Jan. 12. Monday. Combusting magnesium magenta, seas 8-10ft; evening, Sapphire Blue gin bottle blue, seas 6-8ft.

Our first bit of really exciting news arrived by text message a couple of days ago. The message said that apart from Charlie, who has an unfair advantage, yours was the best overnight run. Towards the end of my first 3.5 hour watch, I was struggling to keep up the pace. My eyes were sore. So I shut them and continued rowing with my eyes shut! In

learning to sail ‘Foncia,’ Alain Gautier’s 60ft trimaran, I was encouraged to helm with my eyes shut in order to ‘feel the boat’ and so to learn to respond intuitively to the boat’s motion. At the oars, it was no different.

Sailor and artist Lia Ditton has been at sea for two weeks in the 23-foot ocean rowing boat Dream Maker. She and her rowing partner, Mick Birchall, are competing in the Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race 2009. In just over a week Dream Maker has moved from 20th to 5th place. Excerpts from Lia’s blog this week highlight some of the other lessons she’s learning.

http://www.oarsomechallenge.co.uk/