Dec 15, 2021- Day 3 at Sea

BLOG #13 – December 15, 2021

Day 3 at Sea

Greetings from snowy Reno!

Day 3 and I heard from Owen on the Sat phone this morning. We knew communications in the first days would be difficult. I was traveling home (48 hours from La Gomera to Reno) and he was getting into his groove. As you can imagine, it was so good to hear his voice. We were warned that the distortion of the Sat phone and the delay makes the rowers sound a bit delirious and slurry, but our connection was good, and he was in great spirits. Owen is happy with his progress to date.

·Owen has continued to stick with the Southern route as was recommended by the race directors at the launch, especially since he is a soloist and will not always have someone on the oars like the teams. He is starting to adjust his course slightly to the West now and hoping to get favorable winds to “sling shot” west and hope he missed the unfavorable winds. On Friday additional winds/weather are expected, but he believes he should be able to make forward progress while rowing but may have to put the para anchor out during sleep.

He is very happy with his progress and has had no seasickness to date. This is a big deal as this can be challenging early on and several other teams have been reporting issues.

He has been eating and sleeping well (and all other physical requirements:-). In fact, he told me he is sleeping too well! When he is rowing in the middle of the night, he says he falls asleep (compares it to driving I-5 to Southern California) and when he goes to the cabin for his rest breaks, he needs an alarm to wake up. As a nagging wife, it is good to hear he is starting out conservative and feeling good and getting into a sustainable rhythm. We have watched and heard so many people go out strong without proper nutrition and sleep only to pay for it later.

We are working on our rhythm of communications and figuring out what he wants to know and what he doesn’t want to know. He was thrilled to hear of so many well wishes via email and social media. He can feel the energy from afar. Keep it coming and I can pass it on!