To further refine my image of the bucking bronco and the ten bucketeers, it occurs to me that the whole assemblage should, for authenticity, be placed in a wind tunnel. Today has been windy. So windy that this morning I had the greatest difficulty eating my Oats2Go because the porridge kept blowing off the spoon before I could get it from the mug to my mouth, a distance of around 3 inches. That’s windy.
This has inspired a blog on the different kinds of waves. Of course, every wave is unique, but these are the usual suspects. I’ve given them provisional names, but if you can think of some better names, I’d love to hear your suggestions.
Mugger: a sneaky wave that won’t announce its presence, but will just pop up over the side of the boat without any warning whatsoever and give me a drenching
Bragger: the opposite of the mugger, the bragger roars up to the boat in a fury of foam and noise, makes me flinch, and then does absolutely nothing apart from fizzle away in a mass of white suds like it just couldn’t be bothered to follow through
Sideswiper: attacks at the bow or the stern of the boat for maximum leverage, knocking the boat off course by about 30 degrees
Slopper: another sneaky one, the slopper looks innocent and innocuous as he sidles up to the boat, then just neatly slops a large amount of water over the gunwale
Boatfiller: looks big and mean and generally is, this one rampages up and deposits a boatful of water into the cockpit, necessitating use of the bilge pump to restore some kind of order
Juggernaut: likes to strike at night for maximum effect, the juggernaut is the one that will knock the boat over through ninety degrees or more, causing widespread disarray and distress
Yes, Susan Casey (author of The Wave) could learn a thing or two if she spent a couple of days on my boat. But there again, she’d probably rather be hanging out in Hawaii with Laird Hamilton. And who can blame her? Right now, so would I.
Other Stuff:
Today I crossed the line of latitude at 30 degrees south. Hurrah! Now I am making a break west, trying to cut across that pesky south-flowing Leeuwin Current while I have these strong southerly winds to help me.
Thanks, Jay, for the ten suggestions posted in a comment on my blog for Day 5. All good ones. The eco ones (3,6 and 10) especially warmed my heart. It’s crucial times for the Olympics campaign, so the more signatures we can get, the better. And share it via FB and Twitter too. And 7 made me laugh – hope people manage to dance better than I did (but in my defence I was trying to dance on the deck of a tippy boat!)
Richard – thanks for the spotty botty tips. I can see the sense in allowing the skin to do its own thing. It did make me smile, though, to think of wicking material collecting the “moisture” – the ocean is contributing far more of the moisture than I am! Today each seat cover would stay dry for, oh, about 3 seconds on average before a wave had come and drenched it.
Narendra – I don’t really count calories. I would guess about 4,000? I just eat as much as I feel like, and still lose weight. Fantastic!
James Nave `- good to hear from you, my friend. Hope to make it to Telluride again one of these years when I’m not messing around on oceans!
Thanks to Sybille for the headband I’m wearing in today’s photo. It has turned out to be one of my new favourite bits of kit. Great for holding in my earbuds while I’m listening to audiobooks, and keeps my hair out of my eyes. Love it! 
A question: I want to start listening to the Ken Follett books, but one thing Audible doesn’t do is to give any indication what order they were written in. Can anybody help me out, please?
Sponsored Miles:
Patricia Kitto, Stanley Miller, Evan Rappoport, Charles Stilfield, Alan Gamble, Phil Connor, Sarah Fetters, Tom Burns, Russell Cullingworth, Larry Grandt, Brenda Ober, Kenny Runnderduck, Deb Caughron, Justin Cooper, Kiran Prathapa, Geoff Gassner, Joan Sherwood, Michael Follo. (These miles represent distances from Fremantle, which may be a bit less than miles actually rowed eg after rowing in a circle!)
Hey Roz et al, Food for thought, perspective AND INSPIRATION for all of us, I hope! I have been thinking about all of us all night – as I prepare to go bald for weekly surgeries for the next month or so…
As Roz reaches her 1st cumulative year at sea alone; as I approach my 2nd cumulative year under the knife; as I look back on the 28 days in the coma – and four months recovering from it all, My “Nuisance Routine” as I call it, there are monumental, wondrous and difficult things about all these times…
BUT, BUT, BUT, We must keep them – the monumental, wondrous and difficult times – in perspective… Roz, at 43 this one year at sea is but 2% of your amazing life so far, and even less as we look forward into the Big Picture of your life to come… And, The monumental, wondrous and difficult times are each just a tiny percentage of that current 2% of your life… By the way, I find it reassuring and interesting that my “Nuisance Routine” runs almost identical percentages to yours Roz…
ROZ et al, I AM NOT BELITTLING THIS AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENT AT ALL, PLEASE BELIEVE ME!!! Just trying to put it in a Perspective that makes the “difficult” times easier to deal with as we, et al included, go along in our lives… Here are a few things to help put it in perspective… We sleep 25 – 33% of our lives – so having rough times some part of 2% of our life seems very unimportant and therefore easy to deal with… Here is one that I always push… (This is U.S. GDP based, but it will be very similar for other countries in debt too.) I call it the 7% Rule – and my non-profit biz requires it of our paid staff, sub-contractors and the like… If we each volunteered our expertise, whatever our expertise is, to ANY needy cause – a (friend’s) struggling business, a school, hospital, library – even the business we now work for, to anyone who could use our help IF they could afford to pay for it, without additional pay, just 7% of our non-working, waking hours – One Day every two weeks, by increased GDP without increased cost, we would eliminate our National Debt – NOT JUST YEARLY BUDGET DEFICITS in less than one generation… (BTW, This “needy cause” cannot axe, fire, lay-off or terminate someone because they are getting our expertise free!!!)
So TINY Percentages of our lives – 2% Here, 7% There CAN make HUGE differences in the long term, Big Picture – IF we do not allow the tiny “difficult” percentage, of the 2% of our monumental, wondrous and “difficult” lives, to slow us down too much … In closing a little stolen humor to put this in perspective… One of MY favorite American TV Shows was M.A.S.H. – about a mobile hospital in the Korean War. Klinger, One of the characters, gets a letter from his wife back in Toledo, OH… She wants a Divorce… Klinger is devastated! He tells Col. Potter, another one of the characters, “Colonel, This is the worst day of my life!” Without missing a beat Potter replies, “Nonsense Boy, You are going to have MUCH worse days than this!!!” To which Klinger responds, “Thanks Coloniel, I feel better! Let me buy you a beer.”
Well, Off to go bald… More babble soon… Hope the babble to come does not sound Bald?
P.S. Roz, Forgot to mention, Having sailed my whole life, your wave names are perfect – I know them each well… And, Good point on my stupid comment about the wicking material… BUT, Sitting in seawater IS NOT what is causing the bumps on your nether end… In fact, the seawater should help with them… The problem is when what we are sitting in are more our own juices than seawater – our own juices are causing the bumps on the nether end… So the hot, calm days will lead to bumpy nether ends…
Here you go, Roz. Follet has certainly been prolific.
Fall of Giants
(2007) World Without End
(2004) Whiteout
(2002) Hornet Flight
(2001) Jackdaws
(2000) Code to Zero
(1998) The Hammer of Eden
(1996) Third Twin
(1996) A Place Called Freedom
(1993) A Dangerous Fortune
(1991) Night Over Water
(1989) The Pillars of the Earth
(1986) Lie Down with Lions
(1983) On Wings of Eagles
(1982) The Man From St. Petersburg
(1980) The Key to Rebecca
(1979) Triple
(1978) Eye of the Needle
(1977) Paper Money
(1976) The Modligiani Scandal
The new chicks get to enjoy time out in a restricted area of the garden in the afternoons these days. These two are going to be flyers.
Joan
Fall of Giants is 2010.
Thanks Joan, Roz will be pleased with this.
Gosh I miss the visual of tracking your progress. It’s great to read the narrative and musings but still hard to put “me” in your boat. I know all the reasons and fully understand. It’s just unfortunate that we can’t follow your road map in real time.
Hey Steve, Just a suggestion… Rather than looking at what is missing in anything we do (I touched on this before with Memory Boxes, Women being at their best after they reach 40 – Comfortable with who they are, what they have – and what they don’t, what they have achieved, what they haven’t, where they are going, and the like), in this case, Read Roz’ amazing “Narrative” and let your imagination fill in the missing tracking visual…
Good point Richard. I guess part of my mindset (that might need to be changed) is reading her story against the backdrop of forward (and sometimes backward) progress. Watching her go back and forth over the pacific equator and seeing her steadfast resolve was awe inspiring. Of course the risks involved now make impossible so I will need to adapt my perspective.
To help with the imagination, there are little hints in Roz’s blogs – about wind blowing from the south (then she is going north), and now turning west etc.
Ageed Rita…Roz is dropping little directional hints…a couple of days ago I found a decent map of the Indian Ocean and bookmarked it…consult it regularly… mapping hints are there–kind of…just gotta keep up your daily Roz reading and listening and take note of the clues…and Unca Doug had a great idea that could also “contribute” by buying miles along the way and watching for your name to pop up…so you actually can create your own part of the map… so stayed tuned and listen for the clues…
I’m with you, Steve. There was something about actually seeing the progress – I miss it. Totally understand why it had to go, but missing it nonetheless.
I’m with you, Steve. There was something about actually seeing the progress – I miss it. Totally understand why it had to go, but missing it nonetheless.
Roz,
A wind can be whistled down as well as up. Try it.
Cheers,
Eric
Today, Roz mentions the ten suggestions made by Jay on Day 5 … for Rozling convenience, here they are, reposted at Jay’s request because his internet access/connection is misbehaving this morning.
Thanks, Jay!
Good on ya!
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’s original post is at http://bit.ly/RozOzDay5
I just checked the petition and the count is now 1,234.
Please click http://bit.ly/AddYourSigOly and join in.
Hi Roz,
Enjoying your blogs! Which Follet’s do you have; I will let you know the order…..
Cece G
Thanks for the offer Cece – you will see above that Joan has let her have the list. I am glad you are enjoying the blogs, I certainly was amazed at her use of words in this one! Best wishes.
While Roz is “out there” calling attention to plastic pollution, look what the local government is doing about it.
http://theloopny.com/2011/03/08/larchmont-beach-mystery-once-hit-block-island/
Narendra and Roz: I concur with the estimate of 4000 calories per day as you calorie use. It is in line with what I find myself using during moderate to medium heavy exercise. Of course I don’t put out at that rate for 10 – 12 hours a day. BTW, 4000 calories is about equivalent to doing a marathon and a half a day.
Roz, I have no idea how you can manage 10 + hours a day in a rowing seat. After 15 minutes on a rowing machine, I’m bottom sore for two days. You are truly amazing in your endurance and mental stamina.
Keep up the good work!!
would not have believed it… except that she jumped off a plane mid tour 2010 and did a century ride with http://www.climateride.org/ in Mendocino the following day… then more miles on day two and three… had to take pictures to prove to myself that it was actually done! wow!
Hey Roz et al, Just in from surgery – Do I sound bald… BTW Roz, I would gladly take “salty kisses” over salt in any of these new wounds – they are kind of sore without salt being rubbed in them… BUT, BUT, I also just re-read the novel I wrote here this morning… I could have, and should have been more brief… It all could have been said with a wave-smack (smack not kiss) here, a painful poke or slice there, is just the blink of an eye in the Big Picture of Our lives – they are but difficult moments in otherwise wondrous lives…
Dearest Richard, I’m glad you’re still babbling after surgery! Get better quickest.
Dearest Richard, I’m glad you’re still babbling after surgery! Get better quickest.
http://noapplauseforroz.blogspot.com
We created this site…..enjoy!
You’re absolutely amazing! To write such great blogs like this one while undergoing such trial by water (& salt!) – Waveology is the best so far. I’ve read them all. I’m keeping a copy on file in case I ever get to row the ocean and not just my “Lake Stinkhole” here in the Florida outback. Makes my trial here pale in comparison! Beats the scientists’ classifications…Hope the sun dries you soon. ROW ON!
I live in Wyoming where it is very windy and have been passed by a tumbleweed while driving but, I do NOT want to meet a wind that can knock porridge off of a spoon! That’s windy!!
Roz, thanks for sharing the epic adventure for the noblest of causes, making me re-think both what is necessary – and possible. – Eric
Ken Folllett
(1976) The Modligiani Scandal
(1977) Paper Money
(1978) Eye of the Needle
(1979) Triple
(1980) The Key to Rebecca
(1982) The Man From St. Petersburg
(1983) On Wings of Eagles
(1986) Lie Down with Lions
(1989) The Pillars of the Earth
(1991) Night Over Water
(1993) A Dangerous Fortune
(1996) A Place Called Freedom
(1996) Third Twin
(1998) The Hammer of Eden
(2000) Code to Zero
(2001) Jackdaws
(2002) Hornet Flight
(2004) Whiteout
(2007) World Without End
(2010) Fall of Giants
Loved the wave names – but hope the Boatfillers and Juggernauts will be kept to a minimum this trip!
Enjoy the books. Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, and Fall of Giants are three of my favorites. The narrator on the audiobooks is brilliant.
Yes, perfect wave genres! Having been swamped in an outrigger by Alcatraz I’ve personally met a few your your characters. You are so brave to be out there in waterworld solo and reporting back to us earthlings so regularly.
Thinking of images/thoughts to stay calm and strong. A friend just sent me a piece about Yemaya – a goddess I’d be calling to rein in her rouge wave children while you row on.
“Yemaya is a West African creation goddess, often depicted as a mermaid, is the mother of the Sea, the Great Water, the Womb of Creation. She is the Mother of Dreams, the Mother of Secrets. She is natural wealth, the Mother of Pearl and Veiled Isis. She is the mermaid, the full moon, and intelligence beyond human comprehension.
She is envisioned as a large and beautiful woman, radiant and dark; nurturing and devouring; crystal clear and mysteriously deep.
Yemaya rules the house, nurtures the child in the waters of the womb; and has jurisdiction over the affairs of young women. The sensuous belly dance of the Middle East is a tribute to Her waves…
Gaze upon the waters of Yemaya for your own self’s sake. Perform rituals on the ocean at sunrise and midnight for your healing. Watch Her shimmering in the light of the full moon and be renewed. There is no mountain of trouble that Yemaya cannot wear down; no sickness of heart that She cannot wash clean; no desert of despair that She cannot flood with hope.
Come my sisters, embrace Her! Feel her spray on your face! Inhale her mist! Power is the name of Yemaya-Olokun” -Luisah Teish
Q: Do you dream more or less or the same out there on in the ocean?
Pamela, I like “Yemaya is a West African creation goddess.” Without a surname, I am guessing your might be my “green” Pamela friend. Email me if you are. If not, I love you post anyway ;-D
Hey All – Most especially Roz, Rita and Their Team in all this – This Just In… Sort of big news while I was having surgery today… An Emmy and National Geographic Award Winning Director of Photography and Cinematographer has asked the Producer/Director of this film being made on my life to be part of the project… The odd thing about this is he was one of the people we thought we would ASK to be part of it – But he asked us first… Why does this mean anything here on ROZ’s Blog??? Roz and I talked a bit about all this just before she left on this leg of her voyage… Her environmental causes fit very well with the non-profit environmental business that I thought up while in a coma in 2008, which has become my post-coma, post-near-death, “Bucket List” business project since… My life has been very similar to Forrest Gump, Tuesdays With Morrie, Six Degrees of Separation and 127 Hours in many ways, followed by similarities to The Diving Bell & The Butterfly while in the coma, and, as I just said, The Bucket List since… So, I have a feeling, IF Roz and her team are interested, She, They, Their Causes and Mine can play a big part of the Bucket List portion of my life – and the film – which could make all of our environmental goals easier to achieve… We’ll see… Scriptwriting is to begin in the next month…
This post is so true! The mugger is really the worst and SO aptly named: that’s the one that sneaks up and takes things out of your hand.
So you’re saying that I couldn’t row & keep my hair dry, Roz? (It goes frizzy with even a little moisture!)
Seriously though, I thought I’d list a few things that I’ve changed or are attempting to change in my life since starting to read Roz’s blog several years ago (& then meeting her recently!)
1. Plastic shopping bags are out; replaced by fabric bags. (Thanks Roz for my Savage Bag!) Yes, I forget to take them with me sometimes!
2. Throw away plastic water bottles have changed to my trusty reusable ones.
3. I challenged myself to a “no plastic month” 3 years ago which helped me change the way I shop. If I couldn’t buy it fresh or wrapped in paper or bottled in glass etc, I didn’t buy it. I now buy as much as I can from local producers and try to remember to take my own containers. I don’t go overboard about it but I do try to think more before I buy.
4. Recycling more effectively, including composting, re-gifting etc.
5. Discovering new & healthier food sources (some that have been right under my nose until I meet Roz).
6. Changing my ‘little village’ world view to see the bigger picture regarding our planet/consumerism – insert your own thoughts here!
Thanks Roz (& June for the extra bags & food tips!)
Seriously, NEVER LOOKED BETTER!!!!
Now that your “Windswept Roz” photo is posted, I am thinking that if I had an appropriate picture post card, I would send it inscribed “Wish I were there” … well, if only you had postal delivery service.
Love your seemingly serene scenes of the sea.
Row gloriously, Roz!
From my experience at about 20-30mph, wind will cause white caps to form. I generally will have thought out an exit plan for my kayak and a put-in plan for my kite-board…
here is a good trivia link to click on about wind-waves…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_wave