Day 16 (26th February 2014) has seen the crew already pull 40 nm halfway through today! The daily call from the boat with Simon Chalk, the skipper, was jovial – they have been having rain showers earlier today which was great after the roasting heat they have been experiencing during the last few days. Matt Mason stripped off and soaped himself up and allowed the rain to give him a shower much to the amusement of the rest of the crew!
1300 nm to the finish will mark the halfway point for the crew, which will be in the next 24 hours and thoughts are already looking forward to rowing towards land; Barbados; family; friends and beer! Their speed instrument was mended by Paul but sadly only worked for 12 hours and has given up again…..he is working on it once more. Simon reported that it was hard going yesterday and they worked so hard to pull an 80 nm daily mileage but they are all keenly aware that they need to keep their daily averages up.
As a standard, they normally speed up in the second half of the row if the weather remains consistent in the right direction with them, as they get lighter (less food and body weight!) towards the finish so although they are running about 14 hours behind the current 32 day record, it is all still to row for!!
They are LOVING all the messages and so grateful for all the support – the main message from the boat today was from James to Archie, Fergus, Max & Henry “Hi boys. The poo bucket is going well but it’s tricky to sit still on, a bit like a baboon on ice! Love you lots and missing you lots, Daddy”.
Come on Toby Wallace crew….row, row, row!!
Photo below of Matt Mason who was “nominated” to do the man overboard drill in port – complete with pink cowboy hat and rubber ring of course!
