Ralph via SAT phone (transcribed)
Good morning, this is Ralph. We are filling up with gas in Bridlington Scotland, and then heading down to London. Hope we will be there tomorrow morning at 11. We are committed to tomorrow morning at 11. Unfortunately there is a major storm rolling in and we have to race that storm in order to get in tomorrow morning at 11.
Last night we broke down, the first time ever our engine broke down on this 7,000 mile voyage. The Scottish Coast Guard offered to come out and tow us in, and we said “We can’t be towed in”. We were 15 miles offshore drifting out to sea. We refused to be towed in. When they did the research on the website they came back and said now we understand why you do not want to be towed in, you will lose the record. What we will do is bring you a mechanic at 1:00 in the morning to help you fix the boat! But by the time that they agreed to bring the mechanic, we found a wire that had weakened and broke. Bob and I crammed something into the console and we weakened the wire connection. Eventually it vibrated loose and broke. It has been fixed.
Now we are zooming off to keep our commitment for tomorrow morning at 11:00 in London down the Thames. Hopefully you will be there. Bye
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Ralph,
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that you got everything sorted last night. I am a volunteer with Sunderland RNLI, who was the emergency team which were paged by Humber Coastguard (based in Bridlington, England) to offer you some assistance.
From all of the lads at Sunderland RNLI (www.rnlisunderland.org) we wish you well in the rest of your record attempt.