Closing in on Antigua

Hello, I hope you are all keeping well.

This is very likely to be my final newsletter whilst Liz is at sea.

She has been out there for 40 very long days, what a total hero she is.

Currently TicTac’s eta is 26th January and she has just 335 nautical miles to go. 

Her routine of rowing and resting has been working well over the last week , the seas and winds have finally been helping her achieve some big mileage days ( big mileage is relative in ocean rowing! ) For two full days last week, she was the fastest boat in the entire fleet. This included teams of 4, 3 and 2’s. Quite a phenomenal achievement for a solo. 

Her strategy before the start was to be as light as possible. Liz looked at every thing that was onboard and worked out a way to make it lighter. When the boats were launched in La Gomera, each one was weighed, Tic Tac was 300 kg less than the next lightest solo boat.

This is now making a considerable difference to her speed.

She’s had her share of drama recently, Liz was knocked down in the huge swells and the gunwale was held under the water for what seemed like minutes, Liz hauled herself to the high side and managed to right the boat. This was not an experience she wishes to repeat, being alone for these incidents must be extremely challenging. She is one inspiring human to follow on her incredible adventure.

As I’m in Antigua, I went down to cheer in Oardacious for the race win last Wednesday. What a great team the submariners are. They completed their row in 35 days and given the challenging weather conditions, their achievement is nothing short of superhuman.

Since then we have seen 7 more teams come around the headland into English Harbour, and relish the glory of holding flares aloft which family and friends cheering.

In a couple of day’s I will be joined by Jamie, Micky and Georgia, she has been doing a fabulous job with Liz’s social media;   https://www.facebook.com/LizWardley. 

I can’t wait for the end of this week, when we will put our team Tic Tac t-shirt’s on and head down to welcome Liz, Barney and Javier in. 

It will be quite a moment for all of us.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Fair Winds and Following Seas.

Louise 

I have attached a photo of the winning team, 5 man crew, Oardacious after the arrival at The Dockyard, English Harbour.