Ocean Rowing Update: Stormy Seas
Jul 23, 2004 14: 38 EST
Ocean Rowing is a humbling experience. Few have attempted to cross an ocean and even less have succeeded. In a record season of Atlantic rowing – a total of five rowers were at sea at once, there has been some disappointing prospects. Already one rower was picked up, complaining of ‘extreme fatigue’. And at the rate the other four are going it looks like they can expect more disheartening weather.
Mick Dawson should be able to make some progress again starting today, as the wind shifts to S 10-15kt by this afternoon. Wind should remain WSW to NW 15kt (with occasional spurts of 20kt for several hours) for at least the next 5 days. So Mick should be able to ride with the wind and work in some southeast during the NW breeze. 78 days at sea.
Anne Quemere is finally getting what she asked for; wind and a friendly current – perhaps a little too much of both however. "Monday afternoon, the wind finally appeared. A regular flow of WSW from 15 to 20 knots accompanied me all night and Tuesday. Yesterday a powerful swell launched me into big surf. A few days like that and I will completely forget the dark moments of the inaction.” 50 days at sea.
Emmanuel Coindre “The weather has been overcast. The other night, I passed through some rather strong seas with very large swells. There was 150m between these 2 waves, they must have been at least 10 to 12 meters high, it was rather impressive. 14 days at sea.
Pink Lady The crew rowed 51 miles (45nm) over the last 24 hours but only 6 of them towards home. Having struggled N all day the crew were just putting out the para anchor to slow drift while they did some small items of maintenance and waited for an expected drop in the wind strength before rowing again. “The grind of rowing for so little gain is character building to say the least.” 23 days at sea.
Andreas Rommel is still clocking about 30 miles a day after only 6 days at sea.
According to Kenneth Crutchlow of the Ocean Rowing Society recommends all West to East North Atlantic rowers to leave by the end of May and aim for arrival on European shores before September. Before May iceberg dangers are quite high and come September the hurricane season begins off the coast of Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, etc. To date five Atlantic rowers were lost at sea after mid to late August, during hurricane season.
Image of Pink Lady rowers courtesy of the team.
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