ONE MONTH, AND COUNTING

Only one month to go, and counting, down!

Our Garmin watches keep track of it: our hearts are beating faster and faster, as the start of the TWAC draws near. It is very exciting, not in the least because of the Covid-19 situation.

We worked hard to prepare our Queen for the transport to England, and on to La Gomera. Cleaning the boat, packing hundreds and hundreds of food and snackbags, fix the epirb, tie a line here&there, buy this buy that… Home deliveries drew attention to the local postmen as they thought; what is happening there!

Not that after parking the Queen in England at Rannoch Adventure we indulge ourselves in rest&peace before we leave for La Gomera ourselves. We keep on training at home and if possible at the gym. Staying strong and fit is still important and, above all, fun. We keep on sending each other pix and training results to stay motivated and wanting to go faster or longer. Which is good, we will need each other and each other’s power to cross that enormous stretch of water. Apart from that we work on setting up media campaigns, talks with potential sponsors, you name it, it has to be done. We’re in touch with the team from the Utrecht University Hospital to further promote the research Hester den Ruijter and team conduct on analyzing the differences between the women’s and men’s heart for more accurate diagnoses.  Never a dull moment.

The Atlantic Ocean. 3000 miles. Each one of us dreamed about an adventure of some sort. Each one of us loves water, sea, loves the rowing. We all dream about crossing these 3000 miles and go fast. Enjoy the stars, enjoy the rhythm of the ocean, enjoy the horizon and the sunsets. And now, with only one month to go, those dreams are on the verge of becoming real. And that feels so unreal. All the hard work we’ve done, the training, the hickups, the up-and downsides of this extra job we all had apart from our daily routine. We all lived in some sort of tunnel with Atlantic Dutchesses written all over it. Hardly any sight on social interaction with family and friends, Covid-19 restrictions or not.

We have a good mind-set. We want to go and look forward to the routine. Eat-sleep-row-REPEAT.

And we will need you all! Thanks so much dear sponsors, friends and supporters. Without you it would have been so much harder to get to the start, and our goal: as fast as possible crossing the ocean. Winning! It will be hard during the crossing but the knowledge that you all support us so much will help big time!

Grateful and humble for everything you all have done for us so far we say: see you later!

One month. Wink twice and it’s time to leave.

A big hug from a very excited team

Atlantic Dutchesses

 (photocredits: Frank Meesters)