‘Sick, battered and bruised – but I truly love it’

The crew of the Sara G wrote a regular blog on their record attempt. Some were named and some written anonymously. Here is a selection:

17 January Mark Beaumont During the last hours of darkness, I was making my way down the rowing deck, carefully trying to judge the bucking effect of the seas when the safety cable down one side broke and my full weight was thrown over the side of the boat. Luckily I had a good hold with the other hand and the boat wasn’t pitching too far over at that moment. The consequences of going over at night don’t bear thinking about and the whole team were left sobered by the event.

19 January Mark Beaumont Whilst some hours drag so that time feels incredibly slowed down, the weeks have flown. Reaching half way across the Atlantic Ocean is a massive milestone for the expedition and none of the crew can quite believe it has passed so fast – but it hasn’t, if you see what I mean! We have been rowing roughly 2400 strokes per 2 hour session rowing, for 6 sessions a day for 16 days and have covered 1375 nautical miles. None of us have slept for more than 90 minutes at a time since New Year’s Day.

21 January MaTT Craughwell I found ocean rowing by accident; an idea that grew to a passion to test myself in a way most people would consider insane and risky! But it’s where I have truly found myself! Now for the last 2 weeks I’ve been sick, exhausted, blistered, burnt, battered and bruised by my boat and the Atlantic Ocean! I’ve passed my crisis point of questioning myself as to the reasons for me being here for a 4th year running and I had struggled to come up with the right answer until today! The boat just took off, the weather was perfect, the crew (a tightly bonded group of men who I can now call friends) were all smiles and the energy here is almost electric! And it was while pushing myself as hard as ever today that it came to me; I do this every year because I truly love it and to do something you love as a part of your working life is a total privilege!

23 January Mark Beaumont I am sitting in the bow (front) cabin of our 11 meter ocean rowing boat, dressed just in boxers, sweating profusely in the sweltering heat and trying not to get this laptop too wet in the humidity. I actually sweat less when on shift rowing thanks to being outside in the breeze. We are now about 15 deg north of the Equator and for most of the day it is incredibly hot, with nowhere to hide. If things were as we had hoped, with 15-20 knots of westerly winds pushing us along, then we would be a lot cooler, however with less than 5 knots coming from the wrong direction life is slow going on the ocean waves, and incredibly hot.

24 January Mark Beaumont This morning at about 6am we crossed that imaginary 1000 mile line to Barbados. The timing was perfect, at the end of another long and tough night on the oars, it was great news for the team. If things stay as they are in terms of weather conditions then that should mean about 11 more days rowing to go – or about 60 shifts at the oars. So only 120 hours each rowing left – it doesn’t sound so good when you say it that way.

25 January Surprise lesson number one came for us in the first few days of the trip – ocean rowing is in fact a contact sport. If there is one additional piece of personal kit I wish I had brought with me it would have to be shin guards. During those first few days we met some angry and unpredictable water which threw us about like rag dolls. We looked a sorry state at the end of the first week with injured knees and hands and more bruises and gashes to the shins than anyone could count.

26 January Mark was sat in the stern cabin as he chatted to Fred on the MacAulay & Co show late this morning. He spoke about giving up on the dream of the sub 30-day but still hopes for a new world record, the magic carpet trade winds not materialising and the physical changes to their bodies. Mark said, We actually stopped there for ten minutes as one of the guys jumped overboard on a length of rope to check there wasn’t anything dragging on the underside of the boat as we was still worried about our speed.

29 January Matt Craughwell With the calm of the Atlantic, Sara G has not only had her toughest week of the expedition but her toughest week under my watch. Yesterday saw us post only 60 nautical miles with a mixed bag of no wind and swells from every direction. Despite all of this the crew have battled on to make this small total. It has now made our world record attempt become the most difficult 10 days we will spend at sea this year. Morale is high and we hope for good weather soon but it seems everything is against us at the moment!