more to say, but not one for lon blogs!!!
Red Arrow
Rich Hume & Tom Barnes
Mon 22 Feb 2010 14:38
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Hello Everybody.
How are you, cold??? Im not! its dam hot here but
your be glad to know its isnt quite so calm today and the wind is returning. We
have gone from doing 2 and 3 mile shifts to 4 4mile shifts on the trott. Lets
hope that continues!!!!
So, i spent the night thinking about what i was
gonna write to you today. Was it the lack of boats we have seen, the calm seas
we have experienced or the fact that yesturday and the day before we hadnt seen
a cloud. There wasnt too much going on. But i then (and i havent done this yet)
looked at toms blog and thought i should comment on it. With the food paragraph,
im not trying to be arragant, if it comes across that way!
Yesturday morning, as happens on all sundays, tom
was in the water cleaning the hull. Who am i to deprive him of cleaning duties,
he loves it. More over, he likes to take a crap whilst doing it......nice! I was
standing there on patrol, oar in hand and probalby fiddling with my camera when
i saw a finn. Scrambleing, i got ready with my weapon which is pointless as it
has a "sail" (blade) at one end which catches the wind and you cant control it,
ready for action. I decided to take the decision to wait and see what it was, as
it approached, it would appear i had left my decision making skills at home
because as the second finn arrived i had decided if it was a shark, either
way, tom was screwed. Well that was it, it was gonna be a quick death for
tom, painless and i would pretend i didnt see anything. Then the thrid finn
arrived and the fourth, fith, sixth and so on. As the image of myself
arriving in antigua partnerless came into my head, i took the brave decision to
tell tom that there were a few finns, "probably" dolpins, coming towards him.
What can i say, my "50/50 tone" that he described is wrong, once they were 20
feet away, they were defo dolpins and i was sure of it, no doubt about it. And
he has no confidence in me..........
So that was the dolipins, there must have been 2
pods of about 30 each and it really was amazing. As things settled down,
they went, until that is, i started rowing again. I rowed for 30 minutes,
surrounded by dolpins before they shot off. What made it even more nice
was that earlier in the morning i had said, "could really do with
seeing something different today", and they came.
So food. My job back home involves a big
breakfast, often no lunch and then a big dinner. On average i am doing low
intenstiy exercise, powerwalking etc, for 4 hours and then 2 hours of high
intensity training a day.Yes i get hungry, but its ok. Since september 2005 the
major events i have done are 4 marathon, 1 2day adventure race, 1
50mile ultra run, 3 ironman triathlon, 1 double ironman and 1 triple ironman.
This isnt including the huge volume of 20+ mile runs and 60+ mile
bike training sessions i have done. Im no stranger to exercise and not much
food, and im sure my body has got used to it. So, i got it wrong on this trip
with my snack food. Chewits dont like the sun nor do Penguin choclate bars so
half my snacks are gone. On top of this, i find it very hard to eat the dry food
we have on boared. Im therefore eating what i can, noodles, wet food etc which
equants to around 2,000/2,500 calories a day. Its not much but im still getting
the numbers right on the miles and im feeling fine. Everything suggests that you
cant row for 12 hours a day on that amount of food, but im built for
endurance, and i think i can cope.
But i have lost weight!!! Its a good thing though.
Those of you who dont know me, when i was 13/14 yrs old i had a spinal problem
that put me in a back brace for 4 years with the doctors words of, "Richard will
not be doing any type of strenous physical activity for the foreseable future",
whatever!!!!! Its this that drives me, to prove them wrong and to myself that
all is ok. Whislt training for the rowing, i decided to put as much weight on as
possible that my back would allow (too much weight and i get very sore) knowing
i would end up skinny at the end. Without tempting fate, bar one shift and the
time on the para anchor my back has been great. Lets hope that
continues.
I feel its under control, despite the last week
before antigua when i run out of snacks and wet food, i might have to re think.
We will get there, we are getting there and the visit to the chineese restruant
is ever closer!
Speak in a few days.
Out.
xx
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