Day 120

On photo: Fedor Konyukhov’s drawing. “Dorada”. Colored pencils. 2002

“April 21st, early morning. I didn’t sleep a wink last night. It’s raining, and it’s quite cold. The head  wind has been mocking me all night long, coming from the most unfavorable direction: west-south-west. Instead of fighting the wind, I’m following its direction. As a result, I made a 360 turn in the last 24 hours.

Last night I worked hard to ballast the port side. To ballast the boat always requires a lot of manual labor. The hatches for storing the equipment and other stuff were emptied long time ago. Anytime I need to ballast one side or the other, I fill the compartments with ocean water using a plastic bucket. When I need to empty them I bring out a manual pump. While working on the ballast I got soaking wet. The rain is colder now, compared to a few weeks ago.

Once again, the ocean made it clear that I cannot be certain of anything while I’m at its mercy. Just a few days ago, I had the nerve to discuss with my friends the approximate dates of my arrival in Australia. Today put an end to my plans and predictions. This is quite unsettling, really. I keep thinking about Jim Shekhdar (a British rower) who spent 70 days from the 180° to the coast of Australia. In other words, to cover 1600 miles he rowed for more than two months! Now, I’m beginning to see why it can take so long to row the remaining 27 degrees.

The most important thing is that I’m alive and well. I must endure this weather. I’m hoping for better wind soon. I’m with you. Fedor.

The map of the Tourgoyak’s course: http://yb.tl/konyukhov2

The detailed map of the course: www.oceanrowing.com/Konyukhov/Pacific2013/dist_map.htm

Translated by Tatiana Koreski