See you at the start line, Emma!

In a previous incarnation of the race competitors tell stories of rowers starting the race with sandwiches wrapped in tin foil and would finish the race looking like Tom Hanks in Castaway losing massive proportions of their body weight during the crossing.  Fortunately for us things have moved on as this approach is not conducive to good performance or good health. We have been so lucky to work with Phillipa from Savernake Nutrition throughout all of our training, she has even guided us through our nutrition plan for the race.  Atlantic Campaigns, the race organisers, require us to carry enough food for 55 days and the amount of food depends on our weight.  That is not to say that we intend to be at sea for 55 days but we have to allow for the worst case scenario.  Rob being the heaviest member of the crew needs to carry 6400 calories a day.  So to feed Rob alone we need to carry 352,000 calories.  It is made up of 4000 calories in freeze dried meals and 2400 in snack packs that are in turn made up of nuts, sweets, and protein shakes to be consumed each day.  All the freeze dried meals came from specialist suppliers and we had tried all of them in training so that we knew what we liked.  It turns out Jack likes breakfast cereal and will be eating at least 2000 calories a day in banana and blueberry porridge, who knows what that will do to his digestion, but I suppose the remaining three will find out as the loo bucket is located on the deck.

We decided to do a trolley dash at Costco with Phillipa leading the way. We filled two trolleys with what looked like ingredients at the most unhealthy kids birthday party ever.  The following day the whole team sat in Ed’s living room and filled snack packs.  It took the entire day of weighing nuts, trail mix and protein powder and the entire next day to pack it into the hull of the boat.  Ed had to make several calls to rowing veterans to see how we were going to make it all fit.  In the end it was decided that on the basis we would have to get it all out for the pre race inspection in La Gomera we would just get it all on board and worry about it when we got there.

Alex from Inks Personalised, one of our most recent sponsors, printed and applied all the stickers for our sponsors and supporters.  All Emma needs now is her race number that will be applied just before the start and she looks amazing and wanting to show her off we took her to a local pub, the Cottage Inn in Upper Bucklebury.  This allowed us to show all our families, friends and supporters what she looks like.  It also happened to be Ed’s Birthday so we were able to bring that into the celebration too.

The following Monday Emma left her accommodation for the last time and Rob and Ed drove her to Rannoch Adventure, Burnham on Crouch, Essex.  They were the company that originally made her and they are also shipping her to the start for us.  As we left without Emma it felt really strange.  We will see her again in a few short weeks but in very different circumstances.  In reality we haven’t even started this race yet but it feels like the beginning of the end! For some reason that felt a bit sad.  However, spirits were immediately lifted as we were able to meet with our Weather Router as she lives in the same town.  Whenever we say we have a Weather Router we have to clarify this is  a Human Being called Dawn and not an expensive piece of equipment.  Dawn is hugely experienced and well respected in the rowing community.  She will keep watch on the weather systems and advise us on the best course for us at any given time.  Dawn has completed a solo crossing of the Atlantic as well as others as part of a team.  Her expertise just makes us feel more confident and we are very lucky to have her as part of the team.

So here we are with less than 2 months until the start and we feel like we are in the final mile of this amazing adventure.  All the training is in the bank, all the courses have been completed and all the equipment and food bought.  We have learnt so much from this journey, at the start we didn’t even know the difference between port and starboard. Now we can navigate at sea in the dark and repair a faulty rudder feedback sensor.  We know more about ourselves and each other but it feels like we have only scratched the surface.  What will we know by the time we reach English Harbour in Antigua?