Toby Wallace had a great day today with 81nm covered and nearly under the 2,000nm mark to Barbados! They should go under this tomorrow which is great……OysterShack are fairing well too with 68nm covered today and 2215nm to the finish.
Yesterday evening OysterShack reported seeing dolphins around their boat, and then this morning Toby Wallace reported seeing dolphins when they did change over from their four hour watch at 0200hrs today….which perked the crews up no end!
Remember Phil McCorry and Dan Renner who the Toby Wallace and OysterShack crews rowed out with when they left Gran Canaria on 10th November 2014 – well they have been at sea now for 3 weeks and 3 days and have 1431nm to go to Barbados –http://atlanticchallenge14.org/tracking/. We have been following their progress closely and now that the weather has improved for the crews, the CHASE IS ON!! They have been gaining on them for the past four days and are closing the gap….today Toby Wallace are 684nm from them and OysterShack are 820nm. As the 32 day speed record has slipped away, it is an added incentive for the crews to chase down Phil and Dan – so watch this space!
Lots of aches, pains and the usual sores going on but everyone is digging deep and news from home always helps them to push on. Stephen and Christophe are both pleased to hear that their rowing club in Shrewsbury, Shropshire has raised enough money to buy a new boat! And Matt Inglesby was incredibly happy to hear the news that Kerry Greenfield has finally got her hands on her REWALK machine today (see photo below). Matt raised a lot of money for Kerry on his first Atlantic row in February this year, and once again was fundraising for her on this row so it’s great news that the target has been met.
Kerry said: “THE FUNDRAISING IS DONE!! I HAVE MY REWALK!!! I went to see it today and use it again. It went really well, I had a good few walks and even had a little stroll outside on my new bionic limbs!! It will be next year before I bring it home as I have to do some training when I’m ready and it will be a lot of hard work at physio. But I loved it, it felt so nice to be up standing and walking. Thanks everyone for all of your hard work to get it for me. I’ll never forget all of the extraordinary kindness and generosity you all showed, it was great getting to share all of this with everyone and I hope in the future when I’m stronger on ReWalk we can use it to help raise funds for others who need equipment and support. I’ve been very lucky to have you all. Thank you x”
Matt was less thrilled to hear that Everton drew 1-1 with Hull yesterday though!
Congratulations to Kerry and don’t forget to everyone else that if you haven’t donated yet, many of the crew members from both boats are fundraising for their own individual causes so have a look at their profiles (by clicking here) and give generously….it’s a huge incentive for the rowers to know that they are putting in the hard work to benefit others.