Since most of the participants in the Atlantic Challenge are teams, they all have basically adopted a schedule 2 hours on oars and 2 hours off/rest.  When Owen launched, he wasn’t exactly sure what his schedule or routine was going to be.  After 4 weeks, here is his rough description of a day on Jack Keane in the Atlantic.

 

First a few things to note---

 

1) All times are shown in UTC 24 hour clock (London/La Gomera) time zone.  Throughout the race Owen will stay on UTC time even though he will row through 4 time zones.  The race organizers keep this as a standard for ease of dealing with different teams in different zones and so rowers can keep track of required check in times, etc.

 

2) This is not an exact accounting of 24 hours as you will see.  This is a tired rower explaining his day to me on a satellite phone. I was pretty impressed he was able to explain this much

 

7:45- 9:00---Personal Routine—Wake up, brush teeth, use the luggable loo, make hot water for breakfast (oatmeal mixed with muesli and nuts) and hot coffee, pack up all food wrappings from previous day.  Pull out the BGAN and download info and stats from Marianne.

 

9-11:15---ROW, ROW, ROW!

 

11:15- 13:00---Housekeeping—Wash solar panels, laundry, clean hull (when required), bathe, pack away and reorganize food, dry out wet items, charge devices on portable solar pad (he uses this vs. USB cords in the cabin to keep the batteries for navigation, lights, water maker, etc,.

 

13:00-14:15- ROW, ROW, ROW!  This is also when he is required to have his #1 Satellite phone on for Safety Officer check in.  Owen will get a call from Atlantic Campaigns every 2-3 days.  He can contact them whenever he needs advice or assistance. 

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14:15-15:30--Break--Prep Food, Check in with Chief Navigation Officer/Wife.

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15:30-17:30—ROW, ROW, ROW.  Owen described this as the toughest session of the day.  It’s the heat of the day and only sky and sea to look at.  During this row session, he says he generally makes his water.  Since it uses battery power he likes to do it when the batteries are fully charged and there is time to replenish them for the night when he needs to keep all the other items on and using battery power.  

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17:30-19:00—Get evening food and clothes prepared.

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19:00-21:30- ROW, ROW, ROW!

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21:30-22:45-  Break/ Nap

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22:45-1:00 – ROW, ROW, ROW!

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1:00-3:00--- Sleep

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3:00-5:00—ROW, ROW, ROW!—That’s the plan, but Owen says about 30-40% of the time he just sleeps until 7:00am

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Also, every 3-4 hours he needs to swap out the autohelm!  He has 2 functioning autohelms that he keeps rotating.  One is in use while other is charging.

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And Rinse and Repeat!  

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Thought you might find this interesting.  Feel free to send questions via email at owensrowing@gmail.com.