News

Billed as the world’s toughest rowing race, GBRow 2013 lived up to its reputation when three boats – half of the field – were forced to quit in a spell of just 12 hours today.

At 2am, the Coast Girls – Charlene Ayres and Sally Kettle – were towed by the RNLI to Ramsgate harbour in Kent after both their anchors dragged on the sandly bottom.

There was a danger they could be swept on the breakers just 300 yards away. Charlene, from Cardiff, who suffered from sea sickness for more than three days was treated for dehydration at hospital in Ramsgate. She was released from hospital later this morning. After breakfast she and Sally booked into a local hotel to sleep after their ordeal.

 At 10am Brixham Coastguard scrambled Salcombe RNLI lifeboat crew to go the assistance of Pure Gym’s crew, who were adrift a mile off Start Point in Devon in force six winds. The boat’s electrical system, which controls navigation instruments, communications and the water maker, totally failed. The crew of two men and two women battled for 12 hours to repair the fault but when strong force six easterly winds threatened to blow th boat onto the rocks at Start Point, skipper Claire Shouksmith called for assistance, using the boat’s Sat phone.

Then at 2pm Team Hallin’s skipper, Falklands veteran, former Royal Navy Commander David Hosking, called in help from a motor boat from Penzance after their ocean-going rowing boat Hallin Marine II suffered irreparable damage to the steering system.

Without a rudder, the crew risked drifting into shipping lanes or the rocks beneath the cliffs at Land’s End.

Chris Usborne, Race Director, said: “With three boats retiring today, GBRow has had a very bad day, however everyone is safe and safety is paramount to this race.”

In the race itself, The Islanders remain in front but Oarsome Adventures are chasing them down in the Celtic Sea, off Cornwall.

The Islanders in Black Oyster are 30 miles out to sea from Padstowe, with Oarsome Adventures just 11 miles behind them.

Blog from David Hosking, skipper of Team Hallin, written just before this morning’s drama at Land’s End. His report reveals what the rowers are missing back home during their weeks at sea chasing the World Record of 26 days 21 hours 14 minutes.

<<<<<<<<RACE REPORT DAY 5 5/6/13: Today we’re looking forward to go round Land’s end, the most south-westerly point on our trip. Neil is thinking of his baby girl, Elsa, as he has just received the news she has just learnt to crawl, a good motivation to go as fast as possible to get back as soon to see her. The first five days are some of the hardest, getting used to the conditions and the brutal sleep pattern.  We’re looking forward to the second week, where we will be into the rhythm and our muscles have got used to the non-stop rowing! Keep up the support for the charity Combat Stress!>>>>>>>

THE Coast Girls have been forced to quit GBRow 2013 – the world’s toughest rowing race.

For nearly five days, Sally Kettle and Charlene Ayres in their rowing boat Pendovey Swift, battled against head winds in the Thames estuary – 100 miles from the start of this 2,000-mile race.

After finally making it round the corner into the Dover Strait, they dropped two anchors, four miles north of Ramsgate. But as night fell and the easterly wind picked up, the anchors dragged on the sandy sea bottom.

Weakened by three days of sea sickness, Charlene found it difficult to row after five and they faced being blown onto the shore – just 300 yards away.

Sally was in constant contact with the Coastguard and in the early hours of the morning, she took the decision that they needed a tow from the RNLI lifeboat into the safety of Ramsgate harbour. Charlene has been taken to hospital for routine check ups.

In a tearful call to Race Director Chris Usborne, Sally, who has rowed the Atlantic twice said: “It was all very controlled. We did everything we would but in the end there was nothing we could do but call the Coastguard for assistance.

“It’s with great sadness that we have been forced to withdraw from the race.”

Will de Laszlo, president of GBRow2013 – who set the world record for rowing non-stop around Britain in 2005 – said: “It’s a great shame.”

Three hundred miles away, The Islanders have opened up a 15-mile lead over nearest rivals, Hallin Marine II.

The Islanders are now heading up the Cornish coast towards the Bristol Channel and Team Hallin Marine passed Land’s End a mile from shore – and appear to have turned back towards Mount’s Bay.

Oarsome Adventures, a crew of six from West Wales, skippered by Mikey Buckley had made up time on Team Hallin and now just 8 miles behind the second-place crew.

Pure Gym, skippered by Claire Shouksmith, are almost at Start Point near Plymouth and the only remaining pair in the race, Jason McKinlay and Josh Tarr, in Savoir Faire are 25 miles from their home port of Salcombe in Devon.

 

 

As night falls, the Coast Girls are dragging both anchors, just 300 yards off the Kent coast.

With Charlene Ayres still suffering from sea sickness, her rowing partner Sally Kettle is currently trying to re-set the anchors to prevent their boat Pendovey Swift being swept onto the shore north of Ramsgate. The anchors are failing to take a hold on the sandy sea bottom.

 Three hundred miles away, at the Lizard in Cornwall, Team Hallin, in second place, fear they may have missed the tide window to get to Land’s End during the night, Race Director Chris Usborne reports tonight from Penzance.

 Their boat, Hallin Marine II, skippered by David Hosking is 17 miles from the most southerly point in Britain.

 Race leaders The Islanders caught the tide just right and as the sun sets on day five of GBRow 2013, the team of four young men in their boat, the Black Oyster have five miles to go to Land’s End.

 If  Team Hallin do miss the tide and have to wait until morning before reaching Land’s End, they could be caught by Oarsome Adventures, currently in third place, 13 miles behind Team Hallin.

 Keep a weather eye on the race tracker to find out how the drama plays out in the short mid-summer night…

The race start was good fun, plenty of tide rushing through the Thames, we managed to catch and pass Pure Gym fairly early on. We held the position for a while but inevitably after us both being on the oars non-stop for seven and a half hours we had to start breaking into a routine where he have one person on at a time whilst the other eats, recovers and rests, Pure Gym took back their place not too long after that 🙂

We had a little play with a lee shore on the last bend of the Thames, the rudder got stuck a few times in the soft mud but we managed to free it each time by rowing backwards into the wind (with a stuck rudder that’s exhausting). It was slow progress but we found the wind eased off and the first night on the oars was quite nice! I hit a few crab pot flags with the oars (with no warning), made me jump! We also had a seal following the boat for 45 mins. The following morning we made use of the AIS, we got an alert, looked around and could see a big freight ship “Dresden” heading more or less for us!! We could see the shipping lane markers and stayed just inside them. The ship continued past, it’s wake was about 4ft or so and shook us around!

Around Margate was nice, we had people coming over on boats asking about what we’re doing and tempting us with cups of tea! We didn’t have anything…We cruised down towards Dover, asked the Dover Port Control for permission to cross the gates, they were really friendly and let us through after a MASSIVE ferry left not too far in front of us.

Making the best of the tide we pushed on until we couldn’t fight it anymore and anchored at Folkestone to get ready for Dungeoness headland up ahead. As the tide turned we went for it, cleared the headland and powered on through to Beachy Head, where we had a building swell and strong winds roughly in our direction!

Beachy Head was tricky, the wind and swell wanted to push us into the headland so we needed to go almost beam onto the wave (some starting to break) and steer with the breakers in order to get far enough out that we could then change bearing and cruise past the headland with the waves 🙂 as we passed the headland we saw a lone yachtsman throwing his yacht around as if he was out of control in the big waves! Turns out it was a friend of ours that we met in Plymouth when doing a first aid course! A few words exchanged, he set off and is following us online now!

We also saw a small dark dolphin, I’m still yet to know what type it was?

On to the Isle of Wight! We didn’t quite make it in time with the tide, so slowly pushed to get into Sandown for some shelter before the tide changed.

 Tide changed and we set off for a long night. We got past St Katherine’s (headland of IOW) and set bearing for Start Point (home).

We’re settled into shifts, one and a half hours on and off. On our course, I noticed two boats on the GPS and managed to head dead between them, pointing into our course as if waiting to ambush! As we crossed, an alert came up warning of a collision but by that time I could see where they were and roughly where they were headed.. Safe!

 A little disconcerting when you can only see nav lights. There’s very little to tell you distance or scale of the boat.

 Shift change and Jason’s turn to find some boats. He found more than I did! I poked my head out after another alert from the AIS. Jason said, “it’s like the M25”. Looking all around us there were boats, then we noticed one heading straight for us, fairly quiet and eerie.

 Turns out it was one of the Volvo Ocean race fleet flying through with the spinnaker up. We shone our flashlight at them to get their attention, we heard a voice and they immediately changed course, phew! Right after that, the rest of the fleet flew through!! It was pretty quiet after that.

Today, we continue to push onto start point, as we’ve only got one on the oars at a time we can’t fight the tide so we’re using the six-hour tidal windows to make progress – 24 miles in our first window, hopefully a similar amount at 10pm tonight until 4am.

 We were surprised to find out from friends and family we were quicker than some of the fours and we’re also surprised to not be so far from Pure Gym, I’m sure they’ll continue to pull away but we’re very happy with our progress so far!

We’ve been in touch with the Coast Girls and already planning a beer at the end 🙂 hopefully things will get easier and best of luck to them as the only other pair!!

Race leaders The Islanders have begun the long journey north in GBRow2013, the world’s toughest rowing race.

Skippered by Josh Taylor, 24, the four-man team rounded the Lizard at the southern tip of Cornwall just after 1800 hours.

They began the 20-mile row across Mount Bay, passing St Michael’s Mount and Penzance to Land’s End, where they will turn, right into the Celtic Sea and then onto the Irish Sea.

Will the Islanders for the east coast of Ireland, home of crew member Gavin Sheehan?

Or, with easterly winds forecast until Monday, will kipper Taylor, from Mersea Island, Essex, keep the Islander’s boat, the Black Oyster close to the north coast of Cornwall and Devon until those south-westerlies arrive next week, to help drive them up the Irish Sea and into Scottish waters?

Nearest rival David Hosking, and his Team Hallin crew, appeared to be on a course that would take their boat, Hallin Marine II, further out from shore but just before 7pm they turned towards Land’s End, 11 miles behind the Islanders.

Oarsome Adventures in third place – also well ahead of World Record pace – may also pass Land’s End before dawn tomorrow.

The other team of four in the race, Pure Gym, currently in 4th place 90 miles behind the leaders, are tonight heading towards Start Point, near Plymouth.

Jason McKinlay and Josh Tarr, the men’s pair in Savoir Fair, have dropped anchor five miles from Portland Bill, waiting for the tide to turn in their favour. Jason is sleeping, while Josh has just posted a new blog.

Talking of blogs, check out the emotional voice blog sent by Sally Kettle of the Coast Girls, expressing her relief that after four tortuous days they have finally escaped the Thames estuary and are now in the Dover Strait, looking forwards to a tail wind to propel them along the South Coast.