Robin on the Radio live from Mauritius 18/09/2018
Robin’s Third blog
‘Let me row you down because we are flying to strawberry fields’
This blog takes you to new highs as I share some of my out of body, out of mind experiences with you. What follows is a true honest account, did it really happen? I will let you decide.
The mind is an incredible thing it is our most power full tool, that if used well has the potential to solve, create, store, confuse and on occasion question your own sanity. In short, I am a great believer that anything is possible if we truly put our minds to it, throw in huge amounts of energy, probably limitless funds and a driving stubbornness never to give up and who knows what we are all capable of?
We have all been told stories where Ocean Rowers or indeed anyone may hallucinate, it could be caused by exhaustion or perhaps drugs induced?
Well two weeks in and you could say I was beginning to feel pretty dam tired. Drugs? Yep I take quite a lot they are however all prescribed to treat Parkinson’s, I did question the rest of the crew to ascertain whether I had inadvertently mixed one of our carefully weighed out double bagged packs of protein shake for a huge amount of cocaine. When working in a factory environment bagging snack packs and protein shakes we have a duty of care for the end user. We ensured all our re -packaged products carried the safety notice. ‘While every effort has been taken there is a small possibility of cross contamination as this factory also produces cocaine and we cannot guarantee it will be nut free.’ We felt this statement should cover us in a case of litigation.
The crew assured me no such cross contamination had occurred. A symptom of Parkinson’s or perhaps a side effect of the many drugs used to treat Parkinson’s is the potential for hallucinations, could this be the cause? I haven’t experienced them before.
Right it’s time to get back on track and tell you what I experienced.
Rowing on the Ocean is a unique experience, no matter how good you are with words, pictures, film and sound track the only way to truly understand it is to experience it first-hand yourself.
Rowing during the day has lots to entertain and look at for stimulation of the brain. At night the huge vastness of the Ocean disappears and tunnel vision can kick in, all of a sudden you could quite literally be anywhere. Rowing at night is actually really good fun you tend to forget about the waves as they have faded from your vision and turn into a dark looming mass, it also feels calmer and quieter.
So my experiences happened at night over a few evenings but I have included them all in this blog. When rowing at night your body returns to some form of calm, you appear to row better or more consistently, it begins to feel effortless, it feels quieter, even if you are listening to your favourite tunes. Then it begins.
At night your efforts are quickly turned into speed and before you know it you are or at least you think you are the fastest rowing boat ever. Believe it or not you often feel the wind speed pick up and start rushing through your hair/over the top of your head.
At first, I would mistake the high safety line (White three tone strap on either side of the boat) for the kerb of the river or canal which suddenly shrinks the Ocean in the mind’s eye and gives you a nice sense of security. What’s interesting is you know this is happening, but you still find yourself looking at the bank waiting to see if you can make out a familiar land mark. I also questioned how wide the river or canal was. Will my oars get through the next bridge?
Other tricks on the eyes, it often felt like I had a couple of high sider lorries either side of me, have we just passed a Shell Garage forecourt?
Never ending concrete bridges these are often seen during light hours as well they appear in your peripheral vision.
Obviously, it’s dark there is the glow from the instrument panel and the compass in front of me, a shimmering light is cast from the tri colour it shines white towards the rowers but is mostly blocked out by the large drum that is the intellian satellite transmitter/receiver.
The tri colour also shines red for starboard and green for port, these are barely visible to the rowers. I sit in what I call second position so the first rower who sets the pace is in front of me. The light conditions for myself in this seat are poor I am still trying to improve my rowing technique so my eyes are fixed on the first rower, their everyday move and don’t have much time to look around. In the dark gloom, the movement of the first rower is that of a pendulum moving back and forwards keeping time effortlessly. It’s possible I may have hypnotized myself or reached a semi hypnotic state, but this is what happened.
Our speed built up it began to feel fast, really fast, wind rushing overhead, the canal bank was beginning to blur a little, were we travelling in a straight line? It felt as if we were in training on some sort of tether causing us to circle giving me the impression we were now experiencing centrifugal forces. This was fantastic it began to feel like we were flying more than sitting on the Ocean. Watching and trying to copy the rower in front things started to go a little odd. The rowing motion is very circular, you may have to think slightly squashed circle, but we are looking at rotary motion in motion. A bit like the wagon wheel affect it now appeared that we were doing a couple of clockwise strokes then a few anticlockwise strokes. I remember thinking this was pretty funny, that can’t work surely? This eventually turned into full rotary motion, think back to Popeye in a rowing boat a blur of rotary circles around the oars as he ploughs through the water in a paddle steamer fashion. You would need a high rpm for this to be anywhere near efficient, what the hell I thought and tried to copy. I had to give up in the end as hysterical laughter was beginning to get the better of me. I stopped rowing pulled my oars in and sat out the last five minutes of our shift on a serious high.
I have since changed my night time shifts, I no longer wear glasses and I have put temporary lights up, to improve my vision of rower one.
How did Billy take these antics? Well he knew I was mad before, this would probably just help in his final assessment.
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