By Domenic Genua. Publisher – Marine Business News
Michelle called again tonight. She said she wasn’t sure what time it was but said I should add 3 hours to Sydney time. It was 6pm when she called, so 9pm wherever she was. Michelle said she was “tucked up in the cabin, resting, and floating around.”
Michelle said that recent times had been challenging and she was caught up in the Intertropical Convergence Zone. By her calculations she was about 240 mile north of the equator with that being one of her next milestones. By her calculation, she though the equator crossing was 7 to 10 days away. She was however conscious that the next milestone was imminent being on the verge of reaching the 3,000-mile mark left to travel to get home.
As usual, she had things to talk positively about, and others that were getting her down. On a positive note, she praised Roger ‘Clouds’ Badham who had been patiently putting up with her on the phone every day. Sometimes as little as twice a day, at other times as many as 5 times a day. She said she wasn’t afraid of picking up the phone if anything spooked her, particularly the “random and frightening storms”. She said Roger was patient with her and calmly put up with her calls.
On the negative side, she was terrified that she may have run out of pudding. She has a search of her front cabin scheduled for tomorrow in the hope that she has some stashed there. A shortage of food was not the problem, she left with provisions to last her 12 months at sea, but it was her favourites that were keeping her mind positive.
Michelle was a little bored. She had taken 37 audio books with her, thinking that would be plenty, however she has found that she has already listened to each ad-nauseam over and over again.
By my calculations today is day 116 on the water.
For those who don’t know Michelle, in what was her first row, in 2018 she rowed from the Canary Island – across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. That was 4,600 kms and took 68 days. She arrived in February 2019.
Michelle was the first Australian Female to cross an Ocean, solo and unassisted. Her boat is called Australian Maid. It is 7.7 metres long and 2 metres wide – she will self-right if capsized and has self-draining decks.
Michelle was made The Australian Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year in 2019.
On this trip Michelle is rowing from Mexico to Australia. This time the journey is around 14,000 km. Michelle departed the East Coast of Mexico on 8 August. It was the day after her 50th Birthday.
She plans to arrive on the East Coast of Australia hopefully around March next year
To read more about Michelle’s current journey, search Michelle Lee in Marine Business News. You can also follow her tracker here.
