IOR 2009 Blog Archive

As you keen blog followers will know Andy and I have been on the sea anchor a lot over the last week which was getting depressing.  We are finally back on the oars and making progress which is really good.  There has been a definite change in the weather and the most amazing thing is the amount of rainbows all around us, linked to nearby storms and rainfall.  Neither of us have ever seen anything like it and over the ocean they are really bright and intense. I've got a couple of congratulations to pass on.  Firstly to Gubb well done on your new job and forthcoming trip with Nathalie - enjoy!  Secondly to Russ and Jess who we understand have got engaged and are planning to get married next year.  Really pleased for you both. On a different not I've heard we've been getting some stick about our choice of music so far on the boat and I would like to defend Enya and explain why she fits the mood!  Let me draw you a mental picture: The sea anchor's out, we're sitting in a big storm and both me and Andy are laying naked in the cabin with waves crashing all around us (8-10 metres of swell and 40 knots of wind).  The last thing you want to listen to is anything too aggressive, you just want to chill out and escape.  Anyway enough of that business - you'll be pleased to hear that with the storms gone we're listening to Black Sabbath and Metallica, a very manly collection.  Enya's out and thank you all for showing us the error of our ways. Back to rowing.  Speak to you soon and keep the comments coming we are both enjoying them! Guy Out  Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site.

Hope all is well back there -  were on the para-anchor most of last night and started rowing again this morning, when the rain decided to start! Progress is a little slow but we are still plodding along. We've now been doing 24 hours rowing which is good and the weather is good for us until the weekend when we have some westerlies to contend with which could slow us up - really pleased to have hit the 1000 mark. Over a month at sea now and the food cravings have really kicked in.  All we dream about is having some flavoured food once we get to Mauritius, as even the nuts on the boat are saltless.  We are severely regretting our attitude at the start that junk food is not a necessity, because IT IS.  At the moment my main craving is my mums treacle sponge pudding and I would kill for Mary Pascoe's Lemon Drizzle!!!! I know Guy's been trying to keep this quiet but our new bucket - the spare flares canister is doing ok. For all of you concerned with the music being played I've listened to Bloc Party today.  Giving Enya a rest for now. Hope the Chorlty's have a great time in Rome watching Man U wish I could be there too but I will be on that phone getting regular up dates from Jem when I've finished my shift. Thanks again for all the support and donations to the charity. Makes all the tiredness, sores and hunger seem worthwhile when the charity total heads closer towards our fundraising target. Andrew out. Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site.

How does locating Flying Ferkins work ? Here's a brief explanation of how distances are calculated over the ocean? Longitude & Latitude Measurements of longitude are like segments on an orange e.g their distances apart [between the degrees and minutes] are bigger at the equator and smaller as you get towards each pole. Latitude measurements are like slices across, parallel with the equator and are the same size North or South. Ok so far? Longitude and latitude measurements are measurements of differing distances. So what's the quickest route to Mauritius? The shortest route has already been worked out by much more intelligent  people than us [in 1924 actually] it is called 'the great circle' route holding south and then progressively coming up [fairly late on], to Mauritius. Unbelievable as it is, that's the quickest route-look here if you're seriously interested in how it looks or how it is worked out click here. How do we work out boat positions? This is how we work out the relative boat positions, for example to Southern Cross. There are 60 minutes in a degree [remember that geography lesson?] so you can work out how many minutes they are apart. For example this morning:  Flying Ferkins position was Latitude 26,26 Longitude 95,27. Southern Cross Latitude 24,33, Longitude 95,30. Distance apart is therefore Latitude: 1 degree & 53 minutes Longitude: 0 degree & 3 minutes. 113 minutes. Remember earlier? Latitude is the same distance all the way down the earth [and conveniently one minute of latitude is one nm], so 113 minutes is 113 nm. Longitude is slightly different and we are assuming it is about 0.9  of a nautical mile in this area, so multiply the minutes by 0.9 to give the nm, so 3 degrees becomes 2.7 nm. This puts Flying Ferkins 2.7nm West of Southern Cross and 113 nm South. I hope this has been useful and not too taxing! If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below, we'll endeavour to get back to you directly. Flying Ferkins Support Crew out.

The mood onboard is positive today and in true competitive spirit, although 1000nm (1085 nm to be exact) has been hit they are both now 'gunning' for  the half way point! Wildlife is still rather scarce, their bodies are still holding up but they are keeping a watchful eye. The boys had a 'running text' commentry (approx 60) detailing the Manchester United vs Barcelona European cup final last night from the Flying Ferkins Support Crew. They were very amused if ultimately disappointed by the result. However, as a little motivation tactic, the texting stopped just 12 minutes before the end.....Andrew had to get out of bed and do a 3 hour shift not knowing what happened next. They then had to wait until the messages were queued and delivered 6 hours later! to find out the final result. Good weather on the horizon (even a climse of some blue sky today), some small local squalls blowing through with rain periodically.  Always on the hunt for discussion topics for the boys...so keep the comments/questions coming..... Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site. Tom out

Andrew and Guy had another good day on the oars pushing them over the 1100nm mark ! The boys hit a clockwise current and through some determined rowing managed to punch through it. Leaving them in lovely variable rowing wind. For a change they have been able to look back at the nasty weather system that they were in. Big thank you again to our (FFSC) Flying Ferkins Support Crew, fantastic to have you on board ! Bloggers, keep those questions, jokes, comments and positive comments coming_! Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site. Tom out

Hi everyone, hope you are all ok. Andy and I used the power anchor over night which was a nice break as we are both tired from pushing hard over the last few days.  We have been making good progress today and spirits are high.  We are making use of the waves around at the moment and the 'ferkin is surfing' which is really aiding our progress. It was a great feeling to hit the 1000nm mark and our next target is the halfway point which we hope to acheive quickly now that we are into a good stride. For those people who don't know its Andy's Birthday next Saturday and I've got some ideas planned include breaking open some haribo and wearing some special head torches for a party atmosphere!  If anyone has any other ideas on what two men can do on a small boat to celebrate a birthday, please let me know.  By the way I'm loving the Man U comments and I'm sure Andy will come back with some remarks very soon. A big thank you to those people who have so kindly donated money to our chosen charity Orchid which we very much appreciate.  We hope you are enjoying following our progress. Cheers Guys, see you later. Guy Out Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site.

Press play to start. Bloggers, keep those positive comments, questions, jokes, comments coming_! Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site. Guy out

We've been flying since coming off para anchor and getting well ahead of SC.  All is well - still no wild life but can't begin to imagine what might be below us though!! We've been asked if we get to dream while we grab some sleep - all I know is that I woke from one of my naps recently having dreamed I had a 4000 word essay to hand in that morning and I hadn't even started it!!! Another question was what films we'd watched - well so far -Natural Born Killers, Lock, Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels, Heat, White Club, Crash, Casino Royale..... Thanks for the jokes!!!!  They are now ALL deleted...............! Thank you everyone for all the messages of support - we can't wait to get halfway. Andrew out but certainly not down. Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site.

Andrew and Guy continue to move swiftly along aboard Flying Ferkins, presently at 1215nm. It's fair to say a little more ladder’s than snakes at the moment (think board game!). They are in a positive current at the moment and the boat is being kept at a relatively constant 2.5kn! As you can see from 'Day 41 - On The Crest Of A Wave' the boys have been enjoying some surfing. I think you would all agree surfing is a very cool sport.  So it's even cooler when you manage do it on ocean rowing boats, which is what the boys have been up to the last couple of days. One of the main reasons for some good distances being made is because Flying Ferkins is surfing. Just like on a board, they try and catch the wave.  Sometimes wind and waves align favourably behind them  so they can surf.  Like regular surfing, the waves are going quicker than you and you have to get the boat speed up, dig the nose down and cascade off the front of the wave, staying in it for as long as possible, as you speed up with it. You’ll quickly lose it and then you line yourself up for the next one, and so on. Good times. Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site. Tom out [thank you to Jem for his surfing instructions!]

The wind picked up sharply yesterday which has meant the surfing has drawn to an end. It was good whilst it lasted! The boys have been getting a good splashing, but the sun has come out, so all their kit is drying out nicely. They have just been pushing on and holding onto their position in the race. Andrew and Guy generally measure their progress by how many nm west they make each day, so these are the recent figures to todays date:- Fri 29th - 52nm Sat 30th - 14nm Sun 31st - 53nm Mon 1st - 48nm Tues 2nd - 41nm The weather will ease a little today through to the weekend, so we can expect the higher miles to remain relatively constant as the conditions are favourable. Keep your comments coming as always! Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site. Tom out

Press play to start. Bloggers, keep those positive comments, questions, jokes, comments coming_! Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site. Guy out

All has been relatively calm for the past week spirits are good and we are really pleased with our progress.  The past four days have been cloudy we've had rain too so battery power was low but today the sun has got his hat on again and we are charged up and ready for a long awaited shower - so long as we can keep clean and dry our sore bits will heal! We have spoken to Simon Prior - Old Mutual Endurance today - he was a bit down so we hope we cheered him up a bit - his progress is fantastic and we salute him as we do Sarah Outen who we've also spoken to today - she is doing well and in good spirits - I wonder if and when we'll catch her up! We are having a new Tracking Beacon delivered to us today by Desiderata which we hope to fit tomorrow - it means we will be logged each hour for safety reasons by the support boat. Thank you everyone for the continued support. Andrew out but not down Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site.

Thanks for the message from big Phil about the film Heat. As many of you know that's my favourite film of all time. Bit disrespectful that big Phil came out with a comment like that, surprised he had time to even watch the film! He should get back to work double time (those involved will understand that comment) As for the rowing the last week has been really good. Andy and I have been working well as a team, helping each other out through the hard times. We've been knuckling down and aiming for that half way point! The weather has been pretty stormy which means you get more sores as you are constantly wet and move around in the seat alot. Having to wear clothes in order to dry them at the moment, now that the sun is out at long last. Thanks alot for all your support. I hope everyone enjoyed the quiz. Thanks guys. Guy out. Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site.

Distance made West this week: Tuesday 2nd;      32nm Wednesday 3rd; 36nm Thursday 4th;    45nm Thanks Flying Ferkin Support Crew!

The boys are holding a party onboard the Flying Ferkins today to celebrate Andrews birthday and a belated celebration for Guy's, which was on the 22nd April. It will be a party of fun, complete with Enya, freeze dried curry, warm water and obligatory exercise.  Feel free to pop in if you are nearby, dresscode swimwear (optional), lifejacket and facial hair. However, if you are unable to attend dont worry you can still join in the celebrations by clicking on the pint glasses and buying the boys a virtual pint. Andrew and Guy will have both celebrated their 25th birthdays at sea obviously a long way from friends and family. If you would like to give them a birthday boost please join in and buy them a drink each by donating £3-£5 , the rough price of a pint to Orchid. Not only will the pint give them a lift, it will also help towards their fundraising target. We will also report back to the boys a list of all the virtual pints bought for them. Thanks for the continued support.

Sarah out

This is the starter’s guide to following the weather forecasts for anyone that has not yet mastered this fantastic and easily available information. The Woodvale site has an up to date section on weather. There are two charts: Surface winds in knots & Wave height in metres and direction Both these charts cover a period from the current time “000” hours to “180” hours future forecasts. This equates to 7.5 days ahead. The first two days are split into 3 hour forecasts then it goes to 6 hour forecasts for the third day then 12 hour forecasts for the remainder of the 7.5 days. Both charts are changed by hitting “Next” below the relevant chart to provide the future hours forecast the relevant hour is shown above the chart on the left. The surface wind speed summaries are denoted by colours with winds over 30 knots shown in yellow to red colours these are serious winds to watch out for. If you put your pencil on the computer screen and scroll through you can see the change in wind direction that they are experiencing as the weather fronts pass through. The best wind direction is any arrow pointing from Australia towards Mauritius or one that flattens out the swell, which generally comes from the south. Substantial waves and currents are created with local winds and the massive storms coming up from the Southen Ocean.  In the case of the wave height [shown in metres] it is the white and blue which makes for a more comfortable row for Guy and Andy. The best wind direction is any arrow pointing from Australia towards Mauritius. Anything over 15 knots or so [Force 3+] or towards the yellow or red colours in swell would be potentially more difficult and will stop the rowing until it passes them by at which point they anchor and wait for it to pass. The boat may well move towards incoming wind and swell so as to be corrected back on path while they are at anchor and are driven back to the most direct route. If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below, we’ll endeavour to get back to you directly. Flying Ferkins Support Crew out.

50 days at sea and 1,366nm covered! Andrew & Guy are presently biding their time on Flying Ferkins. The wind has made it very difficult for the boys to row west. Parked up on the para anchor (not an easy task in itself) the boys will continue to manage status hourly in order to try and hold position. There are going to be a frustrating few days to come as the wind will govern them being at anchor. Although frustration can’t be avoided as the boys obviously want to be making headway, the mood is positive. Both the boy’s bodies are holding up ok by all accounts. Andrew does however, have spots on his rear!! Thankfully, using the tea tree they can treat these minor infections, although much more difficult to manage in such wet conditions. Please keep your comments & questions coming (any good jokes/stories/brain teasers etc would be gladly received) Distance made West over weekend: Fri 5th: 40nm Sat 6th: 19nm Sun 7th: 4nm Mon 8th: -13nm Thanks Flying Ferkin Support Crew! Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity.To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site.

Andrew & Guy have been caught by an unexpected upwelling current that has taken Flying Ferkins towards Australia not Mauritius! Boys are stuck heading in this direction for a few days and there is no way out. Lets all cross our collective fingers that they get out of it sooner than Friday as it will leave the boys very frustrated. Please keep your comments & questions coming. Distance made west: Tue 9th   -33nm Tom out Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site.

Andrew and Guy are back rowing and their mood is up. Although drifting back is dispiriting they are deliberately ignoring it! Presently they are moving forward to a more beneficial position away from the current, and Flying Ferkins will hopefully be back in a positive position tomorrow. Weather conditions variable with the report of a few good sized waves allowing for some potential surf! Very sorry to hear that Simon Prior onboard Boat No. 3 ‘Old Mutual Endurance', has announced his decision to retire from the Indian Ocean Rowing Race 2009.We all wish him a safe onward journey. Tom out Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site. Distance made west: Wed 10th   -12nm Thanks Flying Ferkins Support Crew

Hello it's me thought I'd do a blog haven't done one for over a week - everyone is well.   Thank you very much to all of you who bought me a virtual pint for my birthday it's very kind of you - I am really looking forward to the real thing!! It's been really frustrating and mixed week since my birthday we have been going backwards but we are now heading in the right direction and all is looking good. We should be further west by the weekend. Lots more action in the water with lots of fish - black with blue fins think they might be mackerel or possibly tuna.  Fly fishing off the back of the boat yesterday which was really good fun. Apart from that we just keep chugging along and hope to catch up the week we are behind. Andrew out Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site.

Sorry it's been a while since we both blogged. It's been a strange couple of weeks. Had some really hard & rubbish times as you can see from our tracker. Tough times when going East when we rowed West so there were a couple of things I tried to think about at this time of advertsity. Don't know how many of you know but Sir Ranulph Fiennes recently climbed Everest and there is a quote: "Forget about thinking you are going to succeed. You have just got to keep plodding. Imagine it's a mountain with no top." This is the same as what we are doing. Whether going East or West we have got to stick in the game and keep focused on getting to Mauritius. The other was when Andy was on the phone to another ocean rower Simon and he asked Andy how we were coping in these tough times and getting through it and Andy replied "helping each other".  As there are two of us we can help each other and we are always thinking positive. Quick thanks for the messages we've got from Will Salter and family!So pleased to have your support and Will's company Paragon Software Systems are one of our sponsors too.Thanks for your all your support. Ron - Can't wait for toad in the hole but as long as you don't burn it like last time! Dione - we will try and get Flying Ferkins flying but we just need to get some good conditions! Clive and Andy - Thanks for your message.When we are in storms we try to clean the boat and make sure everything on the boat is ship shape for when we start again. All about making sure everything is fixed and ready.Also if its really bad and we are on para anchor you have to watch films, read books, listen to audio books that kind of stuff. Mainly about getting the boat ready and thinking positively about the next step. Peter S - Please keep praying for us, both for good weather and and safe arrival in Mauritius. Thanks for your message on the website and looking forward to meeting you for a beer when we get back. Cheers guys looking forward to telling you soon that we have hit the half way mark. Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, the boys chosen charity. To follow our progress please go to the official Woodvale Challenge site. Guy out.