Day 65

Just as the light at the end of the tunnel started to glimmer, the weather forecast has sent the message loud and clear to not get excited just yet, as it seems that I'm in for a battle against the weather for at least the next week.

As I've described in the past, the trade winds in this part of the Atlantic at this time of year are generally predictable and stable coming from the East, which would help me make progress toward Antigua in the West. That's not always the case, however, as it seems I'm about to find out. As you can see from my track and current position, I've been getting blown gradually to the North West over the last several days, and am now around 17 deg 23 mins North (my destination is at 17N exactly). Normally I'd be able to make up these 23 miles easily with the wind coming from the East, but there are a couple storms forming well North of me that will be stirring things up down here and producing winds that seemingly will blow every direction but the one I want to go! Fortunately the storms should stay far enough North to not be dangerous, but they will still be a major headache thanks to their effect on the wind.

Anyway, today I got a taste of what's to come -- wind all afternoon and evening was coming from a South South-westerly direction. Though I've been told to try not to fight the wind too much, I have zero interest in going North-east, so I fought it as best I could and, including my "extra innings" of night rowing, I managed to make 28nm West during the day.

I'm preparing for several days that will really test my resolve, which should make for some interesting updates until the weather improves. Tomorrow I'll write about my first SHARK sighting, which came this afternoon! I think that I even have a picture of a fin sticking out of the water, but we'll see -- I haven't looked at it yet.

Thanks to all who have supported this expedition and important research at Yale Cancer Center with a donation to Row for Hope. If you haven't donated, or if you would consider donating again, it would be much appreciated. To donate online use the link in the upper right-hand corner of this page or visit www.rowforhope.com.

Paul

Day 64

Hi again, everyone-

First a big thanks to my good friend and roommate Melissa for yesterday's guest blog post. It gave me a short reprive in celebration of crossing 50W, which happened last night. As of this afternoon I'm 650 nautical miles from English Harbor, Antigua! You may remember that I was worried a while back about being blown too far South. Well, as has been a pattern on this expedition, now I'm a little worried about being blown too far North! I really will never be satisfied with what the weather brings. Not a big deal though, as I'm only 20nm North of English Harbor and when the winds come from the usual Easterly or ENE direction I'll be able to take it all back in a day or two.

The crossing of 50W also indicates that this row is entering its final stage -- the sprint to the finish! While in most rowing races the sprint begins 300 meters from the finish line, I started mine last night, which I think was roughly 15-16 days from the end. My goal will be to add two hours, or roughly five miles, of rowing after dark. This will get me up to about 13 hours of rowing a day, which is going to be a challenge both physically and mentally. Last night went well, but tonight was tougher. I'm trying to better organize my chores around the boat (including my writing of blog posts) in hopes of finding a few extra mintues of sleep each night. If I can pull it off, the sprint I describe above will get me into Antigua a full two days earlier than I otherwise would. What better motivation is there than that?

I realized that I never showed you what the cabin looked like from the outside, so there's a picture below. This is my bed, the office from which I send all of these posts, and my home for the last 64 days. The concept for the boat was "minimal accomodation for a single rower" - do you think we achieved it?

Thanks to all who have supported this expedition and important research at Yale Cancer Center with a donation to Row for Hope. If you haven't donated, or if you would consider donating again, it would be much appreciated. To donate online use the link in the upper right-hand corner of this page or visit www.rowforhope.com.

Paul

Day 63: Guest Post

Greetings from Stamford, CT and more specifically Seaside (the nickname for Paul's residence when not out at sea), where Paul lives with his four, yes count them, four roommates!! I am Melissa (a roommate and frequent blog commenter under the name Melissa M). Paul has been a resident of Seaside for three years, the three years he has been training for this row! We have breathed, eaten, and slept Row for Hope for the past three years… and, quite literally, we have breathed in the air after Paul's three-hour workouts, have eaten the freeze dried food with him for taste-testing purposes, and have slept right upstairs from Paul and can tell you that he is a snorer.

Life Before the Row: Paul's training over the past 3 years has been inspiring - the 5 AM workouts, followed by his full-time job, followed by the night workouts, and the planning for the trip. It made me exhausted just watching and hearing about everything that went into the preparation for the row. My absolute favorite part of Paul's training, and probably my best memories at Seaside, are the nights on our porch and what I would call his training for the mental portion of the row. The Seaside roommates sat out on the porch quizzing Paul about celestial navigation, asking every ridiculous question we could think of about rowing across the ocean, and discussed hope, religion, life, cancer, hard-times, joyous times, and most importantly we laughed together.

Life Back at Seaside while Paul is Rowing for Hope (Current Day): Although we are not battling the high seas over here at Seaside, we are battling some crazy snow! We received about 8 inches of snow this past week. See picture below of our house. Although we are deep in snow, our support for the Row for Hope melts through. Check out that sticker!

I cannot forgot to mention our toy boat (resembling Liv) braving the high seas of Paul's bath-tub!

We, like most of you, read the blog daily, forward the link to others, and talk about Paul whenever we get the chance. We are trying to spread the news about Row for Hope, but need even more help!

Life after the Row: These roommates could not be happier to get their fifth back in a month! Stamford is a home away from home for a lot of us that moved here after college, and we have our own little family here. The Seaside family cannot wait to get their CNN celebrity, front-page-of-theStamford-Advocate hero, NPR radio guest, blog extraordinaire back….but not for those reasons. We want him back to sit on the porch and talk about life after the row, allow us to ask ridiculous questions about what it was like at sea for 80+ days, and most importantly laugh together and appreciate every day, hour, and minute that we have in life!

Thanks to all who have supported this expedition and important research at Yale Cancer Center with a donation to Row for Hope. If you haven't donated, or if you would consider donating again, it would be much appreciated. To donate online use the link in the upper right-hand corner of this page or visit www.rowforhope.com.

Melissa

Day 62

Excitement on board this morning as not long after crawling out of the cabin in the morning I saw my first sign of other human life in the last 29 days! A ship of an unknown type named Pasella, was heading from Trinidad to Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands of all places. I really wanted to tell him that he had a long way to go, but decided against it. In general the captain seemed rather bored by the whole thing (I was ecstatic), and passed on the pleasantries and just said he'd adjust his course to starboard, though it wasn't really necessary. Apparently a very small yellow rowboat on the open ocean isn't exciting to everyone after all! Pasella stayed too far away (2 miles or so) for me to really get a good picture, and the one below is more interesting anyway.

Ok, by popular demand, more on salt sores. Below is a picture of the two spots on my legs that are really feeling the effects despite my best efforts to keep this seemingly easy-to-clean area free of salt.

GROSS!

I can't believe people wanted to see that and I really hope that picture doesn't make it on CNN!

Anyway, there you go. I'm not a doctor, obviously, but each one of those spots seems to be a tiny irritated and/or infected hair follicle.

Yup, I jump from the glamor of national news coverage to in-depth descriptions of my salt sores. Well, you guys wanted to know what it's like to be out here! More fun topics tomorrow, I promise.

Thanks to all who have supported this expedition and important research at Yale Cancer Center with a donation to Row for Hope. If you haven't donated, or if you would consider donating again, it would be much appreciated. To donate online use the link in the upper right-hand corner of this page or visit www.rowforhope.com.

Paul

Day 61

Another day in the books, again with pretty good mileage despite my fourth straight day of light winds, which leaves the boat feeling heavy and requires maximum effort on nearly every stroke to keep her moving. I've been lucky to have avoided too much in the way of nagging sore muscles, but the last four days of work on the oars have me sore and wincing my way through the day.

So, since all is well here and I'm in need of a recharge I'll keep this short. It's been great to get so many messages from everyone who saw the CNN interview yesterday. Either it went well or you all are too kind to criticize me while I'm out here on the ocean. I, of course, haven't seen it but am looking forward to watching it when I get to Antigua. Even so, your encouragement and entertainment keeps me going far better than hearing myself talk ever could!

Thats all for now, but I'll have some pictures for you tomorrow. Who wants to see what salt sores look like? I have some great examples on my legs that might need to be shared...

Thanks to all who have supported this expedition and important research at Yale Cancer Center with a donation to Row for Hope. If you haven't donated, or if you would consider donating again, it would be much appreciated. To donate online use the link in the upper right-hand corner of this page or visit www.rowforhope.com.

Paul

CNN's Report on Row for Hope

Here's a clip of CNN's March 1 mid-ocean interview with Paul:

Day 60

Wow, 60 days at sea. I'm pretty sure that I've officially been out here a long time now. And its March, too - I vow that I will not see April from an ocean rowboat!

OK, lots to cover here and it's already getting late.

A good day today considering the light winds and small seas. I made 30 nautical miles West during the day, which was interrupted by a 45-minute squall in the morning (longest to date), and my interview with CNN in the afternoon. Since I've been happy to go 30nm on days with 20 knots of wind, getting the same distance today with only 10k is a huge victory.

FUND RAISING -- I know people are curious as to how we're doing, and I've been meaning to give you an update. My best estimate from the middle of the ocean is that we've collected about 15% of our $500,000 fund raising target. Here's some color on that number:
- We projected that a big percentage of Row for Hope's donations would come from corporations, which hasn't happened in the way we thought it would for a host of reasons.
- The component that we planned for from individual donors like yourselves has been pretty strong. You guys are doing great!
- The current economic environment isn't helping us, but like my each one of days on the oars, we're working hard to make the most of what comes our way.
- We fully expect our fund raising numbers to continue to grow as public awareness of Row for Hope grows. My interview with CNN today is an example of that, and we're picking up steam in the PR area. More national news coverage is in the works and we'll keep you updated, of course, on where you can see us. After the row itself is complete, fund raising will continue as I make speaking appearances back in the States.

So, that's where we are on the fund raising front. Do we wish those numbers were bigger? Yes. How do we feel about raising what we have raised for cancer research? We're ecstatic! Pumped! Thrilled! And we obviously owe a lot of thanks to you as supporters of Row for Hope. Thank you again!

I saw a whale yesterday, but only briefly. It was mid-afternoon, small sea state and light winds (like today). I happened to look to the port side about 60 feet away (three boat lengths) and could clearly see the shape of a whale just under the surface gliding along with a wave. I could only see it long enough to make out the shape, see that it was dark-colored and shaped like a whale (not a dolphin, bigger, wider, with a big whale-like tail), and think to myself "Holy crap, that's a whale!" I ducked into the cabin to get my camera, but it was gone by the time I got back out.

Thanks to all who have supported this expedition and important research at Yale Cancer Center with a donation to Row for Hope. If you haven't donated, or if you would consider donating again, it would be much appreciated. To donate online use the link in the upper right-hand corner of this page or visit www.rowforhope.com.

Paul