Blog/Diary

So that is it… After a years worth of hype, a months worth of delays and 70 days on the Ocean, we arrived back in the UK Thursday morning to be greeted by a biting March wind and an overcast and drizzly vista.  Thank you to everyone for your messages of support and good wishes whilst we were on the water, the really helped to keep us plugging away.

On the whole we are very pleased with how we performed out there, we know we made some silly mistakes that eventually cost us a good few positions, but considering our boat hadn’t touched water before the race start in La Gomera, we could hardly expect to be up to the standards of some of the guys, and girls, who put in hours and hours worth of training throughout the year and knew their kit inside and out.  A serious well done must go to Charlie Pitcher, and Ole and James from team QBE, who were not only brilliant company in La Gomera, but are truely worthy winners of the Atlantic Race ‘09 and the Pairs Class ‘09.  No doubt Chris and I have found some great friends for many years to come.

The boat performed beautifully, after we discovered how to row it in certain coniditions, and thanks must go to the guys down at Rossiter Yachts for building us such a responsive and safe boat.  We had complete confidence in her the entire way across.  Despite the fact that we have grown quite emotionally attached to her, unfortunately like all good things, our love affair must come to an end.  If our story, or that of any of the other competitors in this years, or previous years races, has inspired you to pick up the oars and have  crack at the Ocean, then you will be in need of a safe, and very well built boat.  If you are interested in HCL Workforce One, then please get in contact via the contact us page.  Or you can email me directly on: j.h.thompson@me.com

Joe

You may be wondering why we haven’t finished yet, sat on the beach with our feet up, with a cocktail in our hands. We are actually very close with roughly 100 miles to go and the weather in our favour. Spirits are soaring high.

The last 6 days tell a different story. As the finish line looms closer, navigation gets a bit tighter. And with strong southerly and south-westerly winds gusting up to 17knots, we had no choice but to put out the anchor. Every bit of forecasting showed hope, but the adverse conditions prevailed. It was the hardest mental and emotional period of the race we’ve had to endure, especially with our parents waiting at the finish.

We got on the way again yesterday and have been making great speeds. I just hope it will see us through to the end. HCL workforce one’s job will be done and she’ll be looking for the next crew to take her across… if you are interested get in touch. Thanks to everyone who has been following us for all your messages of support on the blog and sat phone, we’ll be in touch in Antigua, and we look forward to seeing you when we get home.

Well, 260 miles to go and we’re back on the para-anchor. We can almost smell the strawberry daiquiris, mojitos and rum punch, but we’re still a frustrating six days’ rowing off  of getting wasted on the white sands of Antigua. We’ve had to stop rowing as we are drifting too far north, and need to start thinking about our angle of approach to the island. We should start making progress again in 9 hours or so. Thanks again for all the messages of support, this situation is incredibly frustrating at the moment but we’ll just keep thinking of those cocktails at the end of it!

Disater on board HCL Workforce 1. Forget the potential impending weather, forget the half rations, even forget the sore bums. We have run out of Hawian Tropic factor 5 carrot oil and are forced to use factor15!…. it may as well be sun block. I packed some emergecy coconut cooking oil for just such eventualities but it went rancid in the heat.

Seriuosly though, with luck we will be in Antigua by the middle of next week and are looking forward to regaining some sense of civilisation. Spirits are high and Chris and i endevour to enjoy the last stretch of the journey, after all when will we do this again?………..

We have been off and on the power anchor for the past two days , but things lightened yesterday morning and we are slowly on the move again, with the weather  in our favour  . If the storm brewing in the gulf of Mexico forms as predicted we should be in Antigua in 10 days, if not,we’re shafted!