Rowing After the White Whale: A Crossing of the Indian Ocean by Hand

217 Pages·2013·3.04 MB·English

by  Adair James

ROWING AFTER THE WHITE WHALE

For Ben, thank you for sharing the adventure

And for Tory, thank you for believing me
Contents
Prologue

Part One: The Build-up

1. Beginnings
2. Interim
3. Mixed Motives
4. Monomania
5. A Bosom Friend: Ben Stenning
6. Preparations
7. ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’
8. A Brief Note on the Indian Ocean Rowing Statistics
9. The Shortest Possible Description of the Lead-up to Our Departure, Including
a Brief Portrait of the Incomparable Simon Chalk
10. Australia
11. The Shelf

Part Two: All at Sea

12. The First Day
13. At the Mercy of the Shelf
14. Downing Tools
15. The Looming Seas
16. The Vortex
17. Surf’s Up!
18. ‘Water’
19. On Our Way
20. Swim
21. Another Rower
22. On the Personalities Drawn to Ocean Rowing
23. Timothy and the Filofax
24. The First Becalming
25. Fish
26. Storm
27. Catch 22
28. A Brief History of Ocean Rowing
29. The Thieving Dorado
30. Small Aliens from the Deep
31. The One Thousand Mile Mark
32. The Great Becalming
33. Gyres
34. Sea Stars
35. ‘If’
36. Whale!
37. Our Birds
38. Shark!
39. Drier than Being Dry
40. The Moon
41. Halfway Point in the Sea of Rainbows
42. Moby Dick
43. Passing Ships
44. Splendid Isolation
45. Reveries
46. The Fire Ship
47. The Great Independence Day Wave
48. From Bad to Worse
49. The Dark Boat
50. Recovering Under a Bright Sun
51. ‘The Most Wondrous Phenomenon’
52. On the Cultural and Natural History of the Squid
53. Para Anchor
54. Food, Glorious Food
55. Pain
56. One Hundred Days at Sea
57. Longest at Sea
58. The Silent Sea
59. The Beginning of the End
60. Second Storm
61. Pilot Whales
62. Lunar Rainbow
63. Nearing

Part Three: The Last Day

64. False Start
65. The Battle of Grand Port
66. The Final Furlong
67. Decisions
68. The Swim
69. The Reef
70. Rescue and Reunion

Afterword

Mauritius
Apologia
Meeting a Legend
On the Positive Benefits of a Brush with Death
A Lost World
The Final Swim

Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Prologue
17.15, 14 August 2011 (Day 116)
Now we’re going to die, I thought as the wall of white water came thundering
towards us. My heart thumped as my body started furiously pumping adrenaline
in anticipation of the impact.
For a moment the sea in front of the wave looked still and pure, so peaceful
and blue in contrast with the white rolling mass that was now seconds away. But
already the flat in front of the wave was being disturbed and soiled by spitting
shards of tumbling white water. The noise grew suddenly louder, from a
rumbling hiss to a raging thunder as the turmoil of water reached us.
Now we really are, actually, definitely, after all of this, after everything, going
to die, I thought. Typical. As for words, the only one I could manage in time, the
only one that seemed appropriate, was: ‘Shit!’
I took a deep breath.
The wave hit us with a violent, sickening crash and everything went black.
PART ONE
The Build-up