I have completed the Rowing Challenge!!

I arrived back in Mudeford just before 12 noon today after an eventful 12.5 mile passage of 4hrs 30 minutes. It has taken me 7 days of rowing in a variety of conditions to circumnavigate the Isle of Wight and was much harder than I expected. Since I abandoned my original plan of rowing in windless conditions with smooth seas and decided to go when the weather seemed reasonably good, I have experienced a good share of wind and waves.

Today’s row is a good example. The decision that the forecast looked good enough was made at 12.30 yesterday and we were on the 3pm ferry, retrieved the boat at 4.30pm then looked for a B&B for the night.

I left Freshwater Bay at 7.20am and rowed under the white cliffs below Tennyson Down towards the Needles, in lovely calm conditions.

I stopped to look at three caves in the cliffs, known as Kitchen, Parlour and Cellar, where in the 17thcentury, a Lord Holmes would apparently entertain his guests! The swell surging into Cellar created a very loud splat/crash, presumably each time it filled the cave to the roof. I could see a shingle beach in the gloom at the back of Parlour, and the entrance to Kitchen seemed too low to use unless the tide was out.

Then on to Scratchells Bay, which is just behind the Needles. It has a shingle beach, a big almost submerged rock in the middle and is accessible only by sea since it is surrounded by high white cliffs.

I have thought about trying to row through the Needles since I started planning the row, and since I had arrived about half an hour before high water (when the tide should briefly slacken off), I needed to check out the conditions. It looked OK so I slowly rowed towards the middle, widest gap then carried on through and into slightly choppy waters on the other side. Then I turned and rowed back through the outer gap nearest the lighthouse, which is narrower and has a submerged rock on one side. I saw the rock in the water and kept clear, but I had a hard row to get through since the tide was still sweeping through towards the Solent side.

Although it probably wasn’t necessary at slack high tide, I decided not to go over the shallow Shingles Bank, so crossed the main channel and rowed west for just over a mile, round the SE Shingles buoy then turned towards Mudeford, about 8 miles away.

I hadn’t gone far when the wind started to increase, creating waves pushing at the side of the boat. This made it roll and my oars either went deep , came out of the water or sometimes skimmed over the waves. This made rowing quite difficult for a while but the wind and waves eased off a bit as I approached and landed on the beach.

Challenge over at last. It turned out to be a brilliant adventure, full of surprises and sometimes a bit concerning, but it was really hard work. I'm really pleased to have done it but I would not consider doing it again.

Click here for video of today's row

I will post some more photos tomorrow.