The Friendship set off from La Gomera at 12.02pm on Monday afternoon, waved off by their fantastic support team. To the boys it all felt a bit of a blur but it was very special to have their family there and the atmosphere was really incredible. 

With the adrenaline pumping and in order to gain a strong start, they began the race by rowing with 3 on the oars for 12-hour shifts for the first few days. With only a 40 minute break for every 2 hours on the oars there was not a lot of time for sleeping, but their perseverance has paid off. So far they have managed to cover an impressive 475 nautical miles and are up near the front of the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic fleet.  

The team first set off from the Canary Islands heading South facing some strong headwinds and swells, making rowing conditions difficult in the first few days. They were glad to move into the more consistent pattern of two hours on the oars, two hours off later in the week. 

They were ready to catch up on some much needed sleep and luckily the weather began to calm down. At first the short bursts of sleep were very hard to get up from but knowing that your brother is going to be absolutely knackered after two hours of rowing means you force yourself awake and get to the oars to take over dead on time. 

Some highlights of the week have been:

• some beautiful sunsets and sunrises, 
• a lot of shooting stars, 
• sparkly green bioluminescence in the water at night; and 
• best of all.. ‘daily musical hour’ when Hamish plays all of the songs from an entire musical! 

Following the advice of their weather routers, they have now switched onto a more westerly course, heading towards Antigua and hoping to be able to pick up the strong trade winds.

The first week of the race has definitely been challenging and tiring but the morale on board remains high. As the skipper said himself, ‘there is still a long way to go but we couldn’t really have asked for a better first week’.  

Now they are off, you are able to track Eppy using the YB Races App. This shows you their position in the race as well and their location and current progress, updating every 6-8 hours.

They are so thankful for all your love and support which continues to drive them on. Please keep supporting the team by donating via the link below. All donations are so gratefully received and keeps the team motivated to keep on rowing!

With lots of love, 

Jack, Hamish, Arthur and Euan

Feature image credit: Atlantic Campaigns Penny Bird