DAY 35 - JAMES KAYLL

The last few days have been slow, the seas have been a bit confused and the winds are from the North East so we are getting some side on action. Today is looking good though and the forecast is also looking better for the coming week. The weather will be coming from further East and that’s more on our tail hopefully all the way to the finish. Since the Atlantic Polo team passed us we still seem to be matching them for speed. They have got themselves in a good position and we will have a challenge to get past them again. We are really pleased about their success - they were the one crew that we hung out with the most and we got on with the best so it’s cool to see them do so well. It is particularly entertaining given that they did not have a clue about this beforehand. They even had a fish-finder on board to check for sharks – it was hilarious!

Sunset transmission was brought to you courtesy of BLESMA, the limbless veterans’ charity

Strengths and weaknesses

We have our own strengths and weaknesses on board but overall we have a really solid team now. Everything we do is part of routine which we share so even if your strength is cooking then you are only going to do 25% of it. We have saved a lot of time by being slick with our routine. We try and be as efficient as possible with all duties outside the act of rowing the boat – this means changeovers of shift are fast and all personal chores are done when on the rest period. Being in the Army you are used to being in a small team in a close environment. We are able to share the load and everyone has been very good, no-one needs to be prompted to do anything.

We do have some different skills on board and some people have special jobs. Cayle is very technically minded and has been excellent on repair jobs. The problem is for him is when he has to work in the aft cabin – meaning he has to slide along the boat on his arse which is not to pleasurable. Jenks has being doing a great job on the media front even though all the technology is totally new to him and to all of us! Scott is responsible for all the stores and has had a job on his hands as there has been flooding in the hatches. This has kept him occupied as any water intrusion means we have to check all food by unpacking and repacking the deck hatches. Both Cayle and Scott always do a cooking shift, despite the discomfort of moving to the rear cabin. I can’t think of anything where we have made an exception or special treatment for anyone. Every day it is humbling to be part of this – it’s a hard enough challenge without having to shuffle around on deck, avoiding sharp bolts, lifting bodies in and out of cabin hatches. I don’t know if I could what Cayle and Scott are doing – it’s amazing.

Campaign impact

Ultimately I would like this project to result in a decent cheque to Help for Heroes and perhaps more importantly I would hope that it inspires other service personnel. The guys often talk about the impact of seeing other guys who had completed challenges post rehab and thinking ‘if he can do it then so can I’. I am doing this because I stood next to Cayle in hospital and he told me that one day he would love to get back on the ocean – with Row2Recovery I found myself in a position to do that.

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DAY 49 - CAYLE ROYCE'S FINISH LINE BLOG

After a frustrating last 24 hours or so we began today with slow conditions and not much visibility. It was quite squally, with little rain showers coming and going, but things cleared quite abruptly around 8am and suddenly we could see land. After being hidden in the mist it appeared out of nowhere and it seemed really close! This last stretch was totally different to the first half of the race. For so much of this crossing the weather has been horrific, I have never experienced anything like this. Yesterday morning at 8 am marked the first time in the entire race that we had a full 24 hours out of full foul weather gear and today is also the first day that an equipment failure would not be a cause for emotional devastation. I always thought that we would make it, but equipment failures could have slowed us down a lot. The thought of breakages always kept us on edge. But now we can finally enjoy the realisation that WE HAVE DONE IT!!!!!!!!

DAY 48 – SCOTT BLANEY'S FINAL BLOG

It feels great to count down the hours and the miles. It is a big morale boost to know that we are almost there. For most of the crossing I had felt confident that we would make it but we did have a few scares. When the auto-helm broke I did worry that we would be down to one rower for the whole crossing. One rowing and one hand-steering would have been a horrible routine. Luckily we managed to fix it. But the most important bit of equipment is my leg - it has never let me down.

DAY 47 – MARK JENKINS FINAL BLOG

Hard as it is to believe, this is my final blog! It has been a moment to reflect on an extraordinary 7 weeks at sea and an even more extraordinary group of people. By that I mean not just the guys in the boat, but the many wounded persons that they represent. I have been thinking a lot about what this team has achieved and what we hope others can achieve. This project has been about setting a huge challenge, committing wholeheartedly to it and then facing every challenge head on in pursuit of our goal. There have been no excuses only a choice to live this experience to its fullest and to take a positive attitude to all things. I hope that we have demonstrated that it is not what people see in you but what you go on to do that counts. I want to thank to all those who have personally supported me – you know who you are. There were a few people who said it could not be done. Oh dear… you will have to kiss my nappy-rash!