Dictated by Roz on 12th May.
Position; -04.48150, 155.67511
Friends, Rozlings, countrymen, lend me your ears, I’ll give them back, I promise.
Today was rather a quiet day for news here on the Brocade, so I’d like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to those who enable me to do what I do, so I want to focus on my wonderful, unpaid, volunteers who give their time, energy, commitment and often also money to support my endeavors. Thank you to you all, and I hope that I am making you proud .
The danger of this kind of thank you, of course, is that I cannot possibly list everybody who has helped me throughout my ocean-going career, so I will confine myself to a specific few, and try not to forget anybody. If I do, please forgive me and put it down to my general disconnection with life ashore.
I will be forever grateful to Ian Tuller of San Francisco, who over the last couple of years has ensured that I head out to sea in a ship-shape state, traveling at his own expense to Hawaii and Tarawa to work on Brocade. Ian wasn’t able to come to Tarawa this year, having only just recovered from a stomach complaint he picked up there last year, but nonetheless was very involved in preparations. As well as battling manfully to sort out my technology, he also drove from San Francisco to Santa Monica immediately before I left for Tarawa to deliver supplies of food, tech kit, water-maker parts, and essential miscellanea, all carefully packaged and labeled. Packaged for the most part, I should add, in greaseproof or brown paper, with as little plastic as possible, and packed in suitcases recycled by the charity store.
Hero of 2010 . . . . (no easy task) is Liz Fischer. She came out to Tarawa for ten busy days of final preparations. In a sense this was just the tip of an iceberg. She had already spent days packing Larabars and raw food crackers at her home in Honolulu, so that all we had to do when we got to Tarawa was to pack them into the boat. There are countless other little but important things that Liz brought with her which would have otherwise been forgotten but which turned out to be invaluable. Clothes pegs, towel and of course my champion, much-used sun hat.
Thanks also to Doug Grandt aka Unca Doug for being the tireless “uncle” of my on-line community. He manages my Facebook fanpage as well as being the lynchpin of the blogs comments and coordinates my contributions to the Nasa S’cool project. This summary doesn’t really do justice to what Doug has done for my on-line presence. He has helped to turn it from a collection of individuals into a community. So, although I also thank all the other key Rozlings, and you know who you are, we all know that Doug deserves special mention.
Busy behind the scenes is Alan Murray of Murray PR in London who has been working Pro Bono to help spread the word about my adventures since the walk from Big Ben to Copenhagen last October. Thank you Alan for your kindness, and also to Sue Lossen of Green People (providers of my sun lotion) for making the introduction.
And, of course, no roll of honor would be complete without mention of my good old Mum. (With the emphasis on the good rather than the old!) who this year saved the day when my technology went belly-up. As well as transcribing my blog every day from dodgy dictation from Satellite phone, she has sent emails on my behalf, shielded enquiries, managed my finances, liaised with shore-side contacts and generally kept the show on the road with her usual calmness, competence and thoroughness. We haven’t worked this closely together since my days on the Atlantic and it has been great to have the old mother and daughter team back together again. (Excuse my blushes – Editor)
Finally a word of thanks to this year’s key sponsors : Brocade, Shacklee, Sony Ericsson, Larabars, Wilderness Family Naturals, The Kine, Archinoetics and Aquapac for their kind support.
And finally, finally, thanks to you all. For being there. For supporting me. For spreading the word about what I do and why. For giving me your love, encouragement and positive energy. For being the wind beneath my wings or the currents beneath my craft. I couldn’t do it without you.
Other Stuff: My sister Tanya is well on her bid to walk the Way of St James, 500 miles across Spain. Footsore, apparently, but nothing she can’t handle.
There is one booby in residence tonight. Last year’s residents were masked boobies. This one is of the yellow-footed variety, but no more social graces than his last relatives, and his poop smells just as bad.
Rita: Good to see a number of last-minute guesses about time of arrival – too many to list – today is the last day for having a go. And thanks to those who made contributions: James Ferguson, James Beaver, Sam Miller, Jamie Marshall, Angela Hey and Noelle Sadinsky
Nova’s News: GoRozGo contest ENDS TODAY!
Huzzah to Unca Doug, thanks for being the stalwart you are. And thanks to all of Roz’s volunteer support team, too. I feel like I have been a slacker in the comments this year. I need to make one more guess before the GoRozGo contest ends since my other guesses were based on an Australia destination.
Roz, your day of diving for clothing tale really had me cracking up. Hope you get a few more well-earned days of solitude before the voyage ends.
Squawk Hi to the booby for me.
What happened to Nicole? There is little or no mention of her this year.
A local acquaintance reports the following:
[Quote] A newly married couple moved into this area and spent several weeks attending service at each of the local churches. Eventually they settled on mine and told me that they would be attending regularly. I explained that if they wished to become full members of the congregation, the Vestry required that they attend a series of “orientation” meetings and they readily agreed.
So, along with two other couples, they came to the three consecutive Wednesday sessions. They were most attentive and enthusiastic, so I was very pleased to tell all three couples that they would be welcomed to join our Congregation subject only to a simple test of conviction, also required by the Vestry. They were asked to refrain from sexual congress for two weeks.
Two weeks later, we met again and I asked them how they had fared. The elderly couple confirmed that they had managed to abstain without any real difficulty. The husband of the middle-aged couple explained that he had slept in their spare room during the second week just to be sure.
The young man said “The first few nights were just about bearable. But on fifth day I was passing behind my wife as she reached for a light-bulb on an upper shelf. She was wearing shorts, and her T-shirt rode up and exposed her bare tanned midriff and I’m sorry but I couldn’t control myself – I grabbed her and we made passionate love right there on the floor.”
Well, as you can imagine, there was a stunned silence and then I had to say “Well, I am very sorry but you can’t be welcomed into our congregation” and he said “That’s the least of our worries; we’re not welcome in the hardware store either.”
[Unquote]
We all live vicariously through your grand adventures, Roz! Thanks for letting us come along for the ride! Go Roz!
Thank you, Roz. You know the importance I place on your causes — ever since I first met you, heard you speak, and you moved me. Not only have I been enthralled by your initiative, action, and attitude, it was the conversations you were having with everybody who commented that set you apart. You were obviously having a very positive impact on all of us Rozlings — and those who prefer to go by other handles — in the way you talk to us like friends and family. Roz, I just jumped in with both feet, because this is an international community that has so much potential to change the world, one action at a time … you have shown us that it’s true. What drives me to serve you is the support and connections you foster within the Rozling family.
Roz, you have such a way with understatement and selflessness … thanking us while you navigate Brocade seemingly inches from Tulun/Carterlet Islands and possible trouble. I am humbled by today’s thank you, am all the more awed by your business as usual dealing with Tulun’s proximity — as I write this, you are within 6 miles, and your tweet is so matter of fact:
5/11 8:38 PM – position at 0733 local time is -04.47400 156.24792 [as Brocade heads directly for Tulun]
5/12 1:13 PM – rowing hard to stay north of carteret islands. threat of shipwreck a powerful motivator.
5/12 8:13 PM – position at 0905 local time: -04.53465 155.39120. can see carteret islands to the south.
Yup, a pretty newsless day alright!
So in honor of your newslessness …
Rowing her butt off,
Tulun shipwreck avoided.
Quiet day for news!
And in case you get wind of these sentiments by osmosis …
Happy Rowing, Roz!
Safe Harbor soon!
oops! a time translation error, the last tweet time was actually 10:13 PM, not 8:13 PM
5/12 10:13 PM – position at 0905 local time: -04.53465 155.39120. can see carteret islands to the south.
Roz,
Rest assured, even though you may think that 2 months rowing alone on the open ocean eating freeze-dried food with limited communication and a spider as a friend is not as challenging as you were expecting, I am still mighty impressed!
May you make lots of new friends in PNG! Go, Roz Go!
I’m commenting but not getting posted by Rev Rita
Good luck
Yes, Texino, you know that I deleted that one comment as it contained untrue assertions that could have been hurtful to the persons mentioned.
Other comments that you make from time to time have been good, so thank you for those. Rita.
keep going Roz 🙂