04 March 2006
On the 6th February Woodvale issued a statement headed Notification of Rule Amendment under the heading of News on their website. It states that the official crossing line for the completion of the Atlantic Ocean Rowing Crossing is set at 59degrees 37minutes west. Any vessel passing this line will be classed as completing the ocean crossing. However, to achieve a race ranking boats do need to reach the Finish Line of the Atlantic Rowing Race which is 1 nautical mile south of Cape Shirley, Antigua. I notice that boats moored there at English Harbour are at longitude 61.765 west. Roz is at present at 58.810. She is therefore very close to the first goal, that of crossing the Ocean; a bit further to go to cross the race finishing line.
Meanwhile we who watch are left on a roller-coaster ride. I watched anxiously as she moved west and south, willing her to move a bit further north. Now that she is north of latitude 17, the wind is blowing from the south east and moving her a bit further north than she wants to be. The “picture” tonight is part of a weather chart from www.weatheronline and shows where Roz is – in the middle row, more or less in the centre of the block on the right. It shows the wind blowing from the south east, but not very strong at all. Antigua is in the next block to the left, half-way up. Roz has not moved very much today so far but still has a few hours of daylight left. Whatever the weather charts show, she still has to deal with conditions as she finds them and we can only guess at what is happening. The question remains: will she or won’t she do it in fewer than 100 days?