The business end of the Talisker Atlantic Rowing Challenge has finally began. Team Wadadli and the twenty-five other teams in the fleet were led to the marina by drummers who made sure that all in the vicinity were aware that something momentous was about to take place. By 8:45 am the slated start time, a huge crowd of family, friends and well-wishers had assembled to watch as the teams started in a staggered manner. The cheering of the huge crowd that had gathered buoyed the rowers as they crossed the starting line to begin the challenge ahead. With Doc Fuller, Peter Smith and Archie Bailey powering the oars, Team Wadadli left the harbor fourth and has maintained a position of 12th out of the 26 boats to this point.
There has been a collective exhalation by all involved after many were holding their breaths when the race had to be postponed for a few days due to contrary winds. That delay however, afforded many of the teams an opportunity to fix some bugs that they had not foreseen. In the case of Team Wadadli, they were able to paint the bottom of the boat with anti-fouling to ensure that barnacles did not build up and create increased drag on the vessel. The fleet also had the opportunity to do some last minute shopping; one group brought a wheel barrow of high protein gym supplements. Team Wadadli, already considered mavericks because of the Antiguan style rum punch party, their pans and their fishing gear, further cemented their iconic status as the superstars of the row with their last minute shopping list. It included a wheel of cheese, salami and a leg of ham. After all they are participating in an extreme rowing event but no one ever said that they couldn’t eat some delicious food on the way. It’s also a good thing that they decided to grab that extra food, with body weights of; Peter Smith 68.4 kg, JD Hall 69.6 kg, Archie Bailey 70.9 kg and Doc Fuller 86.5 kg, it is clear that they don’t have much to spare since they are expected to lose 14 kilos of their body weight. What better way to ensure that the expected weight loss doesn’t affect them too much.
Presently the men from Wadadli who brought that unique Antiguan flavor to the race are in 13th position overall; and even though it is still early days one look at the tracker shows that Team Wadadli is already employing tactics based on the belief that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. It also can’t be helped if we chose to be optimistic about them doing well because after all they are coming home and there is no place like home. They have already covered 37 nautical miles and are currently moving at an average speed of 2.0 knots in a south westerly direction around the island of El Heirro, the teams current nautical location is 270 18.23 N, 0170 51.58 W. Very soon the teams will enter the open Atlantic Ocean where their primary focus will be to best the conditions and make it home safely in about 42 days. Row Team, Row. Eat, Sleep, Row, Repeat we’re waiting!