This week we have a real treat from Nuts Over The Atlantic. A minute by minute insight into life on the Nutilius. The team is no operating on a 6-hour schedule, repeated three times every 24 hours. The only difference is the menu for the day and the topic of conversation. Follow Mark’s account of his 6 hours on and off deck.
28th January – 42 days rowing – 355 Nautical Miles until the finish line (12 PM 30th Jan 2018)
08:50 – 09:00 = wake up and get dressed/put on a harness for the rowing shift. Turn off navigation light. Fill water bottle using watermaker.
09:00 – 09:05 = replace rower on deck. At this point, I am replacing Steve in our shift patterns and am rowing with Jon. Change seat cover to try and limit the spread of fungal infections.
09:05 – 11:00 = the first hour is still dark but towards 10:00 we get to watch the sunrise while rowing. Conversations for the first 15 minutes are limited as Jon needs time to wake up and get back into rowing. During this two hour row, we’ll have a few 5-minute breaks to snack on some food; Jon will usually have his daily chocolate bar while I’ll eat a couple of Seven Oceans Emergency Rations biscuits. We’ll talk about how we slept, any new aches and pains (at the moment we’re all suffering from fungal infections and pressure sores, so these are discussed a lot!) and the rowing conditions that we’re hoping for during the day. We listen to Harry Potter audiobooks and some random Spotify playlists. The final 30 minutes of the shift we’ll listen to Red Hot Chilli Peppers to help put some power down on the oars. At 10:50 one of us will give Dan a 10-minute warning in the cabin so he can start waking up. At 10:55 we check to make sure he is getting up. At 10:58 we give the final warning and stay looking into the hatch until he has sat up and starts getting dressed… You’ll be surprised how easy it is to fall asleep as soon as the hatch is shut! Dan doesn’t normally need this final warning, but that’s not the case for everyone on the boat!
11:00 – 11:05 = Jon and Dan switch places; Jon goes into the cabin and Dan joins me on deck for rowing.
11:05 – 11:30 = Row hard without stopping to try and gain more ground on our competition. We have always been further north than the other boats due to our late start, so these 30 minutes are incredibly useful. At 11:25 I give Steve a 5-minute warning to get up. At 11:28 I give him a two-minute warning and make sure he sits up in the cabin with the light on. Dan gives the same warnings to Jon. When we’re not giving the warning, we continue to row as hard as we can. If conditions are good (i.e. the wind and tide are with us, and it’s not raining) then we will ask each other three questions; what product do you wish you’d designed and why, what time in period do you wish you could go back to and observe etc. If conditions are not good, then we focus on rowing with some music to make sure we don’t catch any crabs (when the oar gets stuck in the water).
11:30 – 11:35 = switch with Steve and sit inside whichever cabin is free. While I do this, Dan switches with Jon.
11:35 – 11:55 = use this time to clean myself and prepare breakfast. In my lunch box, I will put one of the porridges (A, B, C or D; recipes below) with a BeWell Adventure Food Ultra Fuel (Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry or Banana). I’ll then add a few hundred ml of cold water to this and leave it for 5 minutes before eating. This meal contains about 1500kcal, and I find it a great way to start the day! My cleaning routine is to use baby wipes on my main body parts; working my way from my head down to my feet. Once I’ve finished with the baby wipes, I will then apply Sudocrem / an antifungal cream called Daktacort. Any time I have left during the break is spent lying down trying to rest.
11:55 – 12:00 = begin getting dressed / putting on harness for the rowing shift. Fill water bottle using watermaker.
12:00 – 12:05 = switch with Steve on deck;
12:05 – 12:30 = row as hard as you can.
12:30 – 12:35 = switch with Steve and rest.
12:35 – 14:50 = clean myself the same as during 11:35 – 11:55 but don’t eat anything and check emails instead. Will respond to any that are received during this period. As soon as all emails are received, I’ll try to get as much rest as possible. During the day this break is hard to sleep in due to the heat so I’ll read for a bit / write notes down for things I plan on doing when I get back to the UK. At night it’s incredibly easy to fall asleep in!
The next six hours goes very much the same, except that at 20:00 the navigation light is turned on.
The main conversations take place during the night when it’s cooler. Jon and I mainly talk about me moving to London, bikes, and our next challenge. At the moment we’re thinking of walking to the South Pole or making our own canoes and going down the Amazon.
REPEAT (until we reach Antigua)
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Porridge recipes:
Porridge A – Blue 100g porridge oats 374 20g milk powder 100.6 10g chia seeds 46 10g Demerara sugar 40 15g walnuts 98.1 15g almonds 86.25 45g sultanas 149.5 20g cacao nibs 125 Weight 235g. Kcal 1009.45 350ml hot water
Porridge B – Black 100g porridge 374 20g milk powder 100.6 10g chia seeds 46 10g Demerara sugar 40 31g pecans 233.43 45g chocolate chips 210 Weight 216g. Kcal 1004.03 350ml hot water
Porridge C – Green 100g porridge 374 20g milk powder 100.6 10g chia seeds 46 10g Demerara sugar 40 35g pecans 263.55 10g crystallised ginger 34.6 10g banana chips 51.4 31g raisins 90.83 Weight 226g. Kcal 1000.98 350ml hot water
Porridge D – Red 100g porridge 374 20g milk powder 100.6 10g chia seeds 46 10g Demerara sugar 40 20g cacao nibs 125 30g cranberries 99 24g flax mix (see recipe 4) 129.6 15g almonds 86.25 Weight 229. Kcal 1000.45 350 ml hot water
Snacks:
Dried pineapple – 276 kcal per 100g
Mango – 354 kcal per 100g
Apricot – 287 kcal per 100g
Goldenberry – 294 kcal per 100g
Goldenberry covered with cacao – 459 kcal per 100g
Dried banana – 517 kcal per 100g
Kit Kat – 507 kcal per 100g
Dairy milk – 534 kcal per 100g
Mars bar – 448 kcal per 100g
Snickers – 510 kcal per 100g
Peanuts – 614 kcal per 100g
Cashews – 617 kcal per 100g
Pistachio – 625 kcal per 100g