We made it! At 0949 local time (1349 UTC) we crossed the finish line after 80 days and 19 minutes at sea. We were met by a 140 foot yacht with our families on board and escorted by them and the ABSAR rib into English Harbour to be greeted by over 100 people and an incredible reception. Foghorns, bells, flares and women flashing us created an electric atmosphere and we were presented with a bottle each of the local rum by a government official who announced to the crowd that we were the youngest pair to ever reach their shores by rowing boat and she then led a three cheers. We were so unsteady on our feet that we actually fell backwards into the harbour only adding to the sensational occasion and once out of the water we had numerous photos taken with our families and the other ocean rowers present. A full English breakfast with a glass of chilled, fresh orange juice was quickly presented to us and we sat down to indulge, feeling massively overwhelmed and extremely grateful. Having finished the breakfast all of the ocean rowers and their families were invited on board the 140 foot yacht, kind courtesy of our major sponsor, where we enjoyed drinks, more food and a chance to catch up and share stories about the race.

Since then we have been relaxing and enjoying all those things that we fantasized about whilst at sea, such as fresh bed sheets, showers, sleep and we have had the bacon sandwich and cup of tea on many occasions now! Antigua is an amazing place and we have been swimming, sailing and having a few beers. A couple of other teams have arrived in the last 3 days since our arrival and we have enjoyed greeting them in. Heritage Explorer has been post race scrutineered to ensure that we did not cheat and she is now sitting at the dockside waiting for us to give her a good clean and sort out before she is shipped back to the UK sometime in the next few months. We are yet to book our flights back to the UK but will do so in the next few days and intend to be back in about 10 days time.

The support we have received over the last 15 months and the countless number of people that have offered their advice, time, help and sponsorship has been overwhelming to say the least. We are extremely grateful and quite simply could not have made the project successful without this support. The messages and comments we recieved whilst we were at sea were brilliant motivators and kept us going. We would like to offer our most sincere thanks to everyone who has helped and supported us.

Please see photos of our time at sea and the arrival in the Gallery section of this website (It may be a few days before they are all up so please keep checking to see them!).

At the time of writing this, the time in Antigua is 1400 (1800 UTC) and with 38nm remaining to the finish line we have an ETA of 1000 (1400 UTC) tomorrow. At 20nm to go we are required to make a phone call, using our sat phone, to the Race Duty Officer and advise them on our expected time of arrival at the longitude of 61 degrees 44.8 minutes west, where the finish line lies from the bottom of Antigua for 1nm south. We are required to officially log our finish time and GPS position on crossing the finish line and at this point the race is completed. A few miles off shore the ABSAR (Antigua and Barbuda Search and Rescue) Rib will meet us, as is procedure, and escort us into English Harbour, where we currently have family waiting to meet us.

As we have got closer to land the amount of wildlife around has increased; recently we’ve seen 2 massive sea turtles, another 8/9ft blue marlin, loads of jumping and flying fish and with the number of birds around you would have thought this area was some sort of sanctuary. Unfortunately we haven’t seen any sharks, but we haven’t given up hope just yet. The water has also changed colour indicating landfall and we have just enjoyed our last swim before writing this. Unbelievably, Lenny is still with us and we’ll be entering English Harbour side by side, through it all to the end!

Fast, furious and punishing is the best way to describe the last few days. Strong seas have been giving us a considerable battering and we’ve barely been dry for 5 minutes as a result. It has however been a lot of fun surfing the big waves on our approach to Antigua and we have a new boat record of 13.5 knots. The challenge the sea has presented over the last few days has certainly made us further realise that we are ready for a sit down and that bacon sandwich. We have calculated that we will each have spent a total of 840 hours (or 35 straight days) at the oars by tomorrow, allowing for our admin hour each day and the 7 days spent on the para anchor; not a figure we would have liked to have known at the start! We’re wet, salty, sore, exhausted and bloody excited. 

We will write again once we’re on dry land.

A minute in the boxing ring with Mike Tyson? Yep. Kiss Vicky Pollard off Little Britain? Definitely. Eat a bar of soap? Not a problem. Take the stairs up the Taipei 101 Building in Taiwan? Done. There is very little we wouldn’t do right now for a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea. We have, after hours of discussion, concluded the perfect method to make the ultimate bacon sandwich. Standard, everyday things have become the main focus of our thoughts and we have found ourselves fantasizing about food, beer, a shower and a bed with clean, fresh sheets. Even sitting on a sofa would be incredible. In fact, even sitting on a stationary stool would be a luxury right now. After much thought we have put together a list of the things we will and won’t miss after the conclusion of this journey.

 What we will miss:

Swimming in the sea

Incredible sun sets

Shooting stars

Flying fish

Whales

Sea Turtles

Dolphins

The adventure

Surfing down waves

Snack bags

Sun tans

Time to think

The challenge

Our ridiculous speakers

Steadily getting 6 packs!

Fishing and eating fish jerky

Peace and tranquillity

Simplicity of life

 

 

What we won’t miss:

Rowing for 12 hours a day

Never having more than 2 hours of sleep

Scrambling around on our hands and feet to move anywhere

Freeze dried meals

Plain lukewarm drinking water

Waves crashing over the gunwale and soaking us

Having a bucket for a toilet

Having sore bums and hands

Hand washing clothes in a bucket

Salt being everywhere

Constantly moving on an unstable surface

Being on the para anchor

Near collisions with ships

 

Last week saw the mourning of a vital piece of Heritage’s kit, and also a vital part of our on board entertainment.  I am talking about the king of all fishing lures, described on the box as ‘extreme action’, it brought nothing less! Within moments of deploying it into the water it would have every fish in the surrounding area salivating at the gills,  its disjointed waggling tail proved too tempting to many a tuna, and kept fish jerky permanently on the menu as a delicious high protein snack. However, the extreme nature of the lure soon became its downfall. We decided to put the line out one morning as conditions were good to land some food for the day and literally within minutes our guy had done his job. With a massive tug on the line we were sure we were about to land our biggest catch yet and after struggling to pull the line in due to some incredible resistance on the fish’s behalf, we caught our first sight of the beast. At least five foot long it instantly became recognisable by the long shaft coming off of its nose like the business end of a javelin. It was clear we had a monster on our hands that didn’t want to become the next savoury snack! After minutes of fighting by Heritage’s side, the strength and power of the fish got the better of our whopping 125lb line and with a twang the fish departed in a hurry. Devastation is the only word I can use to describe the feeling on board that morning after we came so close to ocean rowing fishing history. Fortunately we did manage to get some underwater footage of the prey as we were reeling it in. With tens of fish to his name we feel that our beautiful blue sparkling lure had an innings to be proud of and certainly cannot be accused of going down without a fight. His loyal service to our jerky stocks will never be forgotten and luckily the spares bag contains a smaller, less successful lure that we can use in the mean time to stock pile jerky for all to try in Antigua.

The weather has continued to hinder our progress over the last 10 days with this strong southerly wind still not letting up since our last blog. However, our recent weather reports suggest that a big change is due in the next 24hrs. The wind and waves are due to move round to the east, hopefully giving us ideal conditions to complete the last leg of the journey. We are eagerly awaiting this change as we can barely remember the last time we had a favourable weather forecast.

Of all the things we desire right now, strong seas from the east are at the top of the list.

Over the last 2 months we have attempted to grow some beards in the hope of arriving in Antigua looking like we’ve actually been at sea for some time. Will has some ridiculously massive sideburns but no moustache whatsoever and a patchy chin. I have only one sideburn and what patchy hair there is on my chin is unfortunately ginger. Rather than giving the desired impression of mature, hardened sea farers, we really just look like a couple of very unattractive adolescences. On the plus side however, we have started to lose some of the weight we put on for the race and have both never been so tanned. Our hair is shorter than usual as we both cut it to grade 5 before we left La Gomera. The sun has made Will’s much fairer with blonde tips making him look increasingly feminine, whilst mine is verging on albino.

We have now had 3 ships heading directly towards us, the most recent of these being 3 days ago. We had just stopped rowing to open a present for Day 60 (wrapped up by our parents before departing) and enjoy our last can of coke, which was to celebrate reaching 50 degrees west, when a 277m ship appeared very quickly on the horizon and our AIS radar started beeping to warn us of the danger. It was coming directly at us, as the 2 before has done, and we quickly got on the radio to check they were aware of our presence. They weren’t, but upon checking their radar they located us and altered course accordingly. This ship had a draught of 24 feet, the same depth as our boat is long, and as it passed by less than a half a mile away, its vastness was simply staggering. The biggest we have seen is 333m long and had a draught of over 45 feet – the AIS gives us all this information.

For the last 5 days we have been experiencing some tricky southerly winds. As we attempt to maintain our course of 270 degrees due west, we are being hit side on by the sea. Big breaking waves are crashing over the gunwale soaking us regularly and smaller, faster waves, which do the most damage, are aggressively slapping Heritage on her broad side, shoving her side ways and making it difficult to stay on the seat whilst rowing. Keeping control of the oars whilst this is happening is pretty difficult and the handles often smack us in the legs and stomach as they’re ripped from our hands. It’s during these moments, sat around 2 feet above the surface of the water, that the real power of the sea is understood. In amongst these waves little flying fish keep finding their way onto the deck. One actually hit Will in the face a few nights ago and as we don’t often completely shut the main hatch, another found its way into the cabin, flapping around underneath the switch board. A little black bird also hit me in the temple, in the middle of the night a few weeks ago, which was a bit of a shock. The amount of birds out here is quite surprising; we see them almost every day.

Being slapped in the face by a wet fish, or soaked by a breaking wave, do have their benefits though. The effects of rowing 12 hours a day every day and the limited sleep become most obvious at night. At times, when there’s been a pause, and there are no waves or fish to help, staying awake can become a bit of a fight. We will catch ourselves having rowed 4 or 5 strokes with our eyes closed or heads rolled forwards. To aid the battle we’ll play loud music on our ipods – Will some Take That or Spice Girls and I’ll be found listening to some offensive, pumping beats. Our tastes differ drastically and we tend not to discuss it as only aggravation is caused when doing so.  Energy drinks, strawberry and cream boiled sweets, and head torches to force our eyes to focus also aid the staying awake. We are looking forward to a proper sleep and a shave!

Unfortunately, since our last blog, we have extended our total time on the para anchor. Due to yet more adverse weather we have now spent just over 7 days on the para anchor. Although our most recent spell only lasted for 24hrs, we did manage to lose a whopping 20 miles, drifting east of our position, which was hugely frustrating. To try to prevent a further loss of mileage the following day we decided to row into the head wind, hoping that at least we could hold our ground. This proved very difficult with the oars having never felt harder to pull and we continued to go backwards. However, the loss was only 6 miles over the 24hr period, probably making our efforts worthwhile. At this stage, we have given up hope of ever getting the weather we are supposed to. This just seems to be a strange year for some reason!

Since then the weather has actually improved and we have had some reasonable conditions, which feels very strange! We are now heading south to try and find some more consistent easterly winds to aid us with the last 800nm of the race. Due to this recent set back we have had to change our target to 80 days at sea, which seems more realistic, and within our grasp. Fortunately we still have plenty of food and supplies on board Heritage to last us for the foreseeable future.

It hasn’t all been bad news on Heritage Explorer, on day 55 I woke to find another ocean rowing boat, Spirit of Manchester Airport, on the GPS screen approximately 13 miles away. After calling them up on the VHF Radio, we agreed to stop rowing for a while and let them catch up so we could meet. A few hours later there was a white dot on the horizon, Tom took to the oars and we set about closing the gap between us. Within half an hour they were well within eyesight, it was a very exciting feeling seeing another boat and about to see other humans again after 54 days! When we drew alongside we all started laughing and frantically chatting away, elated to see each other. This was particularly special for us as Neil and Dean were one of the first teams we met taking part in the race, back when we were doing our mandatory courses  in June. The two of them couldn’t have looked more different since the last time we saw them on the morning of the race start. Both had well established thick beards and Neil, who normally has a shaved head had short hair, Dean’s was much longer and the tips had been bleached blonde by the sun. We chatted away for a couple of hours, sharing stories and experiences before setting off again and getting some truly unique footage of us rowing in the middle of the Atlantic. This will be ideal for our small video which we plan to put together upon our return to the UK.

 Just to update the many fans, Lenny is still with us and going strong. We have taken to beefing him up to keep him fit and strong for the next 800 miles, by feeding him on a high carb rowers diet. He has particularly taken to the Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce meal, which he gladly comes and gobbles up when we clean our food sachets out over the side of Heritage.

Once again thanks for all the messages of support, they’re brilliant at this stage in the journey.