Slopping around in Morecombe Bay

Morecombe Bay is being its traditional frustrating self. We are currently slopping around somewhere between the Isle of Man and the Lake District. There are occasional puffs of wind when we can sail and then we will be back to rowing. This sort of sailing is fairly flat and is in many ways preferable to the windy conditions we had on the first leg: conditions that were not conducive to fast running when we got off the boat.

We think we can see four boats on the horizon ahead of us. We could not see them before, so this is a good sign. However given the lack of wind, they could be 7 miles ahead and 4 hours ahead at the same time!
As well as trying to get the most out of the boat, we are also trying to keep properly fed and to catch some sleep. Whenever we get into Whitehaven we are going to have a big run and bike ride ahead of us. One thing that might work in our favour is that some of the teams ahead might have to climb scafell pike in the dark whereas it looks as though we will be climbing it in the light.

The bikes are stowed on the boat. We do not have a support crew. Although it would have been nice to have someone take the bikes by road for us, I like to think that it is more in keeping with the ethos of the event if we are self sufficient. Having the bikes on board a small boat like tactix does make things a bit cramped and there is always the stress of making sure the bikes are ready when we get into port.

I think the thing to do now is to try to get some sleep and let the sailors see what they can do. The time I feel I can be useful from a sailing perspective is once we leave Whitehaven and know we have a long time before having to run again. We can get involved in some more serious rowing at that stage.

A gloomy Morecombe Bay wasn't the most inspiring place to go rowing!