Michelle is currently past the Gilbert Islands and heading towards the Solomon Islands. The Gilbert Islands formerly Kingsmill or King’s-Mill Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. They constitute the main part of the nation of Kiribati.
Here are her musings from last week..
I’m on day 127 at sea (around 12 December), in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about 40 miles north of the equator, right smack bang in the middle of nowhere, all on my own until now…
I’ve got a shark on my boat, he’s been flapping around like a maniac, he’s going wild!!! It first happened in the middle of the night. I was in the cabin, snoozing and then I heard this massive ruckus on my deck! I quickly got my head torch on, shined it on the deck, and there he was bucking like a maniac. I just had to sit back and watch him for about 30 minutes. It was wild!
He’s going to have to just die on the boat and I’ll put him overboard tomorrow. He’s too big for me to pick up and get off my boat. He’d be at least over 1 meter long. He’s stopped flapping now and he’s on my deck.
The other night I was trying to get a (unknown) off my deck. They’re actually a bit of pain – they tap on the solar panels and that affects how the solar panels charge… oh and they poop all over my panels as well, so I’ve got to get back out there and wipe it all off.
The other day I was watching my panels in the middle of the night as there was this pair of birds that kept coming back clambering all over my deck, one of them clipped my arial, and it made him fall in my cockpit. He panicked, as he scrambled up on the deck, then he did the most disgusting thing! He vomited up a whole fish that was undigested.
All these birds, they’re determined to keep coming back, I keep shooing them away and they keep on coming back… it’s wild out here, yeah … the Pacific’s wild! Got me thinking … I wonder if any other rower has ever had a shark land on their boat? Have you heard of any?
Now before I tell you what else I saw the other night, I have to preface it by telling you, no I’m not coocoo, I’m not smoking anything out here, but I swore I saw a something in the sky. It was not a star, it was hovering, and it changed colour, from green to orange, and it was a funny shape. Had 4 legs and a thing in the middle, like a body.
As for my current locale, and objectives; my current mission is to get South, whilst at the moment, I’m on this Westing Current, it’s like a magic carpet where the current is taking me West. I’m trying as hard as I can to row South and every time I stop rowing, I drift West.
That’s life on board a rowing boat. So overnight I do a lot of Westing and during the day I do a lot hard Southing. Only about 25-30 miles a day now. Not exactly my best paced days. These are the struggle days but with just 40 miles from the equator, I’m so close now.
I’m well aware that Christmas is coming up and I’ve been thinking about my last Christmas. We went to the beach, we sat under the Cool Cabana eating prawns, champaign, chocolates and pudding. This year, there’s no Christmas pudding on board, nothing for Christmas Day! Nothing! Just a day of rowing. and I’ll be just thinking about pudding, and bubbles, and my people as I keep looking over my shoulder, making sure I’m heading in the right direction, home!
Track Michelle here : https://yb.tl/greatpacificrow22
Michelle is grateful to all her sponsors;
The Quays Marina LTD Southern Seas Marine Dunbier Trailers Fibre Marine Boat Repairs Simrad Yachting Survitec Group Ltd. Deep Cycle Systems Chief Nutrition Speedo Sharkskin Tiller and Kites CAMPERS PANTRY Pty Ltd Crewsaver Australia One Party Silva Method Australia
