Day 7

20% battery power remaining!

We got up at sunrise and pulled in the Para anchor after the 2nd night having been crammed into the cabins.

Again, we went to set off but the attempts at fixing the autotiller had not worked. We tried more things to fix it but in the end we realised it must be the batteries that were to blame. This would explain why the batteries hadn’t been charging efficiently in the albeit limited sunlight we’d had. It would also explain why the Iridium satellite email system wasn’t able to charge and finally why the auto tiller couldn’t keep us on course!

So, we realised then that we needed to get replacement batteries. We would have to stop at the Canary Islands as we passed through. This however would mean that it would not be unsupported crossing and therefore no longer a world record attempt.

This was hard to come to terms with having focused on it for so long, however all is not lost. The world record was always the added extra goal, the main goal is and always has been to cross the Atlantic! Sooo, the world record's off but the adventure is just beginning.

We rowed on towards Lanzarote. Now hand steering, hand pumping water and keeping electrical use down to the absolutely bare minimum.

At nightfall we couldn’t keep on course due to the visibility, so tonight set up the drogue in the hope we would drift better on the drogue in the right direction as the wave direction was heading directly for the canaries!

Another night crammed in the cabins. Squashed between Chris and Danny (both big lads). My head was down at the bow end. It gets very narrow at the front and I woke up on the middle of the night with Chris’s feet mm’s from my left cheek and Danny’s feet mm’s from my right cheek. Not exactly spacious!

~ Duncan @rowingroy