Day 3: Into the Big Blue

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Added: Wed. May 27, 2009 10:42am
Posted in: Eco-Travel

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Roz Savage is a British ocean rower, author, motivational speaker and environmental campaigner. After 11 years as a management consultant, she embarked on a new life of adventure by rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic. Her unlikely transformation from office worker to ocean rower, described with humor and soul-baring honesty in her blogs, captivated a worldwide audience. Roz is now attempting to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific.

This is one in a series of blog posts from Roz during her journey. To follow Roz's adventures, visit http://rozsavage.com.

Day 3 can be a tough one. I remember now, feeling this way on the last two crossings. My body still has to get into the ocean groove - hands are blistered, shoulders are sore, and very surprising for anyone who knows me well, I'm slightly off my food. Normally nothing interferes with my appetite, but even on these relatively calm waters I've been feeling a tad queasy, and I've had to force down enough food to keep me going. Luckily I have plenty of reserves, having put on a lot of weight since my last row, so I'm not in danger of starvation any time soon!

This particular Day 3 was not helped by the fact that I've been rowing into a headwind. A very slight one, admittedly, but still enough to create a very strange wiggle in my course when I look at it on the chartplotter. I'm not quite sure how often my Solara unit to transmitting my position, so you may or may not be able to see my
loop-the-loop on the RozTracker.

No matter how tough the day, I definitely feel past the point of no return. Last night when I retired to my bunk I could just see the orange glow of the lights on Oahu, but this morning when I got up just before 6am there was no sight of land. So I am now very much out in the Big Blue.

There is also a slight feeling of, "Oh my word, why am I doing this?" So far to go, and progress so slow. Luckily I have a few good answers to that question, and I have to keep reminding myself that I just have to keep sticking the oars in the water, and I will get there eventually.

Only another 9,897,356 strokes to go....!

Other Stuff:

An interesting diversion this afternoon - some birds feasting on a school of fish, lots of action at the water's surface.

Went for a little swim this afternoon to try and cool down. But the ocean is so warm, it didn't help much.

Speaking of which, today I deployed the two temperature gauges given to me by Hawaiian IT company Oceanit. One gauge for the air, fixed to my rollbar, and one for the water, attached to my rigger. It is supposed to be a metre below the surface, but refused to sink, so I had to attach some fishing weights to it. Hope it doesn't slow me down too much!

Position: 20 42.296N, 158 22.868W
Wind speed: 5-8 kts, SSE
Sea: max: 2-3ft swell, choppy this morning, calmer now
Intentions: keep plugging south