Here’s his latest post:
Dolphin day!
Day 22, Sunday 5th June
and I slept in! I usually get up with sunrise 5 am. I was awake at 4 am, but next thing I knew it was 6 am. Time to start using an alarm clock?
I had to go to toilet just after midnight. At home the toilet is a peaceful, comfortable sort of place where you can relax while you do what needs to be done, push a button, wash hands from a tap of warm water and retire to bed within a couple of minutes.
Not so simple on Fox II.
The green bucket from Felleskjøpet is too big to be used inside, for a start! So it all happens on a rolling, dew-covered deck,dimly lit by the lantern: Pick up sea water, dry off the rim, find a half-stable spot on deck, squat down while giving the hip, knee and ankle-joints a thorough test. Hold on somewhere solid for dear life, have the pieces of paper folded and ready inside a plastic bag while stopping it blowing away. Empty bucket, no splashing! Pick up more water, add liquid soap, wash with designated brush, empty once more, stow away. Baby-wipe hands and crawl back inside.
It’s actually the first time I’ve had to do this during the night-possibly why I overslept!
But it was a good morning, no sun, but no fog either, warmer at 15 C and hardly any dew.
Light wind from NE. (Grrr!) We had drifted SSW during night and lost 6 nm to the waypoint. So today the entire days rowing gained me 8 nm towards E and we were again back at the longitude of 4 days ago! But fortunately a lot further south…
Sitting rowing hour after hour while hardly making any progress can be quite testing, but today actually went quickly and was entertaining thanks to a pod of about 20 large dolphins that kept me company for many hours. They would dart back and forth, but if I held a reasonable speed would join me for several minutes.
My other highlight was a very supportive “Day 20 card” from Hugh, my son-in-law in London. Thank you!
3 weeks since start, a slow day, but still one of the best. Sea anchor is set, now for some supper!
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41° 49.55 N, 65° 26.19 W
2016-06-02 00:00:00 +0000
Still at sea anchor, rough night, bit better now, wind still ESE. Drifted N 6 n.m., hardly any W, so current going NE, which also explains some of the steep, breaking waves. Must check temp of the sea-Gulf Stream?
Still on sea anchor.
Day 18, Wednesday, June 1st.
Been lying eating, reading and relaxing in the cabin, warm and dry, setting sun in through the stern hatch, but being thrown around quite a bit. Like a tivoli ride as Fox II rolls jerkily 20-30 degrees from side to side while the sea anchor is tugging at the neck!
Meant to splice a rope handle for the toilet bucket, but have given up all thought of doing anything useful other than tidying up, charging cameras, laptop and various other electronic gear, and reading “Restless” by John Peck, a sole (sic) mate.
Martin sent a text on the Iridium that amazed me. Already the NRK Lønsj guys Rune & Torfinn have noticed me listening to a whole lot of their podcasts and posted a greeting back on Fb: thank you, thank you, & that includes Bob Kåre! (That character reminds me so much of visiting Sælbu as a boy and not understanding what the cheerful locals were talking about!)
Not such great news from Diana who says strong wind from E may last another 24 hrs…Looks like I’m stuck here tonight. Ironic, finally away from the tides of the American continent and out in the proper, deep ocean after 2,5 days of clammy fog.
On the cheerful note: Another view of the huge, waving dorsal fin of a sun fish this morning and two large whales rolling slowly past, this time managed to film them!
