By 1.30 this afternoon, after 6 hours of rowing and 4 squalls, I had
managed to almost complete a jagged circle and was nearly back where I’d
started. This was discouraging, to put it mildly, and seemed very unfair
as I’d been pointing my bow south the whole time. It was the winds and
currents that were responsible for the circularity of my course – and
just when I thought I’d got out of the swirling winds of the ITCZ.
Imagine how your hand moves if you are rubbing your stomach. The
orientation of your hand stays the same, even while it moves in a
circle. That is more or less what my boat had done , just a slightly
larger circle, although not much.

But I’ve realized something new within the last few days , that I
sometimes lose my sense of perspective. It’s a drawback to having a GPS
that will give me my location to within a matter of feet, and will draw
my course with unforgiving accuracy on the screen if I zoom in close
enough. When I’m struggling to make progress, the temptation is to zoom
in close to try and make the progress look greater. But the close zoom
also cruelly shows up every last wiggle, waggle, zig and zag in my
course.

It occurs to me that this is a metaphor for one of my failings on dry
land , although I’m better than I used to be. I have to guard against a
natural tendency to focus on the details rather than the big picture, to
lose sight of what I have achieved while looking at what still needs to
be done.

So in both situations , at sea and on dry land , I have to remind myself
to adjust the zoom, step back, and get things in perspective. I don’t
want to see the low-flying booby’s eye view of my course , better to go
for the high-flying frigate bird’s view.

[photo: No photo today , while my blog is being transferred to the new
platform (see below) we are a no-photo blog, but hopefully fully
pictorial service will be resumed shortly….]

P.S. After looping the loop this morning, conditions became much more
conducive to progress, improving throughout the afternoon and evening. I
enjoyed a glorious sunset while taking time away from the oars to munch
on a rawfood pumpkin seed cookie and savor every last moment of both
cookie and spectacular sky.

Other Stuff:

Great news, Rozlings! After a couple of weeks of ongoing issues caused
by the new version of Internet Explorer, TeamRoz decided to bite the
bullet and fully redesign my website. Superhero Evan and the genius team
at Archinoetics have been working furiously around the clock the past
week to transfer all the content over. They were able to send me a
low-resolution screen grab over my bog-slow Iridium data link, so I’ve
had a glimpse of the new look , and I’m really delighted with it. Much
more like my original concept for the site, and I think you’ll find it
much more intuitive and user-friendly.

One major change that you’ll need to know about is that my redesigned
website now hosts all my blogs and comments. So although you can still
read them in Blogger, if you want to comment, you’ll need to come to
rozsavage.com. The idea is that we want to make my website your one-stop
shop for all things Roz, rather than splitting the traffic between the
main site and Blogger.

I think you’ll agree that the new site is much cleaner, sharper and
easier to use! The team will continue to make little adjustments in the
weeks ahead to bring more robust features and new ways to interact with
the Rozling community, so stay tuned! If you have any
suggestions or comments, or need to point out any glitches, please do
send them our way at info@rozsavage.com or by commenting on this blog.
Enjoy!

Thank you to the amazingly creative Rozettes who have been sending in
poems for the $10k award. I am impressed and touched by your endeavors ,
and I definitely don’t envy Nicole the near-impossible task of picking
just one for our application!

Thanks also to Anna Farmery for the blog mention at The Engaging Brand.
She also links to the two-part interview we recorded last year , one of
the most enjoyable podcasts I’ve ever done. Hope to see you, Anna, when
I’m back in Blighty for good natter and a glass of something
celebratory!

I haven’t had the comments through by email today, so apologies for not
being able to make my comments on your comments. Mum usually sends them
to me, but she has been busy moving house today, so I think we can
forgive her in the circumstances!

Weather report:

Position at 23.50 HST: 03 34.329N, 175 30.778W
Wind: Variable this morning, 20 knots E this afternoon and evening
Seas: 4-7 ft E
Weather: squalls on and off all morning, cloudy with some sun this
afternoon, a couple more squalls this evening.

Weather forecast, courtesy of weatherguy.com:

Feedblitz blog email reported your position as: 03 36N 175 08W as of
29Jul 2200HST (6hrs ago). Eastward motion is the preferred direction
while in the equatorial counter current.

As of Thursday morning 30 July 2009. According to measured data, there
is ESE-SE winds 7-17kts in your area with moderate to light rainshowers.
South of the equator, more of the same. Uncertainty remains, as
previously discussed. Forecast is for wind direction to shift more
ENEerly 5-15kts today then, SE 5-15kts on 01 Aug becoming light and
variable and possibly SW 5-15kts.

According to satellite imagery, there is light to moderate convection
with heavy rainshowers and squalls overhead and south to the equator.

Sky conditions: Mostly cloudy. Scattered heavy rainshowers, squalls,
and possible thunderstorms.

Forecast (low confidence due to extreme variability in equatorial
regions and naturally occurring small scale fluctuations in
direction/speed in the Doldrums)
Date/Time HST Wind kts Seas (ft) est
30/0600-01/0000 E-ENE 5-15 2-5
01/0000-02/0000 ENE-SE 5-15 4-6
02/0000-02/1200 Variable direction 1-5
0-10kts
02/1200-03/1200 SW 5-15 2-5

Next Update: Monday, 03 August

19 Comments

  • I really like the new site, and I like having the blog on rozsavage.com rather than on a separate site.

    Maybe you didn’t make any net forward progress while rowing this morning, but think where you would be had you not rowed at all: probably farther from your destination. So, that’s progress of sorts, right?

  • Kudos to Evan, Archinoetics and TeamRoz for the new unified site

    Roz wrote: “… to put it mildly, and seemed very unfair as I’d been pointing my bow south the whole time. It was the winds and currents that were responsible for the circularity of my course.”

    Imagine if you hadn’t rowed in proverbial circles, semi-circles, zig zags, Roz. Be grateful for the 327 mile detour. If it weren’t for the wandering around, you might not have seen a whale of a shark, a pod of whales, seven little brown bird, a double rainbow … the icing on the cake, so to speak! Why wonder why you wander? Wander wisely, Roz!

  • Hey, hope you don’t get more looping in you travel! I had saw that you’re in Pacific, but I still didn’t figured how you’ll get into Atlantic (I’m imagining three ways). Well… Take care Roz. Godspeed and hope you come here in Brazil 😉

  • “I have to guard against a natural tendency to focus on the details rather than the big picture, to lose sight of what I have achieved while looking at what still needs to be done.”

    Thank you Roz, for that line. I needed it. I am one of those quietly sitting in the background…One who looks forward every day to reading your exploits. You are a powerful and motivating person.

  • Hi Roz, …been reading your blog daily. Your new site layout is very user-friendly. Clean. Functional. I like it. I am enjoying your very descriptive writing style. Entertaining and informative.

    Thanks much for sharing your adventure daily. It is so amazing that we are able to follow you and know exactly where you are. Congratulations to ARCHINOETICS for a fabulous job on your site and the awesome technology being used. With your unsinkable and ‘able to right itself up’ BROCADE, you have a very safe ocean dream rowboat. I know you will make it to your destination (wherever it may be). Just a matter of when (hopefully before your food supply runs out).

    Good luck in your adventure of a lifetime (at least your lifetime),

    Aloha!

    Lorrin Lee
    http://lorrinleevideo.com/rozsavage

  • Roz, you said…
    “But I’ve realized something new within the last few days , that I
    sometimes lose my sense of perspective.”

    Easily done when your view is so up close and personal. I was studying the RozTracker last night. You made way steadily for 50 days (except for the 3rd & 4th day out when you dilly-dallied in a circle)…from sortie to Jul 13, when you Tweeted, “clawing my way south…”…then you entered the ITCZ and have battled the forces of nature since. Until Jul 13 you were making almost 32 miles/day. During these last 18 days you have moved almost due south 2.5 deg, or 150nm…so, you are still making good way over the ground, and toward a destination, TU or TA…you still have the choice.

    You are working a vector problem….you know your steady-state rowing speed in calm conditions, the current is likely steady over a rowing shift, and the winds average to some value. Set your course based on the solution to this problem, put your head down and row, girl. (What you’ve been doing for going 2 1/2 months?) But you know all this…ignore the GPS micro-status and focus on the end. You are such a champion in this quest!

    Rozta’ Bill

  • Hello Roz!

    At last! Website totally accessible! Have been with you since September ’05. You are incredibly fantastic in your efforts and your mission.
    I still ‘retire’ from the human race on occasion and get back in touch with reality – the Natural World. Has become necessary in order to keep sane over counselling Street People. Not a technocrat and choose simplicity (go Zen) in order to educate the uninformed.
    Your mission and your messages are extremely valuable! Keep rowing, keep blogging, and keep learning – accepting – even those experiences in your current predicament. I feel your first commitment is to motivate people on HOW they can help stop polluting this beautiful world before they destroy humanity. In this, you are the Prime Minister of Reality.

    Don’t worry about when; tomorrow will get here eventually. If you have to postpone an engagement down the road, you will be totally forgiven.

    Bless you, gal!
    -Achates 😉

  • Your journey is very inspiring to me. I will be using it as an example in my class this Fall.

    Roslings will be interested in knowing about the voyage which starts tomorrow of SEAPLEX to the Great Pacific Garbage patch. They are researching the makeup of the garbage and will be blogging about it daily, like Roz. http://sio.ucsd.edu/Expeditions/Seaplex/ This is exactly the problem Roz is trying to bring to everyone’s attention. http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/

  • The new site looks great. I’ll be sure to poke around at all the pages.

    As a teacher, I point my fledgling computer students, men and women of all ages, to you and your website as someone who has decided what she wanted to do in life and has gotten on with the job. It makes them realize that they can get on with it too, in learning computers and Office.

    As human being, I draw inspiration from your endeavor for myself and my friends as we seek to make life better on a local scale for ourselves and others whose lives we touch. I walked the mile to and from the coffeeshop by the way after hearing you talk about that on the pod a couple of weeks ago. As I said, inspiration…

    Thank you for sharing your trek with us all.

    Best,
    Erich Adickes

  • Judy – The comments should be visible to you even before you comment. You’ll just have to click on the “Comments” link to see them. They don’t expand automatically.

  • There are two ways to get to the current day’s blog. One shows the Comments, the other doesn’t:

    1) Click the “BLOG” tab at the top of the Home Page: NO comments appear, even if you click “Comment” at the bottom of Roz’s post.

    2) Click on the particular Day XX under “Recent Blogs” on the right: ALL comments appear when the page appears.

    I emailed Evan earlier today, so hopefully he’ll fix this soon. Otherwise, this is a wonderful website. Congrats TeamRoz!

  • Will you hurry up and get to Tuvalu! I want my Larabar Bookmark by the time your book that I’ve preordered gets here!

    Just kidding of course.

    On a more serious note: Not knowing you personally, all this talk about swirling around in Earth’s largest ocean may leave one to be worried and concerned about whether or not you’ll make it. But since you can manage to inspire me and many others with your words of wisdom, that you write while your in your predicament, then I feel that it can be safely said that there is no great need to worry, as long as you listen to yourself, and we already know you can do that.
    No words of encouragement from me are necessary, you’ve already got em.
    But I will give you some dollars, one can never have enough of those!
    Jonathan Grimaldi… from Buffa-blow NY

  • Wonderful new web site!! I have been watching and leaving notes on Facebook, but do not think you got them. Great that you have moved past 4 degrees. Had you thought about using fishline to pass over the areas the birds were landing on (but now that they are gone it may not matter). Glad all is OK, you are progressing well. Go girl!! (:

  • hi roz. i’ve not commented before and have been following your journey and look forward to hearing more about how it’s unfolding each day. your post about traveling in circles made me think about my own efforts of living consciously for mother earth. thanks for all you’re doing for the earth and for those of us who can do more!

  • Thanks Admin and UncaDoug for the ‘comments’ comments! I thought I was going nuts, but I think I probably hit the situation that UncaDoug mentioned.

  • the new word press theme website sucks. the designers are hungry for credits for a site that looks like a template cookie cutter.

Leave a Reply to Lorrin Lee of Hawaii Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *