Launching our new ocean rowing boat!
By Jess Rowe
The day we’ve all been waiting for - launch day! We’d all decided to take a couple of days off either side of Easter weekend on top of the bank holidays to maximise our training time out on the water.
I left work on Wednesday and jumped on the train from Chichester with my giant orange suitcase and numerous other bags. Massive thanks to Alison (Mims’ mum) for lending it to me … I’m not sure how I would have carried everything otherwise! I met Lottie at Kings Cross station in London after successfully racing through the underground with our rowing seats, electronics, roll mats and cold weather gear. I could tell the weekend was going to go well as I’d not actually had any transport issues, much to Lottie’s surprise.
The train was packed and we struggled with all our luggage right through to the final carriage. All the suitcase racks were full and I ended up launching myself with my giant orange suitcase across one section of the walkway. We found a couple of seats together and waffled about rowing for the next two hours.
Mims was there waiting for us at Howden station in the freezing cold. It felt like the middle of winter - I couldn’t believe we’d decided to go rowing this weekend! We arrived at the farm and got to work, packed the boat, put the rudder together and filled the boat with ballast water. We got to bed at 0145 with our alarms set to 0500 ready to leave for Hartlepool where we’ll be based for the year. We drove in convoy, Mims in the truck with boat on tow and the rest of us following closely behind.
It was all systems go as we had the boat lifted in the strops with the crane and prepared the lines and oars for launch. The forecast was too windy for us to row with gusts of up to 25 knots so the plan was to head straight to the dock, Mims on the oars, myself with the steering lines and Lottie on the dock ready to catch lines and set fenders. Everything went to plan, with massive thanks to the team at Hartlepool Marina for helping us in.
With the wind too high to go rowing, we got to work, repacking the boat, setting the steering lines and putting new wheels and bearings on our seats. We had a visit from our legendary ocean rowing coach, Duncan Roy who came to lend us an anchor and have a boat tour of the absolute tank that is Velocity. All very sleep deprived from the week, we went for an afternoon nap onboard and woke up a couple of hours later.
After a supermarket trip and a light supper, we settled in for our first night onboard and woke up with the sun shining through the hatches and some very damp sleeping bags from the condensation inside. Everyone slept well, Lottie in the bow cabin and Mims and I sharing the stern. We checked Windy again for an update on the weather and sadly it still didn’t look good to go out.
For those who aren’t ocean rowers, you may think it sounds ridiculous that we don’t go out for a training row if the wind is blowing more than 12 knots, but when you’re in the middle of an ocean and it’s blowing 30, you’re not in danger or being blown to shore and running aground and losing control. Safety is paramount when training and there’s a lot of planning and decision making to ensure we won’t be too far away from the marina if the weather picks up.
Finally, we had a window to head out for our first training row. The wind dropped enough for us to safely leave the marina at 1500 and we were half expecting the cold wind to hit us after we left the lock gates, however we were pleasantly surprised. The plan of action was to get to know how the boat moved around on the water, downwind, upwind and on a beam reach. We all took turns using the hand steering lines to steer and then set up the hydraulic steering which we connected to our chart plotter.
On mine and Mims’ last rows across the Atlantic, we didn't have hydraulic steering so this was something we were quite excited about. We discovered it was completely silent from the inside of the stern cabin and hope that it stays like that for our expedition across the Pacific Ocean. We even have a helm wheel on deck outside the cabin which you can use while using the hydraulic rudder steering system. It’s a bit like driving a bus!
The water was flat calm and the wind speed reduced to almost nothing for the sunset. Mims and Lottie decided it would be a fantastic opportunity to fly the drone and get some epic footage of us rowing into the sunset - you’ll see it all appearing in our socials soon.
We also saw dolphins and for Lottie this was her first time seeing them! I’m a firm believer that if you look out for wildlife you’ll see it. So many row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic without seeing anything other than flying fish. It’s worth taking your eyes off the deck repeaters and scanning the horizon and swell around you, there’s always something there, you’re just not looking hard enough!
After sixteen hours of rowing and twenty seven nautical miles under our belts, we arrived safely back in Hartlepool marina at our new berth next to Jasmine Harrison on Numbatou who will be sailing around the world solo in the mini globe race. It’s nice they put the wild ones together in this marina!
We packed up and washed Velocity before heading over to our local breakfast spot for eggs on toast. We’d been looking forward to a nice warm breakfast after our dehydrated meals the night before.
Due to cutting our ocean rowing training shorter than we’d have liked, we left for Market Weighton and were treated with an Easter Sunday roast made lovingly by Mims’ mother Alison. After a good nights sleep I left for the train station to head home and couldn’t help thinking what a fantastic team I’m proud to be a part of. Weather permitting, our next training row will be in May and we look forward to sharing photos and videos with you until then.