Written by the Entrepreneur Ship Support Team
7th January 2022
It’s something that seemed impossibly far away at the beginning of this crossing – but Guy and David are HALF WAY!!! 
Strangely enough, the exact half way point is a little tricky to put your finger on. 
The distance between the start and finish point is 2562 nautical miles, so if we divide that number by 2, i.e. 1281, you’d think that would give us the half way point. 
However, in the first ‘half’ of this race, the chaps have rowed in a huge southerly arc, adding around 300 nautical miles on to their overall distance. The second ‘half’ they shouldn’t need to do anything like that, so is much shorter. So if we waited until there was just 1,281 nautical miles left that would be a much shorter half in both time and distance. 
With the second half being essentially direct to Antigua we can say that this point – where there is 1418.5 completed and 1418.5 remaining – is their realistic half way point. 
One thing’s for sure this pair have done an absolutely outstanding job up until now! Well done boys – all downhill from here!! 
6th January 2022
The boys have had very light weather throughout this crossing. It’s created treacly conditions that have been tough to row through…but today they got a glimpse of what the Atlantic can do when she wishes. 
Just as they were about to go live on air on the BBC, a violent squall came in from nowhere, the waves picked right up, rain was horizontal, and wind lashed the boat. As the BBC producer started speaking, the boat skewed round to the side with the pair struggling to get the boat back under control. Immediately the interviewer was told they had to go, as the two men wrestled with this contrasting weather! 
Their training kicked in and they made the boat safe, but as David was getting the boat back under control a huge wave took the oar under the boat which in turn listed Lily right over before shattering the oar gate completely. 
Thankfully David managed to keep hold of the oar before it was lost at sea and quickly stowed it away. 
And then, as soon as it had appeared, the storm disappeared, leaving the team with some confused, but light seas once again. 
David spoke to us shortly afterwards – and his parting words at the end of the call were simply “we must respect the sea” – no truer words could be said! 
5th January 2022
David is keeping the updates coming thick and fast – but today is a special day for him, as he explains:
“First of all. Happy Birthday to my amazing wife Alyson! I sometimes question why you let me take on these crazy challenges! Thank you.
“On the 3rd Jan the day started well but when we went over to night rowing Guy had a huge migraine that flared up. It was clear to see that despite his protests rowing was not an option. I then rowed through the night non stop. Over 7 and a half hours. Thankfully Guy made a full recovery, and it’s great to see team TES back up to strength and powering on.
“Yesterday, with winds in our favour and Guy back rowing we made excellent progress, and whilst overtaken by our American friends Row4Hope we are still very pleased with how things progressed given the previous night. Guy saw his big white bird with a long tail feather following us – not sure if this was the paracetamol or over indulgence in our dried rations. A few calls to friends and family and all is good with the world. Love the sat phone.
“I was woken in the small hours by flapping and Guy saying “oh sh*t” as yet another flying fish decided to launch a kamikaze attack on Lily. We had three hits by these very smelly six inch sliver tubes. They are hysterical to see fly around as we row.
“Overall we are targeting 55-60 nautical miles a day with us being over 60 last night.
“Always great to get our email updates especially from Duncan Roy out top coach and all round brilliant person. Edging us on as always. Thanks for your boundless encouragement and top coaching.
“Weather has also been a huge hit with Simon working on our morning updates. His daily jokes are also getting better! I suspect he has saved the best from this years Christmas crackers.
“Music is important onboard and I have been loving some of the classical music I have been paying at night along with some of my friends playlists. Danny’s playlist in particular kept me awake! I have also been listening to audio books and ploughing through Barrack Obama’s book. For Guy though, tubular bells has been back on the Rigby playlist along with Beatles, Genesis and Paul McCartney.”
We love these updates from David – they’re so rich and descriptive – full of anecdotes and titbits from their amazing adventure together!
5th January 2022
Surrounded by their washing, a very tanned Guy is perched holding a strange box and his phone. 
This is how the boys send these brilliant images home, and is one of the reasons it can take a little time. 
The large box is a BGAN device – this is a terminal that allows the sending and receiving of data via satellite. In order for it to work effectively the team need to be out on deck, aiming the terminal at the sky in one hand, whilst sending their data in the other hand. They need to keep the satellite aimed in the right direction for the entire time it takes to send an image of video otherwise they’ll lose connection halfway through. 
Thankfully the team have had some windless days where this hasn’t been too challenging – but when the weather rolls in sitting out on deck to do this can be a real challenge and we may find ourselves with periods where very little imagery is coming back. 
Despite the challenges of sending imagery, this technology is pretty incredible, and allows us to follow along their journey in a much more immersive way. 
It’s been another amazing 24 hours for the team – a huge 61 nautical miles in the bag!! 
4th January 2022
Incoming blog from David!!
“Happy New Year!
Well this is still a crazy adventure. For a few days after Christmas and New Year rowing has been very tough with slow seas. Night rowing is still our favourite time to row as there seems a lot less in terms of distractions. New Year came and went and for some reason seemed less important than usual. Perhaps it was missing the family.
“Spooky encounters – A very strange thing happened to me rowing the other night when I could have sworn a hand came out of the sea and touched my arm! This was 3 am and I completely jumped out of my skin. I definitely felt as if we were not alone. Guy also swears that there is a third person in the boat. I have been telling him to stay of the rum rations!
“GoWest! Since new year Simon [the weather router] has put us on our approach to Antigua! (Circa 270 degrees). This sounds amazing, but we still have over 1650 ish miles to row. Hopefully now with bigger seas and winds the second half will be quicker. To quote Duncan our coach ‘a negative split’! It has also been amazing to get back powering along even getting to over 50 and 60 miles in a day!
“Talisker visit. – We had a visit from one of the race yachts Suntiki, which was such a morale booster. They came along side us three or four times taking footage so close we could hold a conversation. We even swapped fishing tips with Travis one of the crew!
“All is good – tough, but amazing in equal measure. We love the sunrises and sunsets, and we hate the 95 minute sleep patterns and wet, damp cabins.
“Guy’s true love seems to be all the rock stuff and thankfully I have not showed him how to use the deck speaker. I have been enjoying all the playlists from friends and family and have really appreciated them especially when having to dig deep.
“You have all been amazing and we love the love out there for us. I cannot tell you how much it helps. Also we love chatting to you all when we can get on the sat phone. Thank you. Special mention to Simon our weather router – you are a legend. Also to Barry, love the amazing posts, and Clare for pulling everything together. Also special mention to our fellow rowers especially One Ocean Crew and Team Peninsula – we miss the banter. Mindcraft – glad to see you are back in the mix.”
3rd January 2022
THERE THEY ARE!!!!
Right in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
Atlantic Campaigns sailing yacht ‘Suntiki’ came past the boys yesterday and got some great footage as the pair power their way to Antigua!
1st January 2022
Guy and David have rowed through the night, and in doing so, into a new year.
The pair wish all of their supporters a happy new year and hope that your 2022 is a brilliant one! 
As they make their way through this incredible race – they are helping to redefine the boundaries of what is possible for all of us and perhaps many of us will aim higher and achieve more from the inspiration that these two men have provided! 
31st December
With 2021 almost behind them, the team row through the night towards an unconventional NYE celebration. 
And despite the lack of fireworks, drinks, and people…it will perhaps be the most memorable NYE celebration in their lives.
We watch their dot on the tracker, we read their updates, we see their pictures and videos – but it is still almost unfathomable, that as we wind down (or up) for our final evening of 2021, these two men continue to row, two hours on, two hours off, twenty-four hours per day. 
We are sure that Guy or David will have something up their sleeve to celebrate the beginning of 2022 with, but at midnight spare a thought for our intrepid rowers – for what they are doing is nothing short of astounding.
David & Guy left La Gomera in the Canaries on 12th December. They hope to arrive in Antigua by the middle of February. Please give generously at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-entrepreneur-ship
