LOG of SAM DEACON

ROGER'S JOURNAL

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DEC 1ST 1997
One week for You All to Get Out Here....

Today is a good day all round. I woke at 10:00 to see a huge squall, biggest and wettest we’ve been through I think. I was on deck steering and Charlie didn’t have time to get to the cabin before getting soaked through! He stayed on deck with me for company and moral support - waves were huge! Wind force 10 - 12 at least. Lasted ¾ hour. Checked mileage and discovered it had been worthwhile. We are cracking on at 3mph today instead of the usual 2! At 72 miles per day we could be there Saturday 13th instead of Monday 15th or Tuesday 16th. We both know this can’t last forever though. Of which - one of the camping gaz stoves has given up completely. Mechanical break down of the metal gauze to cook on. The other isn’t far behind it. Still - not long to go. Only thing we’ll miss will be hot food and hot drinks.
GPS XL Trailblazer has a cracked screen and is fading away to unreadable when left on. Consequently I’ve put my foot down and am only allowing it on at change over times to preserve its useful life.
Missing you all madly now it’s getting closer. At least I’ll be seeing you all soon I hope.
Personal level of hygiene is suffering. My arm pits have developed a bad smell. No amount of washing seems to help - even with disinfectant! Still my general health is good although sinuses are still a problem. Green People’s herbal remedy is brilliant for cleaning my sinuses out – that’s probably doing my arm pits as well thinking about it.... I wonder.

Anyway - time for a little rest before evening meal preparation.
Later Roger xxxxx. Daddy xxxx.
Dorado and seagull attack (enlarge on this theme later). Big waves swamping decks and cabin 20:00 and

DEC 2ND 1997
Flares at Night Time. What Does It All Mean?

During the night last night and tonight, we both saw white and green flares set off simultaneously on both our North and South sides. We think it’s a couple of competitors who are communicating by SAT-C and cannot “see” each other (curve of the earth). They agree a time - and let off a flare. We now feel certain that is what’s happening so, tonight when we see them we’re going to join in and turn the radio on to hear the resultant inevitable confusion. Nice to think one other craft is close - probably two: and that they are likely to be rowing boats because their progress, like ours is very slow.
We dropped off some miles again at night yesterday so managed just over 54 miles in 24 hours. Good for morale but today saw a dip in wind and waves foe a while and so far by midday we’re only on for 48 miles today. Hope it gets better after dark please - we need the miles to be there by Monday 15th though Tuesday 16th looks more realistic now.
Speak soon. Love to all. Roger xxxxx.

Of Seagulls and Dorado
Couple of days ago we had around 50 seagulls flocking around us in the late afternoon. Sea was high; flying fish abounding. Suddenly we were aware of a hullabaloo nearby. Glancing over, I saw our large yellow/green dorado teasing the gulls about 20 yards from the boat. It was riding the wave crests enticing the gulls to dive and attack, then jumping at them! It is too big for one gull to hold onto and THEY are equally too big for IT to grab?!? They all had a real noisy time with each other for about 30 minutes. Strange things happen at sea!

DEC 4TH 1997
Strange Things DO Happen at Sea!

I’m cracking up. Why am I telling you that? I mean I’m already rowing the Atlantic! What I mean is, 2 hrs on 2 hrs off. I go to bed at 12 midnight to sleep till 1:50. instead I have been waking up at 1:00, glancing at my watch, get dressed and report for rowing. Charlie advises me I’m mad. Shows me the time and I cry. Not really cry but mentally cry. We’ve both been doing it for the last few days now; waking prematurely and getting confused as to why - perhaps its the excitement of getting home soon.
Yesterday though, at about 1:00am Charlie DID wake me, to tell of a ship apparently on a collision course with us. We called, this time successfully on Ch16 and the lookout on board the vessel HARMONY, having established our course, altered course to avoid us and asked why we were out there. When we explained - he was quiet, then wished us a Merry Christmas!! They were off to the South Americas. We’ve seen other ships now on the same course but as yet none have answered the radio. No signs of row boats converging on our bit of sea. I rowed this afternoon because Charlie had sat there be-calmed for 2hrs and only covered 2 miles! He’s got >the message and is currently rowing nicely. The Trailblazer GPS screen is now almost completely unreadable and we only have it on to do landmark entries. Someone has fallen against it and broken the aerial as well so it can’t get a fix. I’ve had to use masking tape to secure the aerial to the extension lead so it works a little. We are now more reliant on the Magellan 2000.
Its a good little worker and easy to use. It WILL DO. We’re both excited that we only have one Wednesday and one Thursday etc; left now and are constantly talking about what we’ll do back home. Charlie is mad keen on decorating his house. I’m going to plan what to do with Amy and Ben’s room at the end of the garden. We must also get another car, if you haven’t already had to get one while I’ve been away. Anyway there’s a new front door to be bought and have fitted. I feel a loan coming on!! My mind is constantly racing about seeing you again and what I’ll say when I see you. I’ll forget it all I know, but I’m really excited about it all. I have a picture of a team hug. Me on the floor, twins on top of Amy and Ben and you on the top of us all. Lots of tears of joy and a promise to the kids that I’ll never leave them again. There’s so much I want to do with you all. See you later. Love and stuff Roger xxxxx. Daddy.

BLAST!! AGAIN! 20:50 BST. The wind has changed to SW very strong. We can’t go towards Barbados direct. We are hoping it’ll change soon rather than later. It’s about 16:00 here as we moved further W, the days brighter, later. By sunset, it may abate and let us go on our way. (We hope).

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DEC 5TH 1997
It Did!! Hooray and lashings of ginger beer.

It eased off and I rowed a bit to make up for lost miles. By daybreak, having spoken to the family stars and asked for your help Chris, the conditions had come about in our favour. During the morning it was overcast and cool. By lunchtime local (about 17:00 on our watches BST) the sun was in full glory. Sky - clear and following wind was slight. I rowed in the late afternoon and made 7 miles in 2 hours instead of the now usual monotonous 4! It’s inspired us both to try it again and overnight we are going to row whenever we can. The only reason we haven’t done so recently has been the excessive wind and waves from the wrong direction. It makes it both difficult and dangerous. One wave strikes from the side and you’re thrown sideways wrenching and twisting your torso so that your back really ricks! Nasty!!
Our progress is going well again and we have passed the magic 50 degrees W mark. Now only 9 degrees W to go and we shall be there. We are doing about 1 degree every 30 hours (conservative guess). That adds up to Tuesday evening less 4 - 5 hours time difference - means we’ll be there Tuesday lunch time!!
See you all again VERY SOON.
Only one more Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to go - Then ?!
Love Daddy xxxxx Roger xxxxx

DEC 6TH 1997
One Good Turn Deserves Another.

During the night I discovered the flapping noise on deck was not the usual flying fish waiting to be repatriated but our friend the swallow. For some reason (in the dark I couldn’t see) it couldn’t fly. It let me pick it up, cradle it delicately in my large, painful hand and warm it up. I talked lovingly to it - reassuring it gently - then after 15 minutes I felt it start to crawl out of its warm hide. I let it clamber onto my palm - then it simply flew. Very satisfying to help one of nature’s little people. (06:00 - 08:00).
At 08:30, just after Charlie took over, he woke me to let me know of another boat coming our way. He monitored it’s progress and at 09:30 woke me again. It was now coming at us from behind. We called on the radio and contacted the Dutch sailing boat “SAGA”. After the usual pleasantry and sounds of surprise, we discovered they were bound for Trinidad from Santa Cruz (Tenerife) and they asked did we need any provisions. We explained about the race rules and politely declined. They said “Watch the sea! There is a black sack floating near your boat. We don’t know what’s in it. Be careful! Have a nice Christmas” (see photos). We soon saw a bin liner floating past and picked it up. It contained chocolate Father Christmas heads and a couple of tins of orange juice. Amazing what you ‘find’ at sea! We prevailed on their good grace and asked them to try and contact you Chris on our home phone number. They said they’d try all day on their SSB radio to get a message through. We hope they did as we’ve no way of knowing. Late in the afternoon now and have been thinking of Amy singing “Once in Royal David’s City”. Made me shed a few tears. Maybe she’ll sing it in Barbados? Wind and waves are coming back having deserted us for most of the day. We’re getting to row more and more as we attempt to meet the elusive deadline of Tuesday that we’ve set ourselves.
Still 500 miles to go and the last 500 took from the 26th Nov till now! Still we manage to get 40 per day - 48, so with a few more hours of rowing each the extra 2 per day SHOULD be easy.
See you all real soon now
Roger xxxxx Daddy xxxxx

Dec 8TH 1997
I Missed a Day.

Yesterday was nothing special but we had our work cut out keeping course. Wind was strong from the S, we were being blown everywhere. Still, we managed some good progress. Large squall first thing!
Today began as the squall of yesterday predicted. Very heavy rain; wind in the wrong direction etc; etc; By mid- afternoon it settled a bit. Very hot on deck, following sea so to open the hatches is very risky but has to be done as its unbearable otherwise! We’ve discovered the compass by which we place so much faith is out by 17 degrees W. When I checked the charts it tells us to allow for 17 degrees magnetic variation. Silly us again!?! I know better - why am I not thinking? Anyhow , the position of the chart is very encouraging. Only one problem, we need to go further S to avoid getting caught in the N/W currents NOW - Barbados is dead ahead and the sea starts to run left to right across it soon! We have both been watching the sky laughingly expecting to see you waving at us. Hope you had a better flight than the crossing we’ve had. Anyhow. Enjoy the apartments and get a group hug ready. We’re coming home next week!!!
Later Daddy, Roger xxxxx.

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DEC 9TH 1997
Spoken to Americans and Caught a Dorado

Overnight we discussed the various alternatives to continuing on our current course. Our present one will take us into the N Atlantic past Barbados unless we’re very careful. We’ve decided to set more way points to keep a closer eye on our North direction. We are presently making too much progress in that way. We need to go W on the lines between 13 10’ N and 13 25’ N. We are constantly above 13 29’N. We’ll miss the island to the N unless we alter our plans. We decided to set our course for the S end of the island using 7 way points set out at an equal distance (about 65 nm) between each. That gives a day to monitor progress. It is working so far!
This morning before sun-up, I saw more lights to our NW. Called on the radio and spoke to Curtis and Barbara and their daughter Alicia from California. They are sailing to Bridgetown, arriving Friday, and will look up Chris, Cheryl and families. Their daughter is 11 ½ years old who wants to meet Amy. They spoke to another boat nearby with a second family from America (Lucy). They have 4 boys on board - a 12 yr old, a 10 yr old and twins who are 7. They’ve invited us all to a beach party at Christmas. We promised to at least look them up in the harbour there. They have a yellow boat called Sunflower. They said someone had broadcast a warning to all shipping about the positions of several rowing boats all converging on the area and asked people to report any sightings. Good news. We’re not alone after all!! Thought the rest had finished and gone home!
This lunchtime with the sun in full glory, I decided to try and catch a dorado. Put on an ABU spinner I bought in 1967 - never been used - and caught a big one the length of my lower leg. When we were hauling it in, it jumped out of the water and Charlie photo’d it - then it jumped clean into the footwell of the boat!! We covered the poor thing with a t-shirt and Charlie threw it back into the sea. We won’t try to catch any more as it was quite distressing to us and the fish. They’ve been with us so long now - they’ve become family to us. “Sorry fish”! Anyhow - he seems lively enough as he is jumping out of the water behind us warning his mates off.

DEC 9TH 1997
Good Weather and a True Course - Continued.

The weather picked up in our favour later on and we plotted more way points to the S end of the island. We’ve realised the need for magnetic variation and added or taken it away accordingly. Started rowing in the evening breeze and over night and picked up valuable miles. We shall do all we can from now until we see you all. Still no other row boats close by.
Love to you all.
See you even sooner now - Roger, Daddy xxxxx.

DEC 10TH 1997
Charlie’s Got a New Bird.

I woke to hear Charlie crying with laughter. A dolphin had apparently been nearby and had been performing. Later a new sea bird hovered above. It’s got a black coat, red neck and its’ body is thin. Its’ tail is ‘v’ shaped. It hovers and dives straight into the sea after ‘our’ fish. The big dorado are after the same fish and when this bird enters the water the dorado “chases it” back out again! Great to watch.
Good progress throughout the night and we’re eating miles away now.
Back soon Roger, Daddy xxxxx.
Ate lots of miles in the evening and night again. Now read all about XTE (Cross Track Errors).Love Me.XTE

XTE is a very interesting facet of a GPS. Explained simply - Go from A - B on a set course and you are “going on a given bearing”. Deviate on the way either left or right of that ‘given bearing’ and you are crossing your track. You therefore set up a cross track error of however far off the ‘given bearing’ you managed to wander or, in our case, get blown or drift due to currents. I set up some way points for us to steer in a straight line (shown below) to monitor our progress to Barbados. See how the wind and current affected our journey and I’ll try to explain the confusion it caused till we worked it all out!

DEC 11TH 1997
It Should Have Been Easier.

We go from 3 - 4. Bearing given by GPS is 286 degrees. Take off 16 degrees W according to the charts for magnetic variation and you get a bearing of 270 degrees W. When we headed W however the wind blew harder than the current. Our boat was blown SW and off course. The compass however still reads 270 degrees. So we blindly followed the compass all afternoon. By the time we realised the position shown the GPS showed a XTE and a change in given bearing to 297 degrees mag. nearly DUE NORTH! We couldn’t understand it because heading due N would mean to miss Barbados completely. Then Einstein here says “Lets ask it the given bearing to Barbados”. We did. It said “287 mag. nearly DUE WEST again!! What a relief - but it had taken till 12 midday to fathom it out. Thank God I did though. Our brains were really hurting I can tell you. We know we HAVE to row now at every opportunity to land a Wednesday. That’s not because of our little navigational problem - just because the conditions are not favouring us at all. Winds across one way and current t’other! Going for 45 mins sleep now - Roger xxxxx.

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DEC 12TH 1997
Overnight Squalls...23:35- 01:00

Then again 02:40 - 03:00 Warm winds in between?
3 more good ones for Charlie between 08:00 and 10:00
Morning very overcast and threatening. Stayed in wet clothing to sleep 08:00 - 10:00 Dried them off! Nice?!
Strong smell of spice in the air with the storms from 10:00 -10:30. Where did it come from? Who knows.
16:40: Charlie woke me - excited “There’s a yacht on our Port beam (back left),” Long way off but thinks it’s heading our way. We’ll monitor it and call if it gets uncomfortably close, otherwise let it pass unchallenged I think. It ran a parallel course to us after all and didn’t answer the radio (as usual). The remainder of the day was bright and breezy. We covered 29 miles in 12 hours today. Could be there by Tuesday if this persists but we’re not holding our breath! I’m still looking forward like crazy to holding you all in my arms, all safe and warm.

Love you loads Roger, Daddy xxxxx.

DEC 13TH 1997
Things That Go Bump and Flap in the Night –

During the night, beautifully starlit as usual, I was standing in the bow steering during one of my watches when, THUMP! In my ribs. Then flapping on deck like you wouldn’t believe was a medium sized (about 1 1/2lbs) flying fish. Darned things are a real health hazard. Had I been sitting it would have been at head height. I’d have had to eat it raw! Within 10 minutes there was an almighty THUD! followed by flapping and thrashing at the rear end near the cabin. I’d seen a flying fish whiz past my eyeline and hit the cabin beside the open hatch way. It ‘bounced’ into the footwell and couldn’t get out.
It woke Charlie with all the commotion and he rescued it (after a few nasty words on the side) by throwing it back in. I keep remembering “Oh! Bad luck Stanley!”
Today started grey and slower than the previous 2 days however, we were pleased to see we’d managed almost 50 miles in 24 hours so rushing home is still on for Tuesday. Radio Barbados is getting stronger as we whizz ever closer. I’ve spent the last ½ hour looking up the charts for landing at the island so that we can recognise points by night as well as by day.
We’ve discussed our potential arrival times and come to no real answers to what should be done IF we look like arriving in darkness. Obviously it would be nicer for everyone to be on hand to see us come rowing in but - do we want to spend another 4 -5 hours waiting outside port? Time will tell as it probably won’t be the case anyway.
See you all soon Daddy, Roger xxxxx.
P.S. Charlie’s cassette player packed up about 8 days ago. He’s been miserable ever since. I fiddled with it tonight and made it work straight away. Now we’re both happy again!

DEC 14TH 1997
Wrong Way and Family of Killer Whales.

Throughout the day we looked forward to watching the miles disappearing from the GPS. Unfortunately, the Trailblazer is now totally defunct! The aerial and lead are both broken and we cannot get a signal in or out of them! Good news is, 2000 is still going well. (where’s that bit of wood gone? okay, I’m sitting on one)!

At lunchtime I was aware of a long black shadow following us through the waves. Eventually it closed on the rudder enough for me to see it was a 2 metre long shark. It swam around us once then, obviously deciding we were not worth the effort, swam off.
At 20:20 Charlie reported excitedly from the deck that he could see whales spouting some 200 yards off our starboard beam and closing on us. I got out of the cabin ASAP and they were on us already. The most beautiful things to behold. Four killer whale calves, a mum & dad had come to pay us a hunting trip. They were VERY curious about our boat but, also very gentle. Both large ones swam under us very carefully and slowly while the younger ones circled us in pairs. Then, they swam off to our stern and all at once the dad sped back at us. I had my back to him, and with camera in hand I braced myself having already been worried enough to close both hatches in case we were NUDGED over. He came head on to our starboard side and dived at the last second, coming to a standstill under the Sam Deacon. This was a big fish! It’s head was at the rudder end and tail beyond the bow! He watched us and waited and we never took our eyes off him! And we waited - we decided it was his call. Thankfully he rolled over and without touching the boat joined the others. Then both mum and dad came head on towards the side of the boat, top speed on the surface of the water. At this point I closed my eyes and held on tight. I opened them to see mum veer off to the side about 6 feet away. But Dad was still on track for us!! Fortunately Charlie’s time and effort in putting another coat of anti-foul paint on the hull at Port St. Juan paid off. For, at the very last second, he went under the boat without touching it and with one big “swish” of his tail, was with the others heading away to open sea. It took us so long to calm down afterwards that I couldn’t remember how many photos I took. God knows what, if anything will come out.
I pointed and pressed lots of times!
Lots of miles completed overnight and at 01:30 Charlie spotted mast lights closing on us from the rear portside. I could see it was a port light so concluded it was passing behind us - no cause for alarm but Charlie wanted to talk with somebody and so persisted on the radio until some poor French guy asked if we spoke HIS language. Charlie dropped the radio in panic mode. “Give it here”. Says I, “I’ll give it a go”. So we parled ‘Franglaise’. We exchanged names of vessels and crews. Theirs is a sail boat “Citrus Verte”.
It was heading for Barbados and the radio operators name is Christian. Maybe we’ll see the bateau there in the harbour. Who can tell?
Miss you all more than ever now as we’re just over 100 miles (2 days) away.
Need lots of hugs and love please Daddy, Roger xxxxx.

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DEC 16TH 1997
We Still Can’t See the Island Yet - Where’s It Gone?

17:45 and still no sign of land! We now know we shalln’t be with you till Wednesday lunchtime - (your time) latest. We have been hit by several big squalls throughout the night and indeed all of today so far. We have a NW and W current. Strongest is NW and we need W! However, we did hear during the night more news about the race. You’ll already know this, but for us it was a revelation! The German crew out after 1 ½ days! Can this be true? One crew landed in the Azores! Really? Who was it? The crew of a German sail boat called “De Sognia” bound for St. Lucia knew more about our race than we did. Anyway, we know that we’ve done really well to get this far.
We’ve just realised the sea has been taking us far further NW than we knew! We’ve spotted land at 19:30 hrs BST. It is the last few miles of the N end of the island and we’re still 30 miles away. The rate we WERE going at, we would have missed it by a few miles and never have been able to row back. When Charlie had a lie down at 18:00 I took the momentous decision to start to row across the last 30 miles of NW flow so we could hit the coast somewhere near a straight line with the TV/radio mast on the mountain tops. That SHOULD give us the opportunity to hug the coast line up to the N coast and stay close to the island where the NW current is less strong. I hope it works!
It did let me row W across the flow and I’ve impressed upon Charlie the importance of our course. He understands. Sometimes he has said “You worry too much. It’ll be alright. We’ll catch up later”. This time we can’t catch up if we go off course! Still we have all night and the next 18 hours or so and we are far from beaten.

See you soon!! Roger, your Daddy xxxxx.

DEC 17TH 1997
Home at Last - Disappointed or What!

At about 8:00 we were about to cross 59 25’ W I called Charlie at 07:58 and told him so that we could row together ceremonially over the line. Just at that precise moment a big squall which had been building decided to open on us! It blew me from 59 24’ 59 secs W back to 59 24’ 50 secs W in only one minute!! Charlie was half dressed and half asleep still as he sat at the aft oars. I decided that as we were going backwards and he was very dry, that he may as well stay in the cabin till the squall had gone. Confused and still not quite with it, he sat in the corner like an elf with a fishing rod until it “soaked” in that we were not about to cross the line anymore. We eventually crossed at about 08:30 BST (3:00 Barbados).
By 12:30 BST we reached Harrison’s Point lighthouse and sat there till 16:35 BST going nowhere! 3Com came out to greet us and advised we were too close to shore for our own safety. ‘Follow us away from shore, now’. Came the radio message. As we did, the wind coming over the cliffs from the land, struck us and dragged us further from land.
Trying to row against a 1 knot current with a STRONG off shore breeze is NOT recommended. Charlie and I took it in turns rowing as individuals, then we were together for an hour and a half. We covered 6’ in 2 hours! It was VERY hot indeed and we could see that if we stopped rowing together, we’d lose ground. At one stage, we reached for a drink and immediately got blown back five feet! This meant we’d made 1’ in two hours!!
Eventually we HAD succumbed to a tow in to Port St. Charles as we couldn’t even drink for fear of slipping further back! We had been told by 3Com that we were against the tide for another 5 ½ hours yet, so we HAD NO OPTION but accept the lift.
We were SO disappointed that we both stowed the oars and sat motionless at our stations, heads in hands. I certainly for one could not accept that the ocean had been so ‘kind’ to us for the majority of the trip only to throw so much at us in the last 48 hours. So much that we had to “GIVE IN” at the final moment.

The sea is truly our master and we but humble passengers on it’s back! We could possibly put our drogues out and stood the risk of being blown even further offshore waiting for the tide to change. But we could see our families and friends in boats around us and could not find the inner strength needed to stay one minute longer. WE HAD to be towed in. Literally no other option was available to us.
We were proud to have broken the previous record but knew, even if we had rowed into Port St. Charles, we would only have been about 16th place so we weren’t worried about positional places.
We bowed to a greater force finding solace in the fact we had finished our epic ‘trip of a life time’. Now what?!?

All my love Roger, Daddy xxxxx.

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