Pizzas and Friendly Fish
Hello, I hope you’ve had a good week and are enjoying the weekend.
What an incredible week Liz has had. This is a brief update of the last 7 days.
Last Sunday Micky and Jamie fitted GoPro clamps to Tic tac to ensure the camera angles work for the documentary. Liz is hoping to get some unique footage out there.
On Monday Liz and Jamie went out for the final test row and drone practice. It's a real skill grabbing a drone from a rolling and pitching little deck, after a couple of tries Liz successfully retrieved it and filmed herself from another camera catching it. Nice multi-tasking!
On Tuesday, the final preparation day, all crews were given start times and the itinerary for Wednesday. First boat to start at 8:15, with another going every 2 minutes after that, Tic tac’s time was 9:17.
In the afternoon Jamie headed back to Australia, it is always hard saying goodbye to important people in your life, particularly just before a challenge like this one.
The penultimate briefing was held at 18:00 before Micky and Liz went out for pizza. They ordered extra for the first couple of days onboard as a treat.
Start Day, Wednesday 13th December, final briefing at 6:15am, Liz was onboard before daybreak, last minute radio checks were being carried out amongst the fleet, only the rowers were allowed onto the pontoons. Micky and all the other friends and families had to view from the walkway above as one by one the little row boats pushed out and were cheered off. And suddenly by 9:29 they were all gone. All off on an adventure of a lifetime.
Day one is a huge adjustment on an ocean crossing, settling into life at sea and the routine of eat, sleep, row, repeat is tough enough, but they also had a swell and breeze from an unhelpful direction to contend with. This made the first waypoint, 20 nautical miles away, tricky to get to. Liz didn’t want to be pushed the wrong way when off the oars, so she rowed non stop for over 9 hours! What an incredible feat.
Liz was particularly pleased with how Tic Tac handled herself in rough seas, these Rannoch built ocean row boats are like little corks, they bob along over the waves quite happily, in fact in my opinion they feel more comfortable in biggish seas than a yacht does.
Day two Liz was visited by some fish who thought her bespoke ‘anti-seaweed catching’ rudder design was interesting. She put the GoPro in to see, they were about 70cm long and ended up hanging around most of the day. During the second night it had calmed down enough to get the jetboil out and enjoy her first proper hot meal in two very long days.
Day three is another tough one for ocean rowers, muscles and joints are starting to really complain. Liz rowed a huge amount over the previous 48 hours and even overtook teams of four, moving up from her start place of 31st to 24th. This is virtually unheard of for solo’s, particularly women, but we know Liz is no ordinary woman. Although she admitted to aching a bit, she then put in 20 hours on the oars to get past the first seamounts before the wind picked up again.
Day four saw Liz move up another three places to 21st overall and 4th out of 11 solo’s. Obviously it's very early days but in previous years we expect some of the fleet to go on para-anchor at some stage during the first week. This is when a huge spinnaker type drogue is deployed from the bow and sits in the water to hold the boat in position, this enables rowers to rest and not go backwards in less than ideal conditions.
Liz says she’s looking forward to the new moon getting bigger as its pitch black at night and surfing down waves you can’t see is pretty exciting!
* Stop Press * Just received an email and today has been pretty rough, Tic tac got hammered from every direction and was knocked down twice going over the last seamount, thankfully she’s safely through and no more of these on her current route across.
I’m so incredibly proud of how well she is doing, she’s a total legend.
I forgot to mention in the last newsletter that Liz is raising funds for the Chumpy Pullin Foundation, an Australian based charity that breaks down barriers to provide support and inspiration for young Australians to participate and grow in sport. This is her link, please help if you can, even a small amount makes a huge difference. https://worldstoughestrow-lizwardley.raisely.com
That's it from me, thank you for taking the time to read this.
Fair winds and following seas.
Louise