Coastal Odyssey
Once past Portland Bill and into Lyme Bay, leaving the Jurassic Coastline behind them, Coastal Odyssey set a course for the Lizard peninsular, the most southerly point of Great Britain.
With more favourable weather conditions they made impressive progress whilst being accompanied by dolphins most of the way. They also had a Royal Navy Merlin Helicopter fly past to say hello!
After reaching Lankidden Cove they took a brief spell at anchor to wait for the tide to change and check weather conditions before making the move to round the Lizard peninsular and on to Land’s End, which can only be undertaken when tidal and weather conditions are suitable.
At this point a rowing boat is very exposed with the full force of the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the very rugged and inhospitable coastline of Land’s End on the other. This is a challenging section, which allows no room for error.
The crew had to work hard, battling the numerous swirling currents and eddies. Eventually the tidal currents helped take them round to the northern side of the Cornish coastline.
The team pressed on past Sennen Cove and on to the beautiful Carbis Bay just beyond St Ives where they dropped anchor to shelter from the incoming, unfavourable south-westerly/westerly winds late on Friday afternoon.
Coastal Odyssey took the time to enjoy their stay in the beautiful surroundings of Carbis Bay - they swam in the crystal clear warm waters, welcomed curious visitors, slept and ate.
This is all good preparation for the passage across the Celtic Sea to St George’s Channel, which they departed for early Saturday evening.
NB. St George’s Channel is a sea channel connecting the Irish Sea to the north and the Celtic Sea to the southwest
Sea Change
After making good progress along the south coast, Sea Change reached the Solent on Wednesday and continued to close the gap on team Coastal Odyssey.
As GB Row Challenge HQ is located in Portsmouth, we managed to get out on a Rib to take some shots and footage of the team as they rowed past the Isle of Wight, and collect their rubbish!
With favourable weather they quickly passed the Needles into Poole Bay late that night, and set a course for Portland Bill.
Prior to rounding Portland Bill, Sea Change decided to head for West Port (Bridport) to shelter from the strong south-westerly/westerly winds coming in on Friday afternoon for 24 hours.
As the team rounded Portland Bill, they experienced a power failure to some of the systems on board the vessel.
Following initial fault checking it was decided a marine electrician would check the system whilst the boat was alongside during its planned visit into West Port.
Kevin from Marine-Tec Systems in Weymouth checked the system over and confirmed there were no underlying issues, so the team prepared for their next passage departing mid morning on Saturday to cross Lyme Bay to Start Point.
Track both teams on the YB Tracking app to see how they’re getting on!
Image above shows team Sea Change rowing on the Solent at sunset
Previous updates:
18 June 2024
13 June 2024
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GB Row Challenge / Sea Change / Coastal Odyssey