All is not swell but it will be worth it

Atlantic Diary: Paul Gleeson and Tori Holmes are finding the going tough on their Atlantic Rowing Challenge

PAUL: Frustrating. It's the only word for the last week or so. On Thursday night the waves came crashing in and we reluctantly put the sea anchor out. We've been stuck since, going backwards some of the time.

After two days of drifting we decided to see if we could make progress with both of us rowing. We took in the sea anchor and gave it a lash, but we got nowhere. It's only a two- or three-foot swell and force three to five wind, but it's impossible to row into.

Frustrating.

The swell is pushing us north, which is not where we want to be at all, and we've lost at least half a day of the rowing we had done. It's not a very strong swell, but the sea anchor is not holding as well as last week. I think it works better when the seas are stronger.

We are now in the middle of a shipping lane and you have to stick your head out of the cabin every couple of hours to check. We saw our first ship on Monday, when this huge, huge tanker passed within a few miles. A ship like that could plough us down and not even notice.

We have a powerful radio signal which is supposed to show us as being a much bigger craft. And we called them on the radio, but we got no response - I don't think they monitor Channel 16. If a ship gets really close we have collision flares.

Once we get further south there will be much fewer ships, but we have been waiting on the weather to change. And waiting. We're three weeks out of the Canaries and our projection was that we'd be going into the fourth week knowing we were only seven days from half way; instead we could be three weeks from that.

TORI: We're going mad in here in the cabin for the last four days. I don't know how crews that aren't couples put up with it. How do they get on? The cabin is so small, I don't know how the big ones fit together in it. We don't find it so easy, and we're tiny.

PAUL: We've gone through a lot of our games. We discovered a pack of cards we didn't know we had and that was a big boost. Hangman has been good, and we've been playing drinking games - even though we have no drink.

I've been teaching Tori some Limerick songs, like There is an Isle. Now it's Fairytale of New York. We're working through the chocolate: we split Twix bars and each eat a leg as slowly as we can. Tori eats hers so slowly I end up begging.

How do we hold on to our long-term motivation? We sit in the cabin and we talk about how hard it was to get here: how much hassle we had; how we begged, borrowed and stole to do this. And we look at the little plaque we have which says: "The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little time."

You keep getting knocked down. But then if this was easy everybody would do it. We've also been talking about how great it will be when we get to Antigua, seeing our family and friends. It's going to be so worth it in the end.

We've seen a lot more marine life in the past few days. Not just dolphins, but these big fish which look like sharks. They come right up to the boat with their mouths open and push up against it. If you wanted, you could nearly reach out and pull them in.

At dusk we worry about real sharks, who come around then. We've felt bumps against the keel - it seems sharks will do that to clean themselves.

Gags (Gearóid) Towey rang at the weekend. It's nice that the boats in the race keep in contact. Gags and Ciarán Lewis are a good bit further on and further south, although they've been hit by the weather as well. We're all losing weight, which was going to happen.

TORI: Do you know what I miss? Socks. I don't like my feet being wet, and I just hate when my feet get wet and cold. And what do I miss the most? Eggs Benedict. Back home at Christmas time my mother makes it.

I phoned home and some friends had come around and they were all drinking Eggs Benedict. And think of all the food!

PAUL: Yeah, the biggest thing I miss is real food. And it's a bit of a cliché, but being out here really puts things into perspective. You realise how important family and friends are and how much you take them for granted.

For Christmas, we have little parcels people have given us to open. We both hope they contain little treats of food! We put aside some cans of Coke and we'll drag them behind us to cool them and then break them open on the day. We intended to bring some alcohol but forgot - it'll be a dry Christmas, unfortunately.

The best gift we could get would be calm seas and a helpful wind. We're itching to get back to the oars.

Happy Christmas to all!

(In an interview with Liam Gorman)

• To contribute to the Gleeson/Holmes race text Row to 57252. Each text is worth €2 to Concern.