White Salmon, WA
This is my lovely new G-Shock watch from the people at Casio. During the Atlantic row my old G-Shock was one of my most cherished pieces of equipment. Solar-powered, it never needed a new battery, and with up to 4 alarm settings, I could use it to tell me when another ten minutes of my shift had passed once it got too dark to see my watch without stopping rowing to press the illumination button. It also updates the time automatically from a time calibration signal sent from Germany, to ensure 100% accuracy.
I don’t need an atomic watch, though, to tell me that time is ticking away. I’ve got just 4 months before I am due to launch from San Francisco, and lots still to do.
Unless there are any major disasters, I will be ready in time – it’s just a question of how many bells and whistles I can add. But if every expedition waited until the preparations were 100% ready, no project would ever get off the ground. There is always more that can be done. Provided I’ve got an ocean-ready boat and all the safety aspects have been taken care of, I’m happy to set myself a deadline and stick to it.