In case you hadn’t heard the news, late last night a big beam wave crashed into the rowboat and broke one of our “unbreakable” oars right at the oarlock. We made a point to make the oars and oarlocks as robust as possible, and in doing so we made a new way to break a seriously sturdy oar (until this point, zero oar troubles in well over 5,000 miles of open ocean and expedition rowing). A bruise and some cuts later, the guys pieced together our collapsible spare oar and rowed just long enough until worsening seas caused too much southerly progress, and the decision was made to set the sea anchor. 8-hours later we were off running “NNE swells and wind treating us well. Off sea anchor with the spare oar working well. Cruisin!” (from a Twitter post right from the boat). I’ll let them tell the story personally when we get good data coming in.
While we’re waiting for more ocean stories direct from the boat, I thought I’d share a piece Adam wrote for the blog while in Dakar about the best kind of training for an ocean row. Here’s what you need: You, the outdoors, a friend, and something/anything to lift. What you get in return? Happiness.
Muscle garden on the move – By Adam
The Senegalese are are incredibly fit and perpetually active. At sunrise and sunset, you can see men (and the occasional woman), running, hopping, shuffling, wrestling, and playing soccer on the beach. All this activity, of course, involves copious amounts of sand. The wrestlers are covered in sand. The runners are kicking sand. In fact, a favorite exercise over here is to do push-ups over a small pit that you dig in the sand. Your chest sinks below ground level, allowing you to really work your pectorals… If you don’t pop the rotator cuff in your shoulder, of course.
Fitness in Dakar feels democratic, and almost nationalistic. When you go for a run on our Island of Ngor, the locals will cheer you. “Sportif! Sportif C’est bon!” I find myself doing the same, and cheering madly when locals run past me.
Nowhere did fitness feel more democratic than on the Cornishe, an area on the coast north of Dakar. Here, rusted old car tire rims are welded to re-bar to form a barbell for a bench press. Admission is free. Guys show up before and after work, line up politely, and pump some iron.
Other exercises are available: chin ups, pull ups, incline situps, deadlifts, and really, any other movements you can augment with a barbell. Some of the guys at the beach were jacked.
In spite of an initial feeling of intimidation, where every look from the locals seemed to say, “Who are these tall white guys??”, Jordan and I started to workout with the locals. They were very friendly, and let us join in.