27 May 2005, Emsworth, Hampshire
I've been skulking.
It may have appeared from my website that I've been on board Steamy Windows all this time, but in fact I got back 10 days ago. I'm now living in a rented cottage in Emsworth, Hampshire, and have been keeping a low profile while I got myself sorted out and settled in.
This is going to be the perfect base for the summer - I'll be keeping my boat on the Thorney Island army base, just a few minutes' bike ride away, and also using the gym there.
Next month the guys there are giving me one-to-one tuition for my mandatory First Aid At Sea course, skipping over things I won't need (bit hard to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on myself...) and focusing on more useful things, like how to stitch up my own wounds, pull a tooth, and deal with blisters and saltwater boils.
A friend has negotiated on my behalf to get a substantial discount at the Emsworth Chandlery for all my boat supplies. Within 5 minutes of my front door I've got butcher, baker, greengrocer, library, train station... and a dangerous number of good pubs.
Emsworth is a gorgeous little coastal village (see photo) and I already feel very at home here. If it wasn't for the exciting prospect of the Atlantic Rowing Race (START DATE 6 MONTHS TODAY!!!) there'd be a serious danger of me getting much too comfortably ensconced here to ever leave.
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13 May 2005, Ponta Delgado, the Azores
Hello again, Ponta Delgado!
We arrived back in the Azores on Wednesday afternoon. The staff in the Skippers´Bar were delighted to see us again... or maybe not!
We´d been unlucky in that the weather forecasters changed their minds shortly after we set sail on 4th May - the revised forecast showing that we´d be heading into increasingly stormy conditions as we headed north. We slugged it out for a couple of days, and then came to the difficult decision that there was little point in making life miserable for ourselves, so we would return to the Azores and wait for more favourable conditions.
Once that decision had been made, our luck changed and we managed to avoid the worst of the weather on our way back to the safe haven of Ponta Delgado, and in fact enjoyed several days of very pleasant downwind sailing.
This is a less than ideal situation for skipper Russ, to embark on the final leg of his circumnavigation only to be thwarted by a freak period of prolonged easterly winds.
But purely selfishly, I´ve achieved everything I needed to during this phase of my preparations - I´m now confident that I can cope with big waves, dark moonless nights, being in a small boat far from land, night watches and disrupted sleep. All this will stand me in good stead come November.
And get this - I´ve managed to find myself an ocean rowing boat to practice in! Well, OK, more of a coastal rowing boat... the local yacht club just happens to have a craft designed by ocean-rowing legend Gerard D´Aboville, which will be the perfect way for me to get some training in before I head back to the UK.
Photo: crewmate Claire strikes the warrior pose atop a mountain in the Azores
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11 May 2005, 41 40' N, 21 28' W
This little fella stopped off on Steamy Windows for a breather. We were 300 miles from the nearest land. You're a small bird to be travelling so far, I thought. There again, a lot of people say the same to me.
At least I'll have copious amounts of food and water to sustain me, and a bunk to lie in when I need a rest. This little swallow had nothing. No wonder he dropped in for a rest.
Unfortunately we were clean out of live insects to offer him for lunch. Eventually, possibly disgusted with the standard of hospitality, he flew off on his way.
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08 May 2005, 43 38' N, 20 27'W
I've learned a lot about seafaring during the last few weeks. The latest lesson is that you can't go where the weather doesn't want you to go. Right now, it seems the weather would prefer us to go to Iceland rather than home. We beg to differ. So, after 6 days at sea, we're turning around and going back to the Azores to wait for more favourable conditions.
Unusual weather systems have generated strong easterly winds throughout the northeast Atlantic. We've been battling upwind since we left the Azores, hoping for a change. But the forecast isn't improving, and if we continue battling the easterlies we run the risk of ending up a) in Iceland, and b) very hungry.
In the words of Ran Fiennes, better a live donkey than a dead (or very hungry) lion, so we're taking the prudent course of action. Hello again, Azores.
Still due to be inter4viewed live on the BBC Radio Solent breakfast show on 11 May. Listen in then for the latest!
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