An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 39 difficult entrance to the harbour and back onto dry land again. The search for new solar panels was to no avail, and we couldn't identify the steering issues and when attempting to leave the weather said no, and this forced us to stay an extra few days. This was one of the hardest moments, as we were itching to get back rowing and get back into the rhythm of things. With all crew issues sorted and the British boys back on board we set off again, with an escort out of the bay between the two islands. I could see and feel how much weight I had lost, all the gym work I had done on my shoulder was now gone but after a month of rowing I had no issues and everything was good. More night shifts came and went with some amazing sunrises. Your body instantly warms knowing its breakfast time. The food was actu- ally quiet enjoyable, on each island we restocked with fresh fruit and tinned foods, apart from that out diet was made up mostly from freeze dried packs where you just added water. Along with energy gels and bars however these were causing us to consume excessive amounts of sugar. A satellite uplink allowed us to communicate with home via email text and short phone calls this was vital for receiving weather updates. The time from Cape Verde onwards the ocean was significantly quieter with the exception of Japanese fishing boats that struggle to communicate due to poor English. Coming off a shift your hands are sore and are chaffed from the salty seawater drying on you. Still short on fresh water we had one person making water instead of rowing each day this made rowing harder. We slowly made our way to South America; 66 days after leaving Portugal we reached our destination at 4am following another difficult battle against heavy waves. As we entered the estuary I passed out with exhaustion and woke up to a rusty marine on the side of a river in the Amazon Jungle, it was dark and raining, with mosquitos everywhere. The finish was extremely underwhelming and a massive anti-climax. But the time spent on the boat needless to say was difficult from having some type of flu after Cape Verde to seasick- ness and to hear of the passing of a close kayaking friend David Higgins, it was still the most amazing journey of my life so far. The sunrise, the stars, being completely alone, getting in for a swim in 15,000ft of water, the phosphorescent making the ocean come alive, the wildlife in the ocean, from giant whales right beside the boat to sharks, flashing squid, flying fish jumping in the boat and giant turtles - but the amount of plastic in the ocean is disgraceful. Everyone needs to recycle more - small things can make a huge difference to the environment.

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