Is That It? Honestly?

Ocean Rowing Boat Bow

Is That It? Honestly?

Is that it? Honestly? It looks more like someone has robbed the bath from a trendy design hotel than built me an ocean rowing boat.

You know the kind of hotel, one of those that tries far too hard, having strong beliefs that it’s wholly unnecessary to have a separate bathroom but feels it’s far more zen to do your morning ablutions right at the end of your bed, leaving you struggling to keep the Egyptian cotton dry whilst you wrestle with your undercarriage.

OK, now I’m closer, maybe a really big bath, a four, five, six or even seven person bath from an entirely different kind of hotel. Yes, you know the kind.

I thought it would be love or at least admiration at first site. After all, I’ve got to eat, sleep, live and haul it over 3000 miles across the Atlantic from mainland West Africa to South America. Just the two of us vs the ocean.

Maybe I was expecting to see something a bit more QE2-esque? Not a walk-in-shower, roulette and a masseuse on tap, and certainly not of that size but something that has similar lines. Something that looks like it would cut through the water as opposed to plough snow for the council.

I don’t know why I’m so surprised? I’d seen one in the flesh before I made the order for Commonwealth Row. Like looking around a car showroom, it was a simple case of ‘yes, I’ll take one of those please’.

Mike, head of the boat build calms my worries by reiterating that this is the very latest in ocean rowing boat design, the very thing that Sir Chay Blyth would purchase if he was doing it all over again today, before finishing with “anyway, it will look smaller once in the water, and feel a whole lot smaller once in the middle of the Atlantic”. Thanks Mike!

But I have the very basics of an ocean rowing boat, a carbon hull and superstructure. No electrics, solar panels, navigation equipment, hatches to keep the sea out and no oars with which I can propel it. No, those will all come in the next phase of the build and be installed by Mike and team.

So the SitRep for now: 3000 miles of the Atlantic ocean still laying ahead; me; no oars; and something resembling Silvio Berlusconi’s bunga bunga bath.

You best check back for updates!

To row the Atlantic Ocean to raise awareness of The Commonwealth, and much needed money for some great Commonwealth charities.

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