Rowing the North Atlantic

A British crew is a day away from breaking a century-old record for rowing 3,200 miles across the North Atlantic. They are currently 50 miles from their destination at the Isles of Scilly. They've been rowing for 44 days, having set off from New York on 17th June in a 23ft boat.

On the whole the weather has been kind to them, though on 30 June their log read "Had a very hairy night with at least three knock downs, more than a dozen swampings (difficult to keep count) and one capsize, and had to go in to survival mode to keep the boat upright. The seas were large, mainly five to seven metres, with the occasional huge 10-metre wave."

On July 16 it read: "Came off the sea anchor and have had a tough, tough, day, the seas have been pretty big and have been swamped several times and knocked down twice, we were hit by a huge breaker, a 10m wave. Mr Carroll went for a brief swim. We are longing to get back home to comfort, being dry and warm."

Mad as loons. Report here. Video clips from an earlier, aborted, start, here and here.

Update 1 August: They're in. They met the Queen Mary 2 ocean liner halfway across, video here.

The Dunwich Dynamo

On Saturday evening Nick and I set off on our bikes from Hackney to ride the 120 miles to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. Among the 1000 or so other cyclists departing in a long stream between 8 & 9pm was a man carrying a small dog in his front basket.

It was a mild night with a gentle following breeze. We saw some stars along the way but the full moon didn't rise. All the same for most of the ride we weren't in pitch darkness, something I was grateful for as I was using my weak-beam city lights. Nick of course had powerful twin-beam LEDs plus a helmet light. Riding in front of him when all 3 were on made me feel a bit like a rabbit caught in the beam of car headlights.

We missed the food stop at 55 miles so I had to resign myself to eating flapjacks and energy bars for the ride.

At 0230 at Coddenham I got off my bike and sat outside the old Crown Inn. Now a private house, in the last 15 years or so of the eighteenth century it was a coaching inn run by my great-great-great-great-great grandparents. After he died in 1802 she continued to run the place for another couple of decades.

After Coddenham I felt I was on home ground, which helped me cope with the increasing aches and pains. A few miles later I realised I was off-route when I found myself at Earl Soham, where my g-g-g grandfather was a (wind)miller in the 1850s. But I knew the route from there onwards.

The final miles were an endurance test, but I arrived at Dunwich beach at 0500 to find that the beach cafe was open, and selling beer. Bliss.

Update 30 July: good report on the Dynamo from Real Cycling

Latitude 1, Brain Cells 0

Apart from a sharp shower on Saturday morning, the 3 days of the festival were blissfully warm and sunny. The standout act for me, by a long way, was The National who headlined on Friday and made my hair stand on end. They were bowled over by the reaction of the crowd and responded with a blistering set. Tom Jones gave a superb performance of songs from his Praise and Blame album on the main stage on Sunday afternoon, also loved by the crowd. Other standouts were the Supernovas and Kristin Hirsh.

The festival was as laid back and relaxing as ever, with it's old oak trees, lake and rolling parkland. I'll certainly be there again next year.

Latitude

One to raise a smile

On crabbing and zeppelins

On Saturday afternoon I went for another fine ride through east Suffolk via Wangford, Uggeshall, Spexhall, Wisset, Huntingfield, Heveningham, Peasenhall, Theberton, Eastbridge, Westleton, Walberswick then back to Southwold.

The cycling was a delight, following small lanes all the way.

I've looked up the villages on Wikipedia. Spexhall is simply described as

A village in the north east corner of Suffolk, England. It is quite small.

True, but the entry for Wisset is a tad more interesting. After a visit to her sister there in the summer of 1916 Virginia Woolf commented that the village

seems to lull asleep all ambition. Don't you think they have discovered the secret of life? I thought it wonderfully harmonious.

The Wiki entry for Theberton notes that

on the morning of 17 June 1917 [...] the German Zeppelin airship L48 was shot down by Robert Saundby and others while it was on a bombing run. Sixteen members of the crew died in the crash, three survived but one later died from his injuries. [...] Part of the framework of the Zeppelin itself is mounted in the porch of the church.

From Theberton I cycled on to Eastbridge, a tiny hamlet so tucked away from modern life that it feels like it belongs to another time. The landscape is like Britain in the first half of the twentieth century, pre-industrial farming. When I first visited Eastbridge I thought of the hot summer of 1940: you could almost hear merlin engines overhead, competing with the sound of the bees.

A couple of miles further north I stopped for fish and chips and Aspalls cider at the White Horse Inn at Westleton. Fortified and now on the home straight, I rode on to Walberswick.

According to Wiki,

Walberswick [was] a major trading port from the 13th century until World War I. The British Open Crabbing Championship is held yearly

What a great non sequitur. It's difficult to believe that Walberswick was ever a "major trading port", let alone up until World War I. Unlike the Wiki contributor for Spexhall, I suspect Walberswick's contributor of trying to "big up the neighbourhood".

I can vouch for the quality of the crabbing there, though.

Kabuki

Outlandish, exciting, energetic,
colourful, intriguing and just plain ... bizarre. Recommended.

More Suffolk summeriness

Suffolk summer

The poppies are out along the lanes between Cratfield and Cookley.
Suffolk is lovely just now.

One of the best ways to see it is by bike. Today I took a route through an ancient landscape, via the coast at Dunwich where a medieval town disappeared into the sea. Further on my route followed the straight line of a Roman road to Cratfield before wending its way along tiny country lanes, with fine views of old Suffolk farmland, to Cookley.

Tim Emmett leads Muy Caliente E10

Here's a nice little video of Tim Emmett on Pembroke's sea cliffs. Best viewed fullscreen.

Since the film was made, he's led it. More on UKClimbing and Tim Emmett's blog.

God's Own Country

By way of antidote to my last, depressing, post - here's a link to an altogether different place in Britain.

Know thy enemy

The English Defence League uncovered, after a 4-month investigation by Matthew Taylor. Video here.

Don't remember his name

Good blogging by Northern Light about the man accused of murdering the Bradford sex workers.

More Munro madness

There's a serious attempt underway to break the speed record for climbing all 283 of the 3,000+ft mountains in Scotland. You can follow Stephen Pike's progress on his blog, here as he attempts this epic feat in about 40 days.

I hope he raises lots of money for the John Muir Trust, which works to protect Scotland's wild places.

I also hope he doesn't encounter too many dancing sheep, or jelly-fish.

Update 7 June: he's done it: 283 Munros in 39 days, 9 hours and 6 minutes. Amazing.

Dave Birkett repeats Walk of Life

Dave Birkett has climbed Walk of Life, E9 6c, full report here.

I like Pete Robins' assessment of Dave Birkett's character: "Dave Birkett inspires me, ...he's got super-human Cumbrian powers of gnarl and you could imagine [him] charging down the enemy on the front line in a medieval battle."

Here Mr Birkett is onsighting a climb called My Piano, a bold E8.