Row, row your boat on Christmas Day

By KARIEM HASSAN

y KARIEM HASSAN

THE MIDDLE of the Atlantic Ocean in a rowing boat may not be everyone’s idea of a fun Christmas, but East London rowers Bill Godfrey and Peter van Kets, are keeping their spirits up.

The paddlers are continuing to surge ahead in the Woodvale Challenge Atlantic Ocean Rowing Race in their Gquma Challenger boat.

They set off for the race on
December 2 from St Sebastian de la Gomera in the Canary Islands, Spain which ends at English Harbour, in Antigua, over a distance of 4727km.

They have now been an astonishing 25 days at sea and Godfrey expressed their delight that they were well in the lead.

“Ho, Ho, Ho, or should I rather say ... Row, Row, Row,” he enthused.

“Well it’s Christmas Eve and Pete and I are going strong. For those of you who are concerned about a boat that is catching up to us ... don’t worry too much as they are a four-person crew and should by all rights have been ahead from the word go.

“Anyway, it’s good to have a healthy lead, but this is a big ocean and what seems like a big margin can disappear in no time at all. Also, we need to be very careful, as a small slip up now could spoil everything.”

He said the Gquma Challenger was standing up well to the task, and although one of the older boats in the fleet, she is still one of, if not the best boat on the water.

“In general, Pete and I are in good spirits and do intend having a celebratory Christmas dinner (boil in a bag – chicken with herb dumplings, and some homemade Christmas cake to finish it off) then it’s back to the oars.”

Both paddlers would love to be with their families and “are missing them terribly and we will be feeling it most on Christmas Day”.

They however feel the support and goodwill messages from East London and around the world are lifting their spirits. “Knowing that we have so many of you behind us makes us proud and it is what keeps us going,” said Godfrey.

The pair sent Christmas greetings back home to their families, friends and supporters. “Thanks again for all the wonderful messages of support ... even though we don’t reply, we do read them all.”

Godfrey earlier spoke to wife Kate, who was pleased at the news they had stretched their lead on the nearest boat and were by yesterday 80 nautical miles in front of the other pairs and 58 nautical miles in front of the next boat (a fours). “They were in good form though their nether regions are extremely sore, raw and chaffed,” said Kate.

“Bill said the best way to imagine it was to think of dipping your bits into acid,” she joked. “It’s still blindingly hot though at least now the nights aren’t so dark as the moon is out.

“The weather is still not playing the game and both the wind and the swell is trying to push them off course.

“This is one of the reasons why they have stuck to a more northerly course as it means they do have a margin to play with for the weather to push them off whereas the boats taking the lower route don’t and will really struggle to come further north.”

She said the finish line is 8 kilometres wide and the pack is spread in about 800km in all directions and if any competitor does not cross the actual finish line, they will be deemed as not having completed the race.

“The guys are currently on track to finish in about 42 days. Very good going as the record of 40 days was done in perfect weather conditions with no storms,” said Kate.

“Bill tells me the swell is about eight metres high (size of a double-storey house). It takes them about three strokes to get to the top of a wave and when they look down into a trough it’s like looking down a huge valley.”

lKate has left for the UK this week and will continue relaying any news she gets from the rowers to the Daily Dispatch.