Anger
So we've been going about two minutes so far so only about three and a half hours to four hours left to do
And we've chosen to skull at this relatively high rating of 26 strokes a minute in order to reduce the pressure
on our hands
We've been going for 18 minutes now and my hands are getting warm
20 minutes in and the other Nordic Explorer is still keeping up with us and I'm nervously looking over to the left
to see
When are they going to give up?
Head is getting a little bit on the warm side
25 minutes in and we've done 4 kilometres. So there's only 30 to go
Keith as the rate meter
The ETA is now 12 22 because we've picked up a bit of wind and waters a bit poppley
It's not really rough enough to be slowing us down and making life difficult
and the other crew is still alongside us in the other Nordic Explorer and
they don't seem to be going any slower than us or any faster than us. We're both at the hull speed
This is the point when we beat the other crew
Because we kept rowing ahead
With the two of us rowing
for a few minutes longer than they did and once we had that advantage we never lost it and we gradually drew away
Meanwhile they fought with school eight has reached halfway at forest
And so has the quad from the University of London
Next to approach the halfway point was the coastal double of John pilgrim and Stephen Andrews
But the University of London Tyrian quad nearly had a complete disaster, nearly run aground at this point
No such problems for the
coastal double although they do seem to be having a little difficulty
with the rough water because they don't have much free board and they're two big guys
Next to appear at Foyers, the halfway point, was the Inverness rowing club ladies
coxed coastal quad who had plenty of free board and are not too heavy for the boat
The second Inverness women's quad came into the stage to change their cox
You can see that we are just in the distance and this is where we snuck past them
it's beginning to get a bit choppy here because the wind is funneled between the mountains and
speed picks up therefore and so do the waves and
the lock is narrow here. Although it opens up after this
but not before catching us out
Just as it did with the University of London quad
Just as we approached the river that comes into the loch at this point, I felt my left blade touch the bottom of the loch
We had to take avoiding action
Next to appear were Steve Fox and Glyn Reed in the other Nordic Explorer double
The first women's quad from Inverness seem to be flagging somewhat at this point because
We don't seem to be that far behind
Now we've been using the GPS to follow a straight line course right down the middle of the Loch well
It's a big loch and that's taken us a long way from the shore at this point
so the photography's been really difficult for my camera team
And now we're approaching 24 kilometres and time for our second pit stop and
The Inverness girls are close enough inshore to get a really nice shot of their rowing
Now we're passing Urquart castle which is a big draw for
cruise ships and so
The big cruise ships that come into Invergordon, they offload lots of cruisers
onto buses
That bring them to little cruise ships like this and bring them all the way to Urquart Castle
The problem that we had here was that there's a valley behind Urquart castle which was
funneling wind down into the loch and
Now we have wind coming from two directions, which means that the waves are coming from two directions, which means that sometimes they add together
To make bigger waves, sometimes they subtract from each other
To make bigger troughs. Sometimes they cancel each other out, but it was quite difficult
rowing in this water
Here are the Inverness first ladies crew
again
and
We seem to be closing them down
Will we catch them up before we get to the end of the loch or will we run out of loch?
In which to catch them?
and
The waves are getting bigger
Big enough to swamp
The UL Tyrian crew who nevertheless made it to the end in a decent time of 2 hours and 48 minutes
But not fast enough to break the record
Low!
Very low!
And if you're wondering what happened to the Monmouth School 8 that came to set a record well
They sank a mile from the finish
next to finish were Jonathan Pilgrim and Stephen Andrews in the coastal racing double in a
respectable time of 3 hours and 12 minutes
The Inverness ladies coxed Coastal quad is next in a time of 3:38 and we're hot on their heels
but it looks like
We've run out of loch in which to catch them. If only the loch had been just that little bit longer
I'm sure we could have caught them but of course, they would have gone a bit faster as we got nearer to them
That's what happens
So our average speed over the 34 kilometres of the actual race was 9.27
Km/h, but look at the maximum speed that we achieved going down some of these waves
14.4 km/h
We were really glad of the help of racers who'd stay behind after they'd finished
to help other people such as us
Up until this point we had absolutely no water in the boat, but now it's breaking over the stern. I got really upset
Steve Fox and Glynn Reed were only 7 minutes behind us after all that time
Well done guys
The Inverness Women's touring quad were next in
Only another 7 minutes later in a time of 3hr54min and there were the only other crew to get under 5 hours!
Time for me to put on my obligatory high viz kit which at least is warm and dry
Well, you might think that Keith and I are completely bonkers
Taking this on but here's a more bonkers person. These swimmers swim in Loch Ness
every day without wetsuits!
How crazy is that?
Thankfully after this adventure in the Nordic explorer
We were driven back to Sian & Phil's new your house for a lie down and a cup of tea before going to the pub
Camera team
Show us your hands Keith
What were they like before?
Exactly the same ha ha ha ha ha
Yeah, they were like Fairy Liquid hands
Hands that do dishes
Absolutely, yeah just after I'd done a few dishes.
And mine... one hand pretty much as good as normal
I've got a new blister here
But other than that they're OK really
No blisters from using the camera. No camera blisters
Pointer blisters.
Pointer sisters.
Never mind
The old ones are the best.
Meanwhile the sea kayaker Jimmy Riddle finished in 5 hours 16 minutes
While our friendly by King David Golding only took another 5 minutes (5hrs 21min)
But look at this, how about this for a feat of endurance?
worthy of a wooden spoon
6 hours and 32 minutes it took Fenwick Ridley and Stewart Creek
To complete the paddle in their open Canadian canoe
Crikey I bet they were creaking after that
And they didn't just finish
They went for a swim afterwards. Could this be the Loch Ness monster?
Well, I hope you enjoyed watching that video as much as I enjoyed monstering the loch
But I'd like to see more Nordic Explorers participating in the event next year. So please do share this with your friends