Atlantic Odyssey: 2000 miles on the Ocean

Welcome to the Atlantic Odyssey blog. The Independent is the proud media partner for this incredible world record attempt as a team of six men look to row across the Atlantic Ocean in under 30 days. Mark Beaumont, one of the crew on board, is writing exclusively for The Independent, direct from ‘Sara G’. You will also find a live satellite tracker and audio updates from the vessel so be sure to check back here for the latest news.

Due to lack of power supplying his laptop, Mark asked the UK team to give an account of what’s been happening on the Atlantic Odyssey.

With little help from the wind and increasing temperatures, it’s been another tough week for the crew who have until now still kept neck and neck with the WR. However, the last couple of days have been some of the slowest yet with heavy seas, poor swell and hardly any wind which has meant loosing 10 – 15 knots a day on the record. In addition to this, they came into cloud cover which along with the lack of wind meant they were taking in very little power on the boat. Their two 12 volt batteries similar to car batteries, were almost completely drained and so all electronics were turned off. The most important equipment the batteries power are the auto helm which controls Sara G’s direction and the water-maker. They are both big drains on energy but with no sun and little wind to feed the batteries, the crew had to start water rationing and for 24 hours were on one and a half litres of water each for drinking and re hydrating food. Water rationing also meant food rationing as a lot of the food is re hydrated, and when rowing 12 hours a day at this stage after three weeks of hard pulling on the oars, there was a noticeable physical affect on the pulling power of the team from dehydration and lack of food. Thankfully by later yesterday there was enough power supply to make some more water so the crew could start replenishing and this remains a priority along with the auto helm.

The team focus and goal has always been the WR and so it’s been their everything watching the speed clock, which is great when up on the record but very demoralising when slipping behind despite every effort. So the team have turned off the speed dial they can see when rowing but there remains great banter and camaraderie on board with everyone doing their utmost. Looking at the big picture, about a dozen teams are crossing the Atlantic at the moment most of which started in December a month before the Atlantic Odyssey. Acknowledging different crews sizes and goals it is still a credit to Sara G who is now in the middle of the pack, showing just how hard the crew have been pulling in the miles. Mark and the crew congratulate all the crews who have succeeded crossing this year including the Row2Recovery team who have just finished and also had water rationing problems.

The east wind that was forecast last night didn’t arrive and there have been no big changes today. They have some wind, but it’s coming from the NW with unhelpful seas that they are not getting much speed from. Simon and Matt went overboard today to scrape more barnacles off the boat – it’s the last thing they could think of doing to increase the speed of the boat, but the bottom line is the boat and crew are fine and doing everything they can, and it’s due to the conditions that they have been loosing knots.

Today’s highlight was seeing a boat in the distance – the first in three weeks. Tonight the anticipation is again the forecast for the wind soon to change to an easterly and the crew would like nothing better for the remaining 700 miles!

Listen to the Atlantic Odyssey Channel – 30th phonecast – from Mark Beaumont

Listen to the Atlantic Odyssey Channel – 31st phonecast – from Ian Rowe

Check out Mark’s previous blogs for past phonecasts from the Atlantic.

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