Tarawa | Roz Savage, Ocean Rower

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Published: April 16, 2010Posted in: Pacific Row, Stage 3Tags: tarawa

Normally a bit of water wouldn’t bother me. After all, I’m about to row across a couple of thousand miles of the stuff. But today there is a lot of water and it’s falling from the sky in torrents and it’s very inconvenient.

Until yesterday my boat was under a shelter at the Marine Training Centre here in Tarawa, but as today is Saturday and we needed plentiful manpower to move the boat out, we had to move Brocade yesterday before the marine cadets went home for the weekend. So now she is out in the open.

If the weather was dry, this would be perfect. Most of the things that remain to be done required the boat to be out from under the shelter. For example, I can’t set up the bimini until the short antenna masts are up, and I couldn’t put them up under the limited headroom of the roof. But I’d rather work in the dry than in a monsoon. And other things, like applying sponsor stickers, can’t be done in the wet – nor can they be done once the boat is in the water, which is scheduled to happen this afternoon.

So far, though, Liz and I have had plenty to keep us busy indoors – sorting and packing, testing technology, doing a few final emails and interviews. But if this weather continues for the rest of today and into tomorrow, we’re going to be up against it to be ready in time to leave on Monday morning (bearing in mind that we are already into Saturday local time). This rain started at 5am this morning, and 7 hours later shows no signs of relenting.

Unfortunately this deluge is set to continue. I believe it is a side effect of El Nino. I had considerable experience of wet weather rowing on the Atlantic, and I don’t like it. Wet skin chafes more. It’s impossible to keep the cabin dry when I’m going in and out soaking wet. Electronics fog up and fail. It’s generally more challenging.

But what’s to be done? Am trying to be philosophical about it, but El Nino looks set to be El PITA.

Other Stuff:

I would like to extend an enormous thank you to the Marine Training Centre for taking such good care of Brocade over the last 7 months. It was a huge relief to find the boat and equipment in such good shape. The MTC is an oasis of good order in the bustle of Tarawa, and the cadets could not have been more helpful. My eternal gratitude to the Captain Superintendent, Boro Lucic, and his staff and students.

Thanks also to John and Linda Anderson of Kiribati Video for making arrangements for Monday morning. They will be filming my departure from Emile’s boat – the same boat that came out to greet me in last year. AP London have already asked for the footage, so hopefully it will go online fairly soon after the event – internet connections permitting.

Last night Liz and I had dinner with Tessie Lambourne, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who I had last seen in Copenhagen. We compared notes on developments since Copenhagen, and hopes for Mexico. Time is running out for Kiribati if predictions of sea level rise are correct. Here it is not a “one-day-maybe” issue. It is here and now. I hope you will join our Eco Heroes campaign at http://ecoheroes.me and do your bit to help.

I am posting this using the latest version of EpicTracker. Normally it will have GPS coordinate attached, but at the moment the GPS cables are at the MTC and I am at Betio Apartments. Full functionality will start as soon as I get all my technology in one place!

Ocean Champions

Published: September 24, 2009Posted in: Adventure, EnvironmentTags: climate ride, ocean champions, President of Kiribati, tarawa, Washington DC

Margo and me at last year's Ocean Champions reception. Photo courtesy of Doug DeMark.

I can’t believe that it’s still less than 3 weeks since I arrived in Tarawa. Already the 104 days I spent on the ocean seem like a fast-fading dream as I get back up to speed and start looking forward in earnest to Copenhagen.

I was delighted with the way that things worked out in Tarawa. Thanks to Nicole, Ian, Conrad and Hunter, I was able to leave the Brocade clean, shipshape and fully functioning, and safely ensconced in the Marine Training Centre.

Getting to meet the President of Kiribati was a very special occasion. We had a long chat about his hopes and concerns for his country. Kiribati really is on the edge of existence, literally and figuratively. Few countries are more remote, and with no point of land higher than 6 ft above sea level, few countries are more vulnerable. It boggled my mind to think how I would feel if my own country was expected to disappear in the next 40 years – the places where I had been born, gone to school, made friends and created a life, all gone. Yet the President is facing this challenge with courage and pragmatic realism. If only all heads of state were as clear-sighted about the impacts of climate change.

The President and I now find ourselves in the same place yet again, half a world away from our last meeting. He is in New York for the UN General Assembly. We’ve been trying to coordinate another meeting, but his schedule has been packed so far – as, indeed, has mine.

Roz Savage with Rep. Lois Capps. 23rd District, Calif, at Ocean Champions reception

It was a last-minute decision to come to New York for Climate Week, but well worth the mad dash to get here. At the Age of Stupid premiere I was able to do a couple of media interviews and also met Ed Miliband, the UK’s Minister for the Environment. Last night I was in DC for the Ocean Champions reception – a fun chance to catch up with friends and fellow ocean campaigners including Margo Pellegrino of Miami2Maine paddling fame. Thanks to David Wilmot and all the Champs for a great evening, and to Shaw Thacher, tireless activist and kind provider of a couch for the night. Great also to see Doug DeMark there, the photographer who earlier this year took some great pictures of a rather tubbier me by Chesapeake Bay.

I am writing this blog on the train on the way back to New York to meet with my editor at Simon & Schuster as we prepare for my book tour. You might have noticed we have a new section on the website for upcoming events. You’ll see details there of the book tour, as well as my forthcoming presentations – one for the Ocean River Institute at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and for National Geographic in Washington, DC. Both are open to the public, so I hope to see you there!

Tonight I’m having dinner with Naomi, one of Roz’s Regulars. This will be the first time we have met in person. We’ll be eating at Pure Food and Wine, a rawfood restaurant in Irving Place, NYC. Looking forward to it. See you tonight, Naomi!

Tomorrow I’ll be packing for the Climate Ride, a 300-mile bike ride from New York to Washington DC which starts on Saturday. I’m a bit worried about it – I’ve been pounding the exercise bike in the gym this week, trying to rediscover my cycling muscles, but I think I lost them somewhere mid-Pacific! I’ll be blogging and Tweeting from the road, so you can find out how I get on.

With Dave Wilmot of Ocean Champions and Rob Moir of Ocean River Institute

Assuming I survive the ride, the event culminates in a bike rally in front of the Capitol next Wednesday. All are welcome to come and join me and the other 150 riders. Attendees include Bracken Hendricks, senior Fellow at Center for American Progress; an architect of clean-energy portions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; founding executive director of the Apollo Alliance, Betsy Taylor, founder and President of the Center for a New American Dream, co-founder and now President of the Board of Directors of the 1Sky Education Fund, and various Members of Congress (TBA).

So life is hectic – but very good. No time to rest on my laurels when we have a planet to save!