Today the winds have been much more helpful. It has been a gloomy, overcast, blustery day of lowering clouds and rough seas, but it has been a great day for rowing. A lovely strong breeze right up the backside. More fun than it sounds.
Not so much fun for every other aspect of life on board, though. Imagine living on a bucking bronco. It bucks fairly slowly, rather than full-on-manic-bucking mode, but the angle of movement is fairly similar. And it goes on 24 hours a day. Preparing meals, eating meals, going to the bathroom, sleeping…. all done (or at least, attempted) on the back of that bronco. Yeehaaarrrr! 
I finished listening to The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean
this morning. Interesting to me on so many levels: the oceans as a spiritual place, as an indicator of climate change, and as a place of amazing and terrifying power. I truly hope I never seen the full force of the ocean unleashed. 20 foot waves were impressive enough. A 100 foot wave would be – well, unimaginable. Or maybe I just don’t want to try and imagine it…
If you love and/or respect the ocean, you’ll probably enjoy this book. I learned a lot from it, despite knowing a thing or two about the ocean myself.
Return of the low-flying squid Part 2: I found another squid today, stuck to the roof of the forward cabin. Funny – when I was assaulted last time by projectile squid, there were three of them too. Do squid always travel in threes?
Fresh food update: Had to throw out the last of June’s excellent quinoa salad today. It was furry. There was a fridge magnet at the house we were staying in for several weeks before my launch (thanks so much to Danny and Bronwyn – I bet you’re happy to have your house back now!) that said: “If it walks out of the refrigerator, let it go”. Most of my now not-so-fresh food is getting a bit that way.
Body update: the spots are returning to my nether regions. Sigh. Every year it happens. I thought that between changing seat covers after every shift and regular application of tea tree oil I’d be okay – but apparently not.
Podcast: Vic and I recorded our first ocean podcast today. It will probably go online in the next day or so. Check it out.
Comments: Mum and Vic have told me that there are lots of comments on my blog. I think that Mum has tried to email them to me, but I’m having some problems with email. I can see that I have messages coming in over the satphone, but they are not displaying in Thunderbird. It has done this before and eventually the messages have shown up. But I can’t figure out how to force it to show them.
Upshot of all this is: As soon as I manage to read any of your comments, I will reply to them. But at the moment they are hidden somewhere in the memory of my laptop, concealed from human eye…
Comments: Thanks for all the great comments. I’ve got a bit of a
backlog, as I’ve only just received the comments for the first 3 days.
And I’m seriously keen to get off my backside and let it recover a
little before tomorrow. So in haste….
Thanks, Sandra and Pamela for the inspiring quotes. Fantastic! Thanks,
Nick, for explaining the absence of tracker (boo!). Dennis, good to hear
from you!
Jane – good to hear that Jessica is spreading the word. It was a real
pleasure to spend time with you, James and the family while I was in Perth.
Sid from Antarctica – ah, there you are! I didn’t have your contact
details so wasn’t able to get in touch. Glad to have re-found you!
Julie, Jacob, Hans, Jim, Joan, Eric – thanks for the messages. And
Karen, thanks for the inspiring stickers on my jars of jam and
marmalade. Am very much enjoying a pot of Helen Keller at the moment!
Julie – thanks for the blog. I can’t read it from here, but will post
the link here so others can check it out: www.juliemeek.com.au/blog
Pippa and Richard – your exchanges gave me a good giggle too! Pippa – the pillow is a dream! (so to speak!) If only I could sit on it all day as well!
Doug, Jay, Stan, Evan, John, Richard – thanks to my wonderful line of
“cheerleaders” – hmmm, that brought up an interesting visual of you all
wielding pompoms and doing high kicks! 🙂
Okay, I’m sorry, but I really do have to go take the weight off and
spend a few hours lying on my front to allow certain important parts a
chance to recover. Apologies for the visual on that! G’night!
Sponsored Miles
Roz is still rowing to get back to the position where she was a couple of days ago, so just one name today: Susan Bartlett, who had sponsored a few consecutive miles. Please accept our grateful thanks to sponsors who have recently sent their donations – we would love to thank you individually but time does not permit. Thanks to Aimee Divine who now compiles the files of Comments for Roz.
A number of people have asked, here and on FaceBook about showing Roz’s progress. You have had some replies mentioning that we are not doing so because of pirate activity in the Indian Ocean. If you have sponsored a mile, or miles, when your name appears on the blog, and if you remember your mile number, you will know that she has reached that point. Clever? Thanks to Nick Jaffe for making this possible. More information in the “Sponsor Now” box.
I assume someone volunteered to send these comments to Roz as an email? If not I volunteer.
Beautiful Pics Roz…
If anyone knows how to treat …skin eruptions, it is me with 37 years of self-nursing skin cancers – both pre and post-op… (BTW, This rare form of genetic skin cancer I have has been traced back to early English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh, “Western European” Royalty as an “off-shoot” of their attempts to keep “family” control of their kingdoms.) First, Odd thing to say, Moisture – from the sea and otherwise, must be wicked away from the skin… If it is allowed to collect on your “nether regions” (i.e. sitting in a puddle), “spots” will appear… The tree oil, actually anything to moisturize your skin, or to dry this “spots”, CAN have the opposite effect – ESPECIALLY in these conditions… The skin is trying to heal and protect itself from the effects of the moisture one way, and you are trying to correct it the same way by adding stuff to it, so the natural healing process slows or stops, hence making the problem never-ending… Hope that made some sense? There are some synthetic materials designed to wick fluids away from the body/skin, there are some that allow it to collect… Cotton and Gauze are also good wicking materials… So I think the majority of the problem lies between your “nether region” and the seat cover – still change the the seat cover, but, If you can put some layer of wicking material between your “nether region” and your clothes, and another between your clothes and the seat cover – so that the wicking collects the majority of the moisture before it collects on the seat cover, I think the problem will resolve itself quite quickly…
Hi, how many calories you need to consume everyday? You must be burning quite a lot.
Classrooms in New Orleans, LA are following your progress. Enjoying every word of your adventure so far! Keep it up!!
Sudocrem for nappy rash if you carry any? Also contains a mild local anaesthetic.
Love the titles, you could work for a newspaper.
I can’t imagine what it is like to live like that. Jolly brave of you to put yourself to that kind of discomfort for the planet.
By the way, everyone thinks your reading Wave is a sign of mental instability! Or is it looking your fears in the face?
Hey MTS:
The sea does something funny to us seafarers… I saw the Poseidon Adventure ON a Cruise Ship to Bermuda in 1972… It was great!
I wonder if they ever showed Airplane as an in flight movie?
Did you all see this picture of Rita and Roz…
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3263/3118139670_ef354ce31f.jpg
Rita, you should have been in the movies (Rita Hayworth perhapes?!)
Lovely pic. (thanks Dearest Richard)
Your Welcome Precious Pippa: It is surely clear where Roz gets her inner and out beauty – and strength… God look at Rita’s Eyes!!! As I woke from the 28-day coma in 2008, My ICU Nurse and her assistant were practically nose to nose with me from either side of the bed… All I could see were their eyes – eyes have meant everything to me ever since… Rita You did good!!!, Roz, You must-have-bin a beautiful baby (and you were) cause baby look at you now…
Narendra, refer to https://www.rozsavage.com/contents/nutrition/ = 3000 calories a day.
Reply to Marks-The-Spot – yes, I now have a volunteer to compile the file of daily comments which I can then send on to Roz. Thanks for the offer.
On Sunday April 24th 2011 (next week) Roz will have spent a cumulative 365 days alone at sea. Here are ten ways you may be able to help her row even further. Some things even Solo Ocean Rowers cannot do on their own. Go Roz Row!
1) Get her on Oprah (A wide audience for our Ocean Rower should not be missed)
https://www.oprah.com/ownshow/plug_form.html?plug_id=216
2) Get her on the Ellen Show (Ellen’s My Hero Project is perfect for Roz in many ways)
http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/respond/?PlugID=433
3) Sign the petition for Roz’s Project (The Olympics is global, multinational and multicultural, a perfect place to effect change)
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/2012-plastic-bag-free-olympics/signatures.html
4) Donate a(nother) mile or a blog or a sat phone call to her mom… (message me if you would like to do this with via US tax exemption)
5) Roz is completely electronically accessible, send your words of encouragement. Solo rowers can always use one more!
6) Diminish or stop all together the demand for single use disposable plastics. Recylcle only when use is unavoidable.
7) Dance a jig while humming Hawaii 5-0 (may I suggest privacy at first). Roz did when she crossed the equator.
8) Share her story and blogs on your Facebook profile via her website. It’s an easy way for you to tell a friend.
9) Plan to come see her after her Eat/Pray/Row tour currently scheduled in the US for Feb/March/April 2012.
10) Get out of the car further and enjoy that bike ride or walk to work.
Dr. Sylvia Earle and a good friend of Roz, and a short clip from last year:
http://youtu.be/x8VxozQuG2o
OutsideJay, this is a brilliant idea. A show like Oprah would be the breakthrough that Roz needs. We should all send a note to each of those you mention.
Amazing. Love reading about your progress! Can’t wait to read more. 🙂
Hopefully this trio of squid were less generous with their ink. Are booby birds or squid messier guests?. Cheering you on from about as far on the globe as one could possibly be from you’re current location!
http://youtu.be/of1kHz4bp9o
a clip of Susan Casey author of “The Wave”
and this one is a good one of big waves in general.
http://youtu.be/ELDTyQj_UL4
Row Roz Row!
Thanks for scaring me!
Oh Ms Rita~ I am so very confident that your precious daughter, her tenacity and audacious courage will set ground at a continent (only a mum would know:) soon enough! She is no where near done with what she has set out to do! This I have seen. Apologies for the scare, but you reared a child even Neptune respects! ~Always~ OutsideJay
Roz, Good to be following you again. I had to input a new address. Thumbs up. Navé
So happy to hear the winds have offered a quid pro quo, for you “cast your fate to the wind” … http://bit.ly/CastFate2Wind … here’s a little celebratory haiku for you … chin chin … (23*)
gorgeous sunrise hues
great gray day for making way
gleeful progress gain’d
Row gleefully, Roz!
Should that be “squid pro quo” UncaDoug? Hee hee.
Squid pro quo … I like it! Excellent idea, Pippa!
I sense another haiku forming … omg watch out ;-D
Okay, Pippa, I just listened to http://bit.ly/Podcast17April and this is what I conjured up. Thanks for the inspiration ;-D
Poseidon justice
Squid pro quo with trailing winds
A top without shorts?
Very clever, UncaDoug!