02-25-2010

Fifty three days alone, rowing, across the atlantic, solo.  The race finished in Antigua and I just happened to be here.  Charlie Pitcher, his web site is http://www.transatlanticsolo.com/.  He beat the best time for the race of 68 plus days quite handily, not to mention his competition.  The closest competitor was still only two-thirds of the way across the Atlantic.  Stunning actually, his average speed for the last 10 days was 2.5/kts, versus 1.2 for his nearest competitor.  I’d say that was a blow out.  Estimates have the rest of these guys not arriving until at least April, with one as far out as June!  That guy better pick up the pace or he’ll never make it.

At first I didn’t understand why my neighbor was blowing one of those disposable aerosol can horns.  But there he was, with a small flotilla of welcoming ships.