TIME WARP (‘It’s just a jump to the left’)

This vast seemingly nothingness is occasionally broken by a tern or a petrel dipping by to observe this curious little craft, or my sojourn under the boat to feed Raymond and the rare sighting of another fish. The monotony of rowing and the two months laboriously chugging bye, is really taking its toll now and has become a serious physical and mind challenge. My rotator cuffs in both shoulders are playing up and sleep is very difficult. The time warps are weird!

Picture the following; I rowed the last daylight shift and watched the sun set in our rear view mirror (there to spot ships) behind me. After my dazed night shifts I’m on duty rowing, and watch the sun rise from behind the mirror into my face! It’s a bizarre feeling; the entire Earth rotated 360 degrees and I felt I hadn’t moved! We can’t gauge movement on this vast expanse of water except in the charts. Then to realize that twelve hours had past and nothing had really changed. As John Muir put it; “Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, as the round Earth rolls.”

Also forgot to mention that we have tried using the broken half daggerboard and inserted it under the boat upside down. Wayne drilled holes so that he could attach cord and pull her upwards while I pushed from under the boat. I then dived and wedged strips of cloth on either side to secure her position and then mixed Pratleys Putty (old commercial diving trick) and sealed her in place. Although the board is only sticking out about 300mm she is solid (while I was diving Raymond Remora fish swam round me like a building inspector!) It is not the same like a whole dagger board but it is something.

And so we row, east now, towards the Brazilian coast line which we hope to sight in the next seven or eight days. Then following the coast down to Rio in the hope of favorable winds and currents…

‘It’s just a jump to the left’; a jump of some 1, 800kms!