It was actually very tricky to think of a name which sounded OK. With no inspiration we took the unoriginal approach of working through a book rind a suitable candidate…. GEMINI is named for the sons of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. They were given power of the wind and the waves, and are also the protectors of seafarers.
THE DESIGN
We will get the technical stuff out of the way first …
GEMINI is a Phil Morrison designed ORS class ocean row boat. She was built in 2007 by Rossiter Yachts of Christchurch, near Southampton. Constructed of an epoxy – foam composite material, she is 30% lighter than her earlier sister ships who were manufactured from plywood. The material itself is also incredibly strong, and as with ocean going vessels, she is compartmentalised into watertight sections.
An inherent safety feature of the vessel is that she is self righting. In the event of a capsize due to rough sea conditions, her inherent buoyancy and low centre of gravity will simply swing her right around. Sadly we will get rolled around in the cabin with everything else and doubtless have a meaty headache afterwards…
GEMINI has 2 rowing positions along the centreline of the vessel, and stowages for 2 additional pairs of spare oars. Oars being a particularly critical kit we don’t really want to lose any (and they are pricey too as we discovered!!)
SAFETY
Clearly in this challenge safety is paramount, and preparation has been geared to meeting that need. Both of us are well versed in living and working safely at sea from our previous careers. We have also both completed recent refresher courses in sea survival and maritime first aid.
GEMINI is equipped with a range of state of the art safety and communication devices that enable us to be tracked and monitored 24 hours a day (hence you can see us on Google Earth!). Moreover all essential systems and features have back ups and spares – even down to our rations and water.
Perhaps the most critical feature – as alluded to elsewhere – is the inherent ability of the boat to self right. This combined with all the safety equipment, training and experience give us the confidence that we have made this endeavour as safe as possible.
CONSTRUCTION
The boat was built by Rossiter yachts as a bare hull and Cabins. We had to fit it with all the equipment and electrics. A long task, but very satisfying as the boat took shape around us. Both of us endured various cuts, bruises, burns etc as we clambered all over GEMINI cutting holes and bolting gear on.
LIVING ON BOARD
- To pre-empt the obvious questions….
- There is no flush toilet on board.
- We do not have an outboard motor stashed away inside the cabin ready to deploy once we are clear of Tenerife.
- No DVD player…. (Though we will both have our ipods)
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Radio Antennae
- Aft Cabin (we sleep in here)
- Forward cabin
- Solar panel
- Gate
- Compass
- GPS
- Rowing positions
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As can be viewed in the pictures, GEMINI is effectively a beefed up version of a sea going row boat with a cabin attached at the bow and the stern. The aft cabin (the one at the back in plain English) is where we will ‘sleep’ and where our radios and navigational kit is fitted. This cabin is small, and is one of the few occasions that a guy would say he is lucky to be 5’ 7”…even then it is tight. Sleeping quarters consist of a sleeping bag and a foam mat.
When we are not snatching sleep we will of course be rowing. We will do this in shifts – roughly 2 hours on, 2 hours off. Rowing up to 14 hours a day needs over 5000 calories a day. Any food we carry must be light and compact – hence are meals are freeze dried rations ranging from Chicken tikka masala to strawberry mousse. Snacks consist of energy bars, cereal bars, nuts…and chocolate. In fact, a real plus point is that we will have virtually a licence to plough through chocolate bars on a daily basis - a habit we will have to ensure we break when we return to work!
Our water is made from the sea – we simply pump it through a membrane, which simply removes the salt. Liquid refreshment is limited to tea, coffee and powdered energy drinks. No alcohol unfortunately…
Entertainment will be based around our 4 waterproof speakers which will be fed from ipods and the ship’s radios. We are bust compiling our playlists and seeing what the world service I offering in the spring. Doubtless we will have the rocky soundtrack in there somewhere for particularly strenuous times. Aside from that we will have a few decks of cards, a repertoire of jokes and some laminated sudoko.
We can’t escape the world back home completely – we will have a satellite phone to speak to our families, and can send back text and pictures to this very site. Feel free to write to us!
Finally we power all of our electrical equipment in a highly eco-minded manner. We have 3 solar panels on the cabins that feed 2 12 V batteries. For back up we have plenty of AA batteries for various essential kit such as torches, radios and MP3 players.
