News

Crews continue to make good progress, moving over 1300nm towards Antigua, the best distance for over a month and an average of more than 46nm per crew. QBE Insurance Challenger managed 53nm, bringing them within 46nm of the finish, and are anticipated to make land on the morning of Friday 5^th March, following 60 days at sea.

Leo Rosette is the latest oarsman to pass the halfway point, having done so in the last 24 hours. That leaves just James Ketchell and Sean McGowan who are closing in nicely on the same point, being 200nm and 230nm away respectively. They should hopefully pass halfway in the next 7 days, should the weather permit.

Sometimes crews put the race aspect of the event to one side. A great example being Heritage Explorer who, several days ago stopped rowing for a couple of hours to allow the Spirit of MA to catch up – thus allowing both crews the opportunity to see each other again after 60 days of hard rowing.

Today also saw another oceananic birthday – many happy returns to Paul Milnthorpe celebrating his 29^th birthday on Reason Why. Paul and Jim managed to move 56nm closer to Antigua, more than most of the crews around them. They are now just 35nm behind Vision of Cornwall who lie in tenth position and as they close in on the final 500nm may look to overtake both Ocean Summit and Vision of Cornwall and hold 10th position themselves.

Finally there was a disaster at sea onboard HCL Workforce 1. A quote taken for their blog reads, “forget the impending weather, forget the half rations, even forget the sore bums. We have run out of Hawiian Tropic factor 5 carrot oil and are forced to use factor 15... it may as well be sun block.” Such a sad day for them both, no one wants to see a good opportunity of a full body tan go to waste.