us laugh
We hear both you girls yearn for bubble bath

The ends in sight so dig deep and row
All at home screaming, go girls go

You've been up and down, high and low
Just remember we are all proud of you

Not long now till you reach Antigua
Your family, friends and loved ones will be there to cheer ya.

With love from your BIG sis, Gles XXXX

Ocean ROWING challenge?!

2008-01-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

Firstly, a massive congratulations to the Unfinished Business girls! Go girls! We are very much impressed. When we were in La Gomera with pre race nerves and anxiety of what lay ahead setting in, you girls were a great reassurance. If you were willing to come back to attempt it a second time, well it couldn't be that bad we thought! We hope you enjoyed & savoured the moment, big time.

As you've guessed from the very slow movement of our little blue blob on your PC screen, the last few days has been tough, the winds are pretty keen to push us towards Trinidad or even Brazil at times. We've decided really not to go below 17 degrees north, but when we use all our physical might to battle it, it takes a lot of willpower not to drop down to get an extra mile or two in (Sally & Clint, we are trying to listen, honest!). So onwards & westwards as they say!

Well now that we have been at sea 54 days, I feel like I have enough of an insight to say that Woodvale Challenge have got it all wrong. This is not an ocean rowing challenge at all, ... in my opinion it should be called any of he following; ocean course navigating challenge... ocean weather guessing challenge... ocean eating challenge ... ocean bucket balancing challenge ... ocean even suntan challenge ... ocean hygiene challenge ... ocean butt pain challenge ... ocean dry day challenge ... ocean smiling challenge ... ocean sleep deprivation challenge!
So you see, the rowing part is the easy part, and I wonder whether Woodvale could be sued for inaccurate advertising!! (only joking Simon ;))

Thank you again for all your messages of encouragement and support. To be still following our every stroke for nearly 8 weeks is very much appreciated, please keep them coming! 831 miles still seems like an awful long way to go when you're battling a mile an hour and you have no chocolate or haribo men left on board ... that grab bag supply of chocolate is sooo getting it soon ....

p.s if anyone has a contact with the weather gods, PLEASE have a word!

The battle to stay on course . . . .

2008-01-23T01:26:00.000-08:00

We had a great day yesterday, the rowing felt like a dream and the oars sliced through the water like a knife in soft butter. As with everything on the ocean the high didn't last very long, yet again the winds have turned to a rather strong north-easterly making it very difficult to stay on course. The rowing has been really tough today and despite all our physical effort the wind was still determined to push us more south then we would like. From a psychological point of view we allowed ourselves to drop further south to reach 899 on the mileage and brace ourselves for a night of drifting on the para-anchor.
On a very positive note however we were very excited to hear that Gquma and No Fear have reached Antigua. In awe and envy Bill and Pete we will order the Welsh rugby shirts now. Nick and Jon, Elin is wearing your No Fear top in the hope of some oar power and luck (you owe us chocolate).
Thanks for the parents of the boys on Jaydubyoo for their message, we hope the boys are well, can't believe they didn't stop for a cup of tea when they rowed passed us and by the way thanks for the extra batteries, they have come in good use!

Happy Birthday Sukhie (my big sister in Canada), have a great day, love you and miss you loads. Herdip XXX

cold nights, broken oar . . . . but still time to entertain the men!!

2008-01-21T05:44:00.000-08:00

Sleep deprivation is finally getting to Elin, she now randomly talks about missing make up, asks if anyone has seen her rowing partner and our blog now reads more like a philosophy lecture than the witty diary it should be, so I've stepped in!

Another freezing cold night were Elin has finally started wearing layers of clothing, four compared to my six! We just hope we haven't taken a u turn accidentally and find ourselves landing in Norway any day now. I've also now succumbed to wearing plastic bags instead of socks too ... oh the shame! We have a thin white layer over everything now where the salt is EVERYWHERE!

Elin succeeded in breaking one of our much loved oars last night. Personally I think she sat on it, but she says it was a wave. (A wave picked up Dream Maker, rather ungraciously to be honest, and dumped us on our side). Sometimes the oars go through the waves like sliding a knife through butter; sometimes it's like hitting concrete - all our weight landing on concrete was too much for the poor oar! But fear not we have plaster of paris and steel roads available should we need to fix it.

Last night I also distinctly heard a man's voice coming from the cabin, and thought that Elin had finally managed to get a fully grown ginger haribo man in the cabin. But it turned out to be (if we believe her) two men from nearby ships talking on the VHF. She certainly wouldn't have been able to throw him out of the back hatch in time before I jumped up from my seat to have a look, although I haven't checked the rudder yet to see if anyone's clinging on. . . . .

Reflections at 999m to go

2008-01-21T01:05:00.000-08:00

Well we reached the big milestone of 999 miles to go. Unfortunately we had a storm of our own brewing on board and didn’t celebrate as we had planned. Our compass light had packed up in our first week, and we had come out with no spare batteries! We had been using a head torch since, and last night that too decided it had had enough of lighting our way for us. So in the “discussion” of what our options to continue were there was no jiggy, shimmy wham dance move or a high five even to celebrate. We sat in silence eating our last luxury lindt chocolate to mark the occasion.
Like all storms though it passed. The silence gave us the time to reflect, on entering our eighth week what we had achieved so far, and what was remaining to concur. It also made me think how the ocean reflected the campaign overall. On a good day each aspect of our venture reflects in the ocean.

The current, being very much behind the scene, working away quietly to support us, the foundation of our whole efforts – without which we would have gone nowhere is Jamie Hopkin from Mapeley – our sponsor. Without Jamie’s support our venture would still be nothing more than a mere idea in our minds. THANK YOU JAMIE.

The rolling waves – which are solid, and supportive, carrying us as close to the stars as they can before safely bringing us back down to prepare for the next challenge (or wave) is our close friends and family, who continue to support our dreams and efforts tirelessly.

The wind – is all our “fans”. All of you that send endless messages of encouragement and support, pushing us along in achieving our dreams. Without which we would still have a much further journey to travel.

The wildlife, dolphins, whales, rainbows, bright stars and the shinning moon – which keep our spirits high, boosts our morale when it dares to drop, reminds us of why we are here in the first place – these are all the children that we know. Our own nieces and nephews and all the children that we care for, who forever will make you want to chase that dream.

I won’t start making comparison with the elements on a bad day (squalls, rogue waves that hit us beam on, southerly winds) or I’ll get into trouble like I usually do, but feel free to have a guess ?

A Mum of one of our metabolic patients said in a recent message to us “ It must be so frustrating to be reliant on the elements and nature. I guess that ties in nicely with what you are doing. The money you raise will go towards making important changes to peoples' lives and NOT allowing nature to take its unfortunate course with some of the children with metabolic conditions.”

So with a new boost of energy for the new week ahead we’ll aim to do just that, stop the elements from pushing us off course, and distracting us from everyone’s dream.