Day 77. Sunday. The Feast of Orthodoxy

“The easterly wind is 5-10 knots. I’m trying to keep up with my new general course of 255 degrees. The 43 miles in the last 24 hours was a good result. Today I entered the traverse of the Manihi atoll, which is 120 miles south of me. This is a good distance. It would be nice if I could pass all maintaining this separation. It’s getting cooler. With every mile south the air gets fresher, especially at night. During the day, it’s still hot and humid, but at night time the coolness of the air is a welcoming relief. The nights are beautiful, with the half of the moon looking like an enormous piece of cheese that is growing each night. The Pacific Ocean is calm. It looks just like we always picture it when talking about the tropics: majestic and tranquil, visually appealing, warm and enormous.

My exhaustion is beginning to take a toll on me. The life of an ocean rower is hard, confined and lonely. On a sail boat, there is a variety of tasks you perform that gets you out and about the boat. You could walk and stretch out on a deck;  trim the lines; work with the sails, etc. You could even read a book or watch a movie while the boat is on autopilot. On an ocean row boat though, you either cramped inside of an aft cabin or sit on deck, exposed to the elements. The small quarters of my row boat are psychologically pressing on me.  My solitude and vulnerability in the face of the ocean is more apparent than if I were on a large sail boat.   

There are 3500 miles until Brisbane. I’m looking forward to the next 500 miles. After that I will have “only” 3000 miles. In a scheme of the entire transpacific rowing, the distance of 3000 miles is more or less conceivable. I can mentally grasp how much this distance is. It’s about as long as a transatlantic crossing. I have done 22 transatlantic sailings: mostly solo and solo rowing across the Atlantic in 2002 proved it that I could withstand such distance alone on an ocean row boat. The light at the end of the tunnel will become mover visible once I begin my count down of the remaining 3000 miles.”

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