How uncomfortable does one have to be to be outside one’s comfort zone? Just wondering, as today life on board the Brocade started to feel just a little too luxurious.

I set up my bimini and strategically placed sarongs to hide me from the sun, and donned large sunhat and sunglasses. With the broad-brimmed hat and my white rowing gloves, I feel like some kind of debutante from the 1950s… who has forgotten to put her dress on.

I took my fan out on deck and positioned it just in front of my rowing position. And when even all these precautions were inadequate to keep me cool, I jumped in the water for a cooling swim, followed by a sponging down with fresh water – which I can afford to use extravagantly, for a change, because my watermaker is working beautifully so far.

So all in all, I was almost comfortable. Well, apart from the blisters, cramping hands, aching back and sore butt.

This made me start wondering if I’m getting soft in my old age. I remembered that epiphany I had on the Atlantic Ocean when I realized that it was okay that I was so miserably uncomfortable. I had wanted to get outside my comfort zone – and by definition, that is going to be uncomfortable. Duh!

But if my comfort zone has now expanded, and/or I’ve found a way to make my ocean rowing escapades more comfortable, then I’m not outside my comfort zone any more.

I’m not masochistic enough to make this deliberately more uncomfortable for myself. That would be rather silly. But am I really learning anything new if this is becoming same old, same old?

Or maybe I should be more careful what I wish for. And just say thank you, life, for not making me go through an experience like the Atlantic again. And long may this relative ease continue.

Other Stuff:

Thanks for the jokes – much appreciated! Nice to know you’re thinking of me. Special hello to Will Stockland – my wine drinking and philosophising buddy. Looking forward to a catch-up in Oxford later in the year.

Doug – okay then. Knock, knock…

Grumble of the day: laptops have to go on your lap. And they’re hot. This is very uncomfortable. One feature I really liked in Greg K’s vessel “WiTHiN” was its built-in keyboard table. Must try to figure out where I can put one in here.

My sunburn has now reached that interesting warty-toad stage, where it forms into bubbles of liquid, presumably in an attempt to allow the skin beneath a chance to heal. Hmm, attractive!

Alf the Spider (my stowaway from Tarawa) was spotted today, early afternoon, on the bulkhead of the fore cabin. So he’s still alive. Not visibly losing weight, although I’m not sure how you can tell with a spider. I just dread finding him one day with his eight little legs curled up in the air. Becoming quite fond of the little chap. Not much for conversation, but he is at least company.

Apologies for erratic behaviour of the RozTracker. I don’t really know what is going on – no problems evident from this end – but hopefully Evan and the Archinoetics heroes are onto it.

And as a final reflection on my comfort zone, I am feeling that it is time for me to start transitioning into the next phase of my life, to take on a new challenge. Hopefully this will be the Foundation that we are fundraising for at the moment through the Go Roz Go contest. The purpose of the foundation will be to nurture the next generation of people pursuing their life purpose – be it in adventure or anything else. If you can, please help support us. No contribution too small – it all adds up!

I am in hiding – from the sun. This might sound a bit pathetic for an intrepid adventurer – but there again I’ve never made any particular pretence at being intrepid, and when it becomes simply too painful to have the sun shining on me, I’m not too proud to hide out in my cabin until sunset. Like a vampire.

I got caught out this morning. There had been a lot of rain overnight (with steady drips from a small leak in my cabin, the source of which I cannot locate) and this morning was still heavily overcast and grey.

Silly me – I know it’s still possible to get sunburned through cloud. But it seemed such substantial cloud. Anyway, by the time I realised what was happening it was too late. I hadn’t put on my lovely organic Green People sunscreen and now I am paying the price. At times like this I curse having had a ginger-haired father. I have many things to thank him for, but my tendency to turn lobster-red in the tropics is not one of them.

Even though it is now nearly 5.30pm and the sun sets in just over an hour, there is still enough strength in it to make my skin feel like red-hot needles are being poked into it. So it seemed a good time to take cover and write a blog.

I’ve thought about going totally nocturnal. Now I have a fan in my cabin, this could in theory work quite well. During the day I have plenty enough solar power to keep the fan going nonstop, so the cabin is comparatively tolerable. And the nights are cooler – with no risk of sunburn.

Trouble is, I am whatever the opposite of a night owl might be. Come the darkness, comes the doziness. My body just wants to shut down and go to sleep. I can stay up all night when sufficiently stimulated by good company and good wine – but neither are available out here.

Any tips from nightshift workers on how to turn my body clock upside down?

Other Stuff:

Today’s audiobook – not so good. Called Blackout. By Connie Wills. I can’t wait for it to end, in fact. Seems like forever the 3 time travellers have been running around trying to figure out how to get back from World War II to 2060. The book could have been a third of the length. And should have been. As one book critic once wrote of another book, “The main problem with this book is that its covers are too far apart.”

And the narrator isn’t much better. She has the most peculiarly affected English accent, so that passengers is pronounced “parsengers”, passages as “parsages”, and she generally sounds like a cross between Sybil Fawlty and a particularly priggish schoolmarm.

But as perseverance is the name of the game, I will grit my teeth and see it through.

Its one redeeming feature is that I am learning a bit more about London during the Blitz – the sustained aerial bombing campaign waged by the Luftwaffe during World War II. Solidarity in the face of adversity became the “spirit of the Blitz” – when Londoners of all social strata united in their determination not to let the ongoing bombardment dent their morale.

Makes me think that environmental issues would be a lot more easily tackled if we had an identifiable enemy to unite against. If my enemy’s enemy is my friend, humanity needs a shared enemy so we can stop pointing fingers at each other and get on with tackling the REAL problem.

Oh but hang on, the problem is us.

Enjoyed this morning’s podcast with Dr Kiki Sanford, with special guest Marcus Eriksen. We enjoyed uninterrupted satphone connection, and a really interesting conversation about plastic pollution. Check it out. Oh, and Marcus, I forgot to ask you to pass along my thanks to Anna’s mum for the cookies. They were yummy!

Amongst other things, we discussed what can be done to clean up the North Pacific Garbage Patch. Probably not much. But we can avoid making it worse. If you’re still using bottled drinking water and accepting plastic bags at the grocery store, please rethink. Add up how many bottles or how many bags you use in a year. Or a lifetime. And then think how much plastic you could save if you invest in a few reusable bags, a water bottle, and a water filter system you keep in your refrigerator. Just because plastic bags don’t cost you anything, doesn’t mean they don’t cost anything at all.

And while you’re at it, sign up for Eco Heroes at ecoheroes.me, and join our merry band of heroes all doing their bit for a greener, cleaner future. Thank you!

And finally – see that button in the top right of my website? Check it out for our fun contest to bet on when I make landfall. Don’t wait – we are only running the contest for a few more weeks. After that it will get too easy so we’ll end it long before the end of my voyage. Carpe diem!

This memorable line comes from the film "Row Hard No Excuses" – a tale
of two American rowers competing in the 2001 Atlantic Rowing Race. In
the film they then go on to show unappealing pictures of rowers' hands
(blistered) and bums (pimpled). I will spare you such images – showing
you instead a rather nice picture of the Brocade taken during my
afternoon swim.

But I will spend a few words on the topic of skin complaints. At the
moment I am feeling like a hybrid between the warty-backed toad and the
greater-spotted red booby (both species are obviously total inventions,
but allow for blogger's license…). The sunburn on my back came up
today in little fluid-filled blisters, no doubt a sign of impending
major snake-like sloughing of skin. Meanwhile, my front side is rosy red
with heat rash.

Hmmm, attractive. At least there's nobody around to see me – although if
there was, there would also have been somebody around to put sun lotion
on my back….

Other stuff:

I hope you really, really appreciate the photo attached, because I may
have killed a very expensive camera in order to get it. My Ricoh 500SE
wtih GPS tagging is supposed to be waterproof, but it doesn't seem to
have reacted too well to its dunking. Shortly after I got in the water
it turned itself off and refused to come back on. Ominous patches of
condensation have appeared in the corners of the LCD screen. I'll try to
dry it out and see what happens. Meanwhile, this picture was taken with
my waterproof Xacti video camera, which seems to have survived the
experience much better.

I've enjoyed the company of my feathered friends, but my swim-tour of
the boat today revealed that they left more than memories on the bow of
the Brocade. Hey ho, will have to get out there with a scrubbing brush.
Some guests just have no manners.

Progress today has been mixed. Choppier than of late, with an
inconvenient wind coming out of the SSE.

Finally getting the ship shipshape. It's taken a while to find a place
for everything, and put everything in its place, but I'm just about
getting there now. Just hope I can remember where the place for
everything is when I need to find it again… it's amazing how such a
tiny boat can have so many hiding places.

Hello to everybody who has been commenting on my blog – thank you! With
special mentions to:

Gary and Tiny at the Alex pub in Norwich. Tiny – do you remember you
gave me Christmas pud just before I set out on the Atlantic in 2005? I
still use the bowl from that to mix up my beansprouts for lunch. Thought
of you today as I used it. Gary – enjoy your pint of CHB – have one for
me!

Karen Morss of the Lemon Ladies. I'm going to crack open a jar of your
marmalade tomorrow, methinks – I've got some sweet crackers that will go
really well with it.

And Ellen (aka chep2m) and sister Susan – thanks for the words of
encouragement, and the info on the Red Footed (Poopy) Booby!

Time: 2115 HST
Position: 19 26.995N 159 02.196W
Wind: 5-10kts, ESE-SSE
Sea: 4ft swell from SE

Forecast, courtesy of weatherguy.com

The Eerly trades should be picking today. High pressure ridge
strengthens from the north.

Forecast below is for a SSWerly course at 35nm/day. A Serly route (180
deg T) is preferred.

Date/Time HST Wind kts Seas (ft)
30/1800-31/1800 E- ESE 5-10 2-4
31/1800-01/0800 E-ENE 10-17 3-4
01/1800-02/2100 ENE 15-20 3-5
02/2100-04/1800 ENE-E 17-22 4-6

Sky conditions are partly cloudy with mid to low level clouds. Isolated.

I’ve been at sea for over 3 months now, and it’s starting to take its toll on my body. I’ve been fortunate so far – but this week I’ve started to fall apart. Nothing major – fingernails lifting from fingers (apparently due to some fungal thing), aches in the back, sunburned skin – but worst of all is the saltwater rash. It may sound like a trivial complaint, but grown men have been reduced to tears and/or excessive use of painkillers by this undignified ailment.

The best way to avoid the rash dreaded by all ocean-rowers is to bathe in fresh water, which I haven’t been able to do due to the water shortage since my watermaker expired, so I am surprised that the affliction did not strike sooner. I have done my best to stay clean, bathing with salt water, supplemented with wet wipes and liberal application of tea tree oil. These measures probably bought me some spot-free time.

But now it has struck, and has struck with a vengeance.

Maybe it would have been better if I hadn’t looked. Out of sight and out of mind. But I knew something was going on, so today I took out the small mirror and used it to take a look at my backside. It was not a pretty sight. For anybody who saw the pictures of James Cracknell’s bottom after he had finished the Atlantic Rowing Race.. Well, I may not be able to beat James on the ergometer, but when it comes to spotty-botty I reckon I could give him a run for his money.

The main problem with this is that it makes it painful to sit on my rowing seat – which is the one thing that I simply can’t avoid doing. So I shall have to grin (or grimace) and bear it. Only a few more days to go, but they may feel like long days indeed..

Other stuff:

Position at 2030 26th August HST, 0730 27th August UTC: 21 53.089′N, 154 43.757′W.

An underwhelming day on the mileage front today. Same number of rowing hours as usual, but it takes the cooperation of the weather to produce impressive leaps forward. At the moment I would say I’m 70% likely to arrive on 1st Sept, 30% likely to arrive later than that. I won’t know for sure until I get there!

Mum sent me all the messages that had come through before she had to leave for the airport. So I probably haven’t seen them all. Thanks for the ones I’ve seen. and for the ones I haven’t!

Helena – fantastic effort on the beach-cleaning front. Well done! Interesting what you said about the number of straws. I wonder if there are reusable ones, or biodegradable ones. What did we used to do before straws were invented? That’s quite an interesting question for most plastic objects – what did we used to do before they were available? After all, we survived for thousands of years before plastic came along!

Thanks also to Sandi (for my ongoing journey from Lands End to JO’G), Olivia in Oxford, and John H – informative as ever!

Click here to view Day 93a of the Atlantic Crossing 3 March: (I) Like a ship Passing in the Night. At last some news from Roz, via a passing ship.

Books Box: Do check the list of recent “reads” mentioned by Roz when talking to Leo Laporte. Available from Audible.com; and also from Amazon if you click on the title.

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