How many days would it take to row across the Atlantic? A Brentwood resident is in the process of finding out right now.
Talisker Whisky Atlantic Rowing Challenge is underway with 25 teams competing to see who will make it across the Atlantic first. Some teams are single members while others have four people on their team. However, each team will travel 3,000 nautical miles on what has been called the “world’s toughest row.”
Local, Brentwood resident taking part in the race is Phil Theodore. He and his friend, Daley Ervin, make up the rowing duo known as Team Beyond. Together, they are hoping to become the FIRST American pairs-team to win this race. They have been training for the last 2 years to complete the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.
Team Beyond hit the waters on December 20. And while the race itself is a challenge, Team Beyond hopes to raise $1 million dollars to help feed hungry families in the US. So far, they have raised 400K in meal donations to local food banks through sponsors.
Even better, you can follow their journey on Facebook as the team gives daily updates. It’s like reading someone’s daily diary but this is jam packed with adventures, including a shark attack. Here is their latest update where they tell us they have moved from 12th place to 6th place!
TEAM BEYOND update!!!!!!
It’s hard to believe that we are entering week #4!!! The ocean has thrown quite a few challenges at us to date. We’re currently experiencing flat/calm seas which is like rowing through porridge. With an impending storm system about to hit on Monday afternoon, we have been planning and getting ourselves prepared.
Due to electrical issues we have not been able to use our auto helm since week 1 of the race. We have been manually steering 24/7. Three days ago we implemented “Operation Ghost Protocol”. Simply put we have turned off ALL electronics and have been using the old school compass to guide us to our desired lat/long position. That means no radar, no chart plotters, no auto helm, no VHF radio, no bilge pump, no speed indicators, no water maker and most importantly no visibility in the shipping lanes which we’ve recently entered. Ships can’t see us and we can’t see them other than keeping our heads on a swivel 24/7.
Our goal is to let the solar panels deliver 100% charge to both of our batteries. After 3 days we are at 12v of 13.5v desired and 55% charge on both batteries. This means that we’ll be under our Ghost Protocol thru Monday. The manual pumping and desalinization of sea water is now performed at the end of every shift. It takes approximately 30 minutes to make 1.5L of water. So instead of resting we are now pumping water. The water maker is a huge consumer of power and that’s what got us into trouble. Through the end of the race we’ll be hand pumping water so that the electronics can support the radar, auto helm and speed/course over ground navigation systems.
The nights have been very dark because of the new moon cycle, giving the stars the ability to be just that. We operate in total darkness other the flipping on our headlamp from time to time to read the compass on deck. It’s very peaceful and quiet, other than piping some Coldplay, Enya etc into our ears with our mp3’s.
We’re making the best of a fairly challenging situation right now. The silver lining is that in the past week we’ve moved up from 12th to 6th place as of this morning. Our approach is pretty simple, outwork the competition. The results to date look promising. Stay tuned…..
Please keep the emails and comments coming. You inspire and motivate us daily!!!
From the Atlantic,
Phil and Daley
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