Historical Blog Archive

you both take care

You are in for some rough weather, hope it is not too wild..... I can see that you are well prepared...enjoy your music and movies while you can and keep up your strength for when the good weather comes back. Stay safe!

Each night Gloria and I sit in-front of the laptop chanting 'ROW ROW ROW', taking it in turns to click the refresh button and track your progress across the HIGH SEAS!!! Sometimes it takes many hours (we're usually quite drunk by this stage) for the info to update but when it does......PARTY! We take down the new co-ordinates and then get up and move the pin a few fractions of a inch to the left on the massive naval map we have on our wall. ROW ROW ROW ROW ROW ROW ROW ROW Batton down the Hatches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grow a Crusoe Beard! Good luck John and Gloria

Boys....interested to know how you decide when it's safe to hoist the anchor and start rowing again when the storm has passed/is passing? Hope you manage to get back on it early doors and get a bit of a jump start on the other 'pair'. Speaking of pairs, it's quite busy in the gym tonight (waaaa haaaa). Lovely job. Champions of England (again), hopefully Champions of Europe (again) next week. If you have any support crew etc that are Australian...worth starting a bit of banter about the cricket. England on a roll and the nation are bang up for it. 49 days to go I think. Take care of yourselves and each other...you're like sisters to me! Trumpet xx

Hello A & G We've been following your progress with enormous admiration. Hope the storm passes without too much hassle. All our good wishes Charlie, Cris, Alex and all the team.

Yea ha! Keep going boys! Great to see how well you're doing. An IQ test? That should come back with interesting results. Never as high as mine though. Thought you might be interested to know that not only have I signed up to do the London Half in Sept, but am also doing it through Orchid. Though you're rowing mission does put my running attempt to shame! Neil, Kat and I are thinking about running the London Marathon next year - game???? Keep up the rowing boys! Love Little Jo xxx

Jo, I'd be up for it!! Glad to see even being out in the middle of the ocean doesn't stop Watts begging for money, haha!! Though this one does have an incentive for everyone - you can win big! Anyone interested in guessing a time, or, even better, sending the thing around their office to get even more people to guess a time pls email me at jdgubb@gmail.com. Keep it up boys. j

Exactly how on message is he exactly? Impressive

Watts, Enya and Clannad? Have I done nothing to improve your taste in music over the last 25 years? Get some prodigy belting out of those speakers and get that boat moving! Seriously though, sounds like you've gone through some pretty horrific storms - just think of it as a way of getting closer to Southern Cross, your chance to play out some superior tactics... Keep trucking lads Rx

Nice one lads......keep pullin theose oars. Like leips and Gloria we are willing u boys on. Remember thewys moto......drink, smoke, straight west coast. Enjoy this lads, you will both remember this. The Thews

Hi Guy and Andy....Oh what a night! da dee dadee da dee da da dee!! So pleased that you have come through the storms safely. Sarah had a rough couple of days too. She said that last night her "see me" beacon was going off for a couple of hours, and although she could see a ship, it wasn't responding to her VHF calls!!! .very scary!! She's ok though I'm very pleased to say. She did a live link up with Jenni Murray on Woman's Hur today...it was good to hear her...even though she did ring me early this morning , just to let me know she was ok. We've had some pretty heavy rain here in Rutland too...though not half a sbad as your storms...we did have periods of sunshine too, and I was able to spend most of the afternoon working in the garden...now planted out the runner beans. Hope you two are not getting on each others nerves too much , and that the "bucket"take care, best wishes, Helen

glad you both made it safely through the storm, although i think it must have done something to guys mind....enya???? clannad???? i'm a girl and even i wouldnt listen to it! also loved dels podcast, so very funny! keep up the good work boys! silly x

Glad to hear you have buckled down all the hatches & that you have got through the storm. An IQ test...good luck. Del you do realise you can't cheat this time!?!?! You are doing awesomely xx

I have this picture in my mind of you both wearing pink Marigolds doing your washing !!! Andy & Guy don't replicate the end of Bourne 3 for goodness sake. You will see what I mean when you get to it. Glad to hear you have weathered the storm. You Boyz -what next in the music line - Barry Manilow!! Get some AC/DC blasting out that should pump the Adrenalin. Not far now to break through that 1000nm. Keep safe. Ian & Andy

I hate laundry - that sounds awful! I hope there is no system for ironing lol You're doing great, keep up the awesome work Karen x

Question from Pascoe Davis household (the Davis half) - did you manage to pack any haribo??

Hi Andrew, Just wanted to say a quick hello to you and Guy. I was really full of admiration for what you were doing until I remembered you were a Man Utd fan. However, this just confirms my theory that there are no Manu fans in Manchester - plenty in the Indian Ocean. Keep rowing, keep blogging. I'm trying to spread the word... Sarah will confirm. Regards Janine (the journo!)

Err delaney dont think you can get away with denying you listen to enya and clannad we all know its on your Ipod.along with many other questionable music choices!!!!!!! And I can confirm Janine has certainly been spreading the word about the row, thanks Janine, more help the better at advertising the boys challenge.

Glad to see that you have now clear blue sky...and hopefully the wind will blow in the right direction. Saw all the group you met in Dongara ( you know the one who baked the carrot cake you love so much) it was Lloyd 50th had a great time... and they are all following your tracker and reading your blog. They wanted to know how far are you from Sarah? Now that you are back on track.....you better row hard so you can get to Mauritius quicker to satisfy all your cravings!!!!!

Position in relation to Sarah O. They are at excactly the same latitude and FF are around 420 miles behind [east of] her. They will be able only to talk over the radio if the aerials are in sight of each other, so the range on a low rowing boat is quite low in comparison to a yacht with he aerials at the top of the mast. So it'll have to be a close fly by if they are to chat this side of a bar in Mauritius! Jem