Under 1000nm
Hello from Antigua!
I can really feel the Worlds Toughest Row excitement revving up here.
Roxy, Rannoch’s, 12 man/ woman ocean rowing boat is due on Tuesday (16th) and there are lots of supporters and family in town already, adding to the WTR crowd.
The marinas are packed with magnificent mega yachts and massive power boats; the thought of the fuel bills for those floating palaces is truly terrifying! It is, however, wonderful to see the yachting industry flourishing and bringing revenue to the island.
Liz has had a mixed week, with some great winds and surfing, but also more than her fair share of windless days with virtually no breeze assisting Tic Tac towards English Harbour. Those days are tough, although not quite as tough as the ones with wind on the beam (side) pushing her off course, or worse headwinds pushing her backwards. It seems, gone are the days when a mariner could set off from the Canaries, in confidence that the Trade Winds would, pretty consistently, blow from varying degrees of East until they arrived in the Caribbean.
Depending on where the rowers are in the fleet, the tricky wind conditions have had a greater or lesser impact. Liz had opted to take a more northerly course and when the winds pushed the boats down further South, she remained on a good latitude for the finish line. English Harbour is at 17 degrees North; the aim is generally to stay above this line until the rowers get quite close to Antigua. If they go too far south it can be virtually impossible to get back up, and no one wants to be towed into the finish!
Liz was asked by Sky News to take part in The Weekend Live Show. She spent some time last week working out how she would manage a live feed. She was ‘stoked’(her words) because the focus of the interview was the Chumpy Pullin Foundation, and the scope was huge. Unfortunately however, on the day, the connection just wasn’t stable enough, and after over an hour of trying, they aborted the mission. As you can imagine, Liz was desperately disappointed not to be able to promote the charity to a huge audience. She has raised $1,164 of her $10,000 goal and wants to thank everyone who has generously donated, it's much appreciated, but this was a real blow to her.
Tic Tac now has just over 900 nautical miles to go. Can we raise $1000 for each 100 miles? It would mean so much to Liz, I keep her updated on the figure weekly and I know it would give her a HUGE boost that she’s achieving her fundraising goal.
Please click on the link to find out more about her charity;
https://chumpypullinfoundation.org/
Or simply to donate in one click this is the link you need;
https://worldstoughestrow-lizwardley.raisely.com/
As always, thank you for taking the time to read this.
Fair winds and Following Seas.
Louise.
P.S. The picture of the marlin was taken by Liz’s GoPro, he ‘stalked’ (her words) Tic Tac for most of the day!