***This is an ongoing post which will be updated daily from the Sea Change crew on the GB Row Endurance***
July 1, 2024 -
June 29, 2024 - Back to Padstow to wait out the Weather
June 28, 2024 - Heading to Wales Tonight
June 26, 2024 - Land's End
Transcript:
Hi, everyone. Checking in for the skippers log on day 18 and 19. Day 18. Yesterday was a huge day for us coming around Land's End. We'd come past the lizard in the middle of the night, heading towards Land's End, and actually then caught a really good quick tides with us that with just across that lost bay, and we actually ended up arriving about six hours too early to the Land's End peninsula, which gave us the chance to anchor up in the morning cove, which I remember from two years ago when we spent three days anchored in that same cove. And it's beautiful and so sheltered, and just surrounded by amazing rocks and cliffs and caves and a lighthouse at the end. And it's just a lovely spot. And I was so glad to have a chance to take the girls there. So we spent six hours, just hanging out on the boat at sea, which is really nice, because all the other times that we've been at anchor, it's been ghastly weather. So we've been just sort of holed up in the cabins or sitting out on deck and off out.
So, so nice to have a chance to just, get the jet boat out and make some teas and coffees and, sort of generally we'll sit around on deck and have a bit of a chat. We shouldn't have. We don't have that many opportunities to do. And then we set off from there at 12, I knew we needed to be at the Royal Stone by between 2 and 230. If you're there too early, it feels like you've got a good tide taking you in. But the tide actually then sort of takes you from London, south southwest and out towards the Isle of Scilly, Isles of Scilly. And then there's a point at which it turns and instead takes you sort of round the corner and on up. So you want to make sure you get there for that bit of the tide. And right at the beginning of it, because if you can catch that, then you will have, about 8 or 9 hours of good tide because you pick up another tide, about ten miles up, which is then, pushing you up the north north coast of Cornwall.
So, yeah, I've done all the calculations and worked out that it was between 2 and 230 that we needed to be, at the Reynold Stone, which is the sort of marks the beginning of rounding the Land's End peninsula. And then we headed out and actually, were going far too fast towards it. So we ended up just drifting for an hour or so, at about two knots. So that we didn't arrive too early. And then. Yeah. Right around. Glorious sunshine. Such beautiful coastline. As we went round, we were hit by a bit of a headwind, which does make it feel like rowing into a brick wall. And does do some strange things to see. So that was quite a lot of chop, and waves and it's spring tides as well.
So, altogether just sort of quite tricky waters for an hour or so and then that died down and we enjoyed. Yeah. About 8 or 9 hours of really great tides that just whizzed us right around the corner. And so before we knew it, we were heading up past and dives and, just so, so pleased to not be on the South coast anymore, but to be heading northwards.
And our aim was to make for Padstow, which is about 30 miles past sometimes. We knew that there's some weather coming in tomorrow and Friday, which is going to be very strong winds coming in from the west. So we didn't want to busy during those. And there's very few places around here where you can shelter easily from, from winds, particularly where you can anchor because, the tidal range is so big here that everything dries out.
So Paddy's Day, we'd identified as the place that we could make in the time available. I would be able to to anchor. So, Yeah, that meant we did super well to get to the knives. And then overnight, it was a really surprisingly challenging night. It wasn't strong winds. But it was consistent sort of crosswinds and headwinds, and it just messed the sea up in all different directions.
I think we also had of big swells coming in from the Atlantic, and the completely opposite direction. So the sea was just try to go in all directions at once. And it's like being on a bucking bronco, which is fun for about 20 minutes and then really stops being fun. And it's really hard work. Steering is really, really hard.
And trying to do that in the night as well, when you can't see the water and when everybody's knackered. And just struggling to to stay awake is Yeah, big, big challenge. So I think it was one of, big all round. One of our hardest nights, actually. And coming on the tails of one of our absolute best days.
Yeah. Such is life. But this morning we made it to Padstow now for about 11:00, which was pretty much what we were aiming to do. Glorious sunshine this morning. A really lovely arrival. Except it was quite low tide. So coming in down the channel to the harbor was extremely hard work. We were rowing as hard as we possibly could just to make any progress forwards for the last 500m or so, and then got into the harbor, and found that, we had to do some very precise parallel parking and pretty shallow water, with absolutely no margin for error. So it was a bit of a high stakes maneuver, but we pulled it off. And we're just waiting for the water to get high enough for the lock to open so we can go through into the Marina, and find ourselves a berth.
A bit, you know, we'd rather not be on land again. But such is life and such as the weather. So it was either coming round and then coming into the harbor or Padstow or anchoring for God knows how long before coming around on the island. And we so desperately wanted to get round Land's End.
So here we are, and we are watching the weather and hoping for a window. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. They will let us get up to the south coast of Wales. We need that to extend a little bit at the moment. So if everyone can do the, their, their bit in terms of praying to the weather gods for us, that would be amazing.
It's a challenging year for this, it seems. But, nevertheless, we, we continue and we'll check in again tomorrow or the day after. Cheers! Bye.
June 24, 2024 - Demon Dolphin in Lyme Bay!!!
June 23, 2024 - Dolphins!!!
June 22, 2024 - Lyme Bay
June 20, 2024 - Power Outage on boat, Heading into Bridgeport
June 19, 2024 - Early Morning
Just recording a bit of an update to our plan. We had looked at the weather and thought that, that it looked okay to just sort of head with the wind out around the Isle of Wight. A little bit, further, looking, some calculations. And we decided to slightly change our plan, which is why we've headed more inland with a nice big bay.
Where expecting wind to start from the north and then swing round slightly. So it's from the north, north east. And that is going to build to more than 15 knots by 5 a.m.. That in itself is okay, but at 5 a.m., the tide also tends to go against us. So that would leave us in a situation with a wind pushing us south west and the tide pushing us east, and that is going to end up with really difficult things, very little opportunity to actually make headway, towards the West in the direction we want to go.
So instead of riding that one out, we are going to, probably anchor up near to Selsey Bill, probably between 5 and 10 a.m. and just let the worst that weather blow through and the tide against us, do its thing. And then once the tide turns again at 10 a.m., and the wind starts to drop a little, we'll have great conditions for heading out towards the Isle of Wight.
Just really consciousness. Lots of shipping traffic in there as well. So sort of not an area to go and get yourself into difficulties. So it's just feels like at least coming, coming into shallower water now and hugging the coast a bit should give us a bit of shelter from the north as well. And it gives us, gives us all our options really, to either make headway southwest, or to anchor.
But like I said, I think the, probably what you're going to see us do is stop for a few hours in the early morning, watch this space.
June 18, 2024
Hey, everyone. Hi, and I'm off shift. Madeline and I are rowing on and off together today. Yep. And we just came in about 20 minutes ago. Okay. It's nice out there, right? It's beautiful. We were rowing in shorts and t shirts, which is my first shift ever. Rowing in shorts and t shirts. And it's been absolutely just beautiful scenery going past this of New Haven.
And, Beachy Head, Seven Sisters. Seven sisters, which we counted, eight of which we're a bit confused about that. If anyone can shed any light on why there are eight of the seven sisters, that would be great sisters. And, yeah, this has been the first time, I guess, that we've rowed continuously as long as we have more than 24 hours.
So everyone's actually just settling in to a bit of normality, which is amazing. This is still pretty hot, especially with sleep deprivation. We've all got some new bubbles. Yeah. All right. Yeah. The has lots of little aches and pains, and body's just getting used to it and everything. But, yeah, we've been really lucky to have some nice conditions since we set off.
It was a little bit. It was a little bit feisty, wasn't that coming out of the bubble? I had to turn around and hand steer. Yeah. But actually, that was good to know. We can do that easily. I didn't last that long, so within a couple of hours, it was all very, very manageable. And then it's just got nicer and nicer and easier and easier.
We had, lovely conditions all through the night. The most amazing sunset. It's not, like, all the way round. It's fine. Pretty nice sunrise as well this morning. Actually, even by the time we started our 2 a.m. shift, that was some lights in the sky station calling at 1050 so you can contact. Kind of. We can't, one on one neighbor.
Oh. Hopefully we don't get too much of that. And then, yeah, we made it to, from Dungeness, which is the place where we had anchored previously. And made it past there. From there to Beachy Head was 30 miles, and now we're just about ten miles the other side of Beachy Head and heading towards Selsey Bill, which is another 30 miles away from where we are now.
We'd like to be there in the morning. We're, going to have some slightly more interesting weather conditions overnight tonight. I think we have a bit of a sort of cross tailwind. So we will, Yeah. See how that goes. It's not anything to, you know, anything to worrying. And it should, in theory, push us out in the right direction.
So that we can then winds around the south side of the Isle of Wight. Which would be tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon, if all goes to plan. So we will update you then. But in the meantime, just want to say. Hi, everyone. Well, thanks for all the support. And, taxi tomorrow.
June 17, 2024 - Departed Dover. We're Back in Action!
Hey everyone! Exciting update today. We're off, we're at sea! I mean, you can see Madeleine rang along in the stroke seat. I've written on the door: "This too shall pass". Whether it's good or bad, the one thing we know is that it will change. So this feels like the motto for us setting off again, but also just like, oh, my goodness it's so good to be back at sea.
We set off about 14:00 as planned and knew that we were heading. I think, like I said yesterday, we were heading out of the harbour into a tide that would take us quickly the way we want to go, but in the opposite direction to the wind. Which means that you've got wind against tide, which makes for some pretty choppy seas with that kind of swell.
It was quite exciting, we rowed straight out of the harbour wall into some quite big waves coming at us from all directions. Needed everybody in the cabins to be in the cabins with the hatches shut so we didn't get too much water in the boat. And actually quite quickly I dropped out the stroke seat at the front and just took the hand steering facing the opposite direction to the other two who were rowing so I could see the waves coming and then just steer with my hands into each wave just so we sort of stayed up front on to them and didn't get pushed round, so we were side on. That was that was pretty exhilarating! The look on Chrissy's face of pure joy and exhilaration. And the good thing is none of the others have been seasick either.
We've just come off that first two hour shift. We've made good progress, we're almost at Folkestone now. If we can get past this harbour wall while we've still got the tide with us. And I think that when the tide turns and goes against us, it'll be a lot less strong, so we stand less chance of losing ground, because obviously we'll be going against the tide and against the wind at that point.
I think we're going to be all good. The wind is going to be dying down progressively from now on - we knew that was going to be the worst of it when we went out and it would only be getting better and easier from then on in. So yeah, feels really good. And by the middle of the night, when we hopefully come past Dungeness for the last time, we're going to be in just glorious rowing conditions.
And let me show you the view out of here. Out of the back cabin, in the distance you might just see Dover where we have just come from. Over here, that way you can see we've got Folkestone Harbour. Oh, a wave's come and a little bit of spray, a few drops have made their way into the hatch.
It's just cool. You can turn the trackers on back now and hopefully we won't give you anything to worry about for the next few days. See ya!
June 16, 2024
June 14, 2024
June 13, 2024
June 12, 2024
