Charlie's B(oat)LOG
23rd February 2010 - Day 51 - Quick blog
Guess what I am up to?
I have been fighting a strong wind (S - SSW 20 knots +) from the south and just making headway. It started at 0730 and has just changed a little to allow me to "heave to" to get my first rest for this second last day. Heaving to is a term used for setting the rudder, adjusting the centreplate and moving some weight so that the boat steers itself towards the wind in a controlled manner with no speed. I am now securely fastened inside my cabin and waves are constantly smashing into the side and into the cockpit (I have an internal switch to pump out the water)and am generally "miffed" (another word for "p***ed")about the wind yet again.
What were the chances of coming into the finish in fair winds? Looks like I am definately having to battle this out right to the last mile. Don't know when I'll get there. I may even end up on the sea anchor again!!
Now I dream of being off this little boat and firmly on shore where the wind can do what it likes as soon as I can.
Posted By: Charlie Pitcher, 23rd February 2010 23:18:01
I always seem to be the last response on your previous blog just as you then issue another one, so thought I'd respond quick to "win a blog response" at least once!
Here goes......whoosh! and best of luck to you Charlie Boy,
Commander Pennywhistle
(If I'm not first in line then a big Homer Simpson DOH!!!)
Hi Charlie,
sorry to hear the last leg of the journey has proven to be a bit tougher than predicted, I am praying for you mate and I hope things get better on the water.
Things will be better in the long run, you WILL have your family by your side very soon and your experiences right up to landing the boat will be moments you will share with the grandchildren and their children.
Dig deep my friend, home is on the horizon!!!!
Darren
Heard about you at the Felsted Church Auction of Promises Fundraising evening so looked up your smashing website. Just wanted to send you the warmest wishes. Safe home. I think you and your brother are amazing. There must be loads of us willing you on . GO FOR IT ! Big Smiles to you xx
Hi Carlie,
In double figures this evening; 92 miles; congratulations making such good headway under these conditions. By the look of things you will be in early on Thursday; in any event that is what the experts have told us. Winds have gone down again here and there is forecast saying it will go South (not usual here).
Shore party will come to Nonsuch Bay for lunch tomorrow and we will deliver them back in good shape and time to go out to sea to meet you.
Make the most of the peace and quiet; it is your last chance. Antigua is ready for you any time you chose to arrive. Poul and Sophia x
J E E Z Charlie, the music is whipping us up into a frenzy of excitement
here - very much a case of DON'T MISS OUR INTREPID HERO'S NEXT THRILLING
INSTALLEMENT! Keep on pulling with all your might and cursing that blasted
wind. Very very soon it'll be LAND AHOY! Treasure the sea's majesty for these last
few hours alone. Yee ha ! .....cup of tea anyone?
Simon and Liz
Hang on in there Charlie....!
keep going Charlie. move some ballast into your stomach for energy!! with that wind you may be safer at sea,but....
chris
Charlie, you are so close now and have battled and beaten these adverse winds all the way and it will be the same for you today.
Despite the wind direction, the smell of land and lure of family will ensure that at last the "elastic" is pulling you into English Harbour. Must be only about 60 miles now (that must be about the same of out of the river, round the Gunfleet and home!)
Enjoy these last few hours alone with the sea, I guess you won't be doing this again!
Thats a shame for us all - we will miss the routine of enjoying your blog, and following your progress with such excitement, as your other blogger said, can you ease us through the withdrawal with a few blogs on your arrival and recovery!!!!
Relief is just hours away.....
Mike Di and Phoebe
Keep on going Charlie you can make it. We look on your blog everyday and talk about you at school all the time. We think that it is great that you are going to WIN.
Love Jessica xxxx
I hope that James is having a nice holiday, I am just going to school to do lots of work I wish I was on holiday like James.
Well Charlie
what an adventure you have gone on, and what a star a total inspiration to us all you have had all
of us watching every day. With reports From Emma in the school line reading your blogs I think
my mornings are going to be very boring Now!!!!!!. With 61 miles to go I am sure you will go through
the pain and the sore fingers bum shoulder tendons knowing that Emma and the boys are waiting for you at the finish.
I think I would be p***Ed with the weather but land is just in your sights now
With you in that boat you should be home to day fingers crossed
Mate well done not only have you done the race you have won it
Love and a big well done
Ken dawn Rebecca Ethan & bump xxxxxx
This might be my last message to you. What a pity not having your blog to read anymore. Only 60 miles to go Charlie, you are going so fast, you will be there in no time. Soon you will see land and what a thrill that will be, and then to see the smile of your families faces. Hope the fair winds will be with you soon.
Marianna and Tony
GO CHARLIE GO!!!!
FINAL PUSH MATE
WE ARE ALL SO PROUD OF YOU
DINO AND JULIANNE
WE SALUTE YOU SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Andy, Sadie, George, Esther and Teddy.
These last 60 mls. will seem like 160 or more; don't be impatient, keep focused and battle with those unkind winds calmly. YOU WILL BE THERE IN A FLASH!
Thinking of you every minute of today and all through the night if you're still there struggling to get your nose around that corner and into harbour. Am walking around with my mobile switched on and hanging round my neck waiting for the good news of your arrival, be it day or night!
All the best darling boy! Love, Mum XXXXXXXXXXXX
Hi Charlie,
So nearly there!!! so exciting and we wait with baited breath to hear of your safe arrival.
Wow, what a party you are going to have. Well done, absolutely brilliant, fatastic and any other word you can think of!
Looking forward to the book being published....see you back home
Love and hugs
Nicola, Jenny , Mike and Bill xxxx
I have been following your progress since mid-Jan (when Lucy & Rob sent me your Facebook page) and have read all of your blogs now - I'm one of many addicts I think. What a journey! I've just made my donation, now that you are on the final leg of this epic adventure, and just wanted to repeat the message that I put on your 'just giving' site - you truly deserve every single accolade I can think of, and more. Well done Charlie! Will miss your blogs....
hi charlie,
Been tracking your blopg and progress all the way, even in my lessons at school!!! think its amazing what you are doing!!
your almost there!!
wish you all the best for the last miles
fom molly brown x
hi charlie,
Been tracking your blopg and progress all the way, even in my lessons at school!!! think its amazing what you are doing!!
your almost there!!
wish you all the best for the last miles
fom molly brown x
Wow Charlie,
You are unbeliveable you have do so so well and along with the massive support you have you have certainly delivered!!!! your doing an amazing job keep going hope the weather clears and you can power it the rest of the way to Antigua!! just like you have done accross the atlantic. This is an amazing title to put on you credentials and will certainly be remebered for a very long time for it!!!!!! keep going right till the end were right behind you KEEP IT UP!!!!!!
good luck with the weather
see you in burnham!!!!
Vincent
So close and sooo well done to you. You are a real inspiration. Congrats Charlie for your devotion and inner strength.
xx
Marnie
Keep pushing on Charlie. I have left a coupe of blogs, but i dont think they got through to you. Hope this one does.
You have done incredibly well and we are all so proud of you.
ONE LAST PUSH. GO CHARLIE.
Love from,
Jonny, Lynne and the boys.
Hang on in there Charlie - how amazing that you have almost completed your incredible journey. I remember being with Ginny when you set off on your own to come home from boarding school - just the start of a life of adventure if we had but kinown!!!!!!! Have been watching the winds from Barbados and looking out to sea thinking of you and willling you on safely to your family. Almost there. With love to you all. N X O
There can't be anyone who will go to bed tonight until we hear news that you are safe on dry land after a truly fantastic feat. Totally in awe of you Charlie. It must feel like half the miles again in these last milesl but keep going, heave ho...... you are just just magic. God speed.
CHAS DICK BED PIT...
IVE BEEN WATCHING YOUR PROGRESS WITH EAGERNESS, BELT THE LAST MILES OUT MA BOY!!
KEEP GOING AND KEEP SMILING!!
WILL BE THINKING OF YOU.......
WELL DONE FOR THIS ONCE IN A LIFETIME CHALLENGE.
ILL ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR DAD COMING BACK FROM LONDON IN HIS ALFA ROMEAO AND SAYING "CHARLES! FUCKING HELL CHARLES, I GOT OVER 100 ON THE A12"!!! HE WILL BE WATCHING YOU IN THIS LAST FEW MOMENTS.. AND ALSO WILL SHAUN..
COME ON, YOU CAN DO IT CHARLIE RICHARD BEDFORD PITCHER. YOU WONT BE NEEDING THE SUN-IN ON YOUR HAIR NOW WILL YOU? OR LEMON JUICE!!!!!!
YOU DONT KNOW ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BUY A MINI? DO YOU? GOOD PRACTISE FOR FIBREGLASS!!!
GREAT ROWING X X X X BONES
Hi Charlie,
You know that "Friday feeling" Charlie ? Well, I'd say this week's "Friday feeling" is going to be one of the best ever for you, not least because you have so earned it ! Will any Friday night pint ever have tasted sweeter ? I can't begin to imagine how tough this all is for you right now Charlie but we all know you can do it & so do you. The Fantasic Mr Fox really can do this, he really can.
Just keep wading Charlie, it'll soon Friday !
Hey Charlie
last seen on ther foredeck of an Impala or at the RBYC bar ! Must be 25 years!!! Just heard about your endeavours via Angus (who is mates with my Son Tom at Uni) best of luck, head down and go for it over this final part, an amazing effort. Well done. All the Best David PJ
...only 54 nm to go now so I thought I would say hello and that I have been following your progress and reading your blogs from day one. I was a keen supporter of Britannia III as I know a member of the crew, but in their absence of any real blog, it was only from reading yours that I have had an insight of what rowing the Atlantic has really been like.
I've enjoyed your stories immensely and think you are a remarkable chap, and the fact that you are about 400 nm ahead of all the fleet is unbelievable. I saw that you have been making a video and I really hope to see it soon....and maybe read the book!
I know it's pretty hard going in these last 50 nm, but soon land will be in sight and what a wonderful feeling that will be...
thank you for sharing your thoughts, and very well done
Charlie, remember launching the First Class 8 (with the keel wound up) on the slip at Torquay marina all those years ago and the result!? Hope that brings a smile to your face.
Keep going and hang in there. We are all willing you on!
Phil
HI NAKED MAN ON THE BEEB!
I just keep hearing Mick Jones and Joe strummer singing SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO NOW.......... everytime i finish reading your blog i wonder especially now nearing the end of the race that if i stay i will hear when you've done it! Sooo NOT LONG NOW CHARLIE, FOCUS, PULL AND BREATH.
I felt a minute of your pain today out on my last big training run for my 3rd desert which will be next week in Chile (And you will be sitting back relaxing having done your challenge!) And When my hamstrings started siezing up and the hilll was getting steeper and I knew I had to push on faster to get a good time,so my mind went all the way to you and I shifted in my shoes and I got a damn move on!
Charlie reading your blogs has been fantastic, and every day during my training they have inspired me to train harder, what am I going to do when you finish? Just think how many people you have inspired all around the world, How much you have raised, and how it will help people and most of all how all your efforts have resulted in such a good job you have done. Charlie well well done. What an undertaking you conquered, you should be proud of yourself few people would ever do this, let alone think they could, i for one could not!
I suppose you could always row back so that during my puny challenges over the next year, two deserts and Antartica you could just keep rowing back and forth until I have finished, tis only fair!!
YOUR THE MAN CHARLIE. LOVE AND HUGS.
Well done Charlie, I have been watching your progress since the start of the race and could not believe that you were out in front as a solo rower - good going and now the end is in site VERY WELL DONE I cant begin to know what you are feeling at this moment in time but ONLY A FEW MORE MILES AND YOU WILL BE WITH YOUR LOVED ONES. CONGRATULATIONS
Best wishes Ann C
Hello Charlie,
we are extremely sorry to see the way you are being blown about - you deserve much much better! It is a bloody good thing you are so much in control of yourself, and we have no doubt that you will make the most of the situation.
Jenny was being visited by the 'Look East' people this afternoon. They sounded very, very interested in you exploits. I don't know whether they swatted up this morning, or were already 'au fait', but they certainly seemed on the ball when they 'phoned Jenny.
We all are behind you and 'praying' that the weather will turn in you favour.
Stay strong.
Love from us all.
Chris.
Hi Charlie Boy, or should I say Charlie Man.
Wow, what a fantastic challenge you have done, not long to go now. KBO (keep buggering on) Not far to the beaches of Antigua.
Keep focused and wish we could be thier to congratulate you.
All the the very best. Dan & Kirsty.
Dear Charlie, I know I said I'd sponsor you for every day at sea, but really, its time to cross that finish line. Don't forget to put on some clothes before you land (I wonder how many people have given an interview on Radio 4's Today programme in the buff?!) Excellent! made my day! I would definately book a plane for the return journey, I don't know if my nerves can stand a return row.
In the mean time, superb effort from start to finish. Please drop us a line when you complete the journey, and share all the excitement with us. Its been our pleasure and privelege to be able to share in the amazing adventure, through your highs and lows. Thank you, and Very Best wishes for a speedy conclusion to this incredible once in a lifetime(?!) experience.
Sally
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