December 29, 2021
Atlantic OceaN
So as Owen has reported previously, we can walk faster that he can row. Due to this fact, there will be wildlife/barnacles, etc, growing on the hull and this will slow down a rower. So every 7-10 days rowers need to clean/scrape the hull to remove the hitchhikers. Since Owen has been 18 days at sea, this is overdue, but with waves and whitecaps he has been waiting for calmer seas (good for boat cleaning, tough for rowing!). The last few days he has been reporting to me that this is on the agenda. This morning I received this photo with the description below:
“I have sky dived, done leap of faith at ropes courses & bungee jumped. Not sure any of those experiences compare to the feeling of getting off the boat to scrap the hull. The ocean floor is 3 miles down and the nearest land is 500 miles away - the boat is my lifeline. Photo doesn’t do the amount of growth justice”
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When we spoke, I got more details. A few highlights-
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Lessons learned--- pause autohelm while doing. As soon as he jumped out an alarm rang, thinking a boat was coming, he had to jump back in to check the alarm. No boats, so he jumped back in to resume task. Again an alarm, this time he realized it was him moving the boat off course and the autohelm was alarming. So he had to get back in and put the autohelm on standby. As a solo rower, he doesn’t have a team member on deck to help with these items.
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He will need to clean the hull more often, lots of gunk and many small fish around feeding off of it. He said he was surprised he was getting clean water as there was lots of growth around the water maker inlet.
Conditions are slow again, but he expected to get some favorable wind and currents in the next 24-36 hours. Owen is at the mercy of the Sea and is making the best of the conditions he has.
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Thanks to everyone for the continued well wishes and support of Owen and Okizu!
