As I write the Holiday Shoppe Challenge boat has less the 10 miles to row to the ‘half way mark’. The guys would have been planning to eat a packet of hard jubes to celebrate only they were confiscated at the start line in a weight saving exercise – and they tasted pretty good!

Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald have put in a fantastic week making gains almost every day. The weather is very favourable with 20 knots of wind from the north east. The seas having been getting to a reasonable size too and surfing waves has become a regular activity again. “We’re surfing at up to eight knots at times,” said Kevin Biggar on the Tech Rentals phone. “One particularly good wave hit the cabin and forced its way through the hatch, soaking Jamie in the process. He needed a snorkel in there.”

On Friday Kevin phoned in to a conference I was speaking at. It was pre-arranged that I would leave my cell phone on and he was to call in half way through the presentation. Kevin wowed the crowd with talk of naked rowing, team work and life on board a 7.1m plywood rowing boat. One conference attendee said he felt like he was in the boat with Kevin. After persuading the chap that he was in fact still on terra firma here in NZ he put his shorts back on!

Rob Hamill
10.11.03