Atlantic Diary: Day 73 – Solitude, Calls, Eurovision

12 May, 07 – 21.47
15.5181N,49.4204W
24 hr progress: 17.4 Nautical Miles (1 nm = 1.85 km)
Distance left to Antigua (straight line): 698 Nautical Miles ( 1291 km)
Distance completed: 2486 NM (4599 km)
Wave height: 10-15 ft, Winds: 15-18 knots NE, Bearing: 270-290 degrees.

The sea has been metallic gray all day. Tough conditions, but with the rest from the day before and a little shouting I've done my best mileage yet (without a rudder for steering) of 17.4 nautical miles. Saturday is supposed to be Half Day isnt it?
I got a few messages asking me how I handle solitude and what I think about when I am rowing alone. Well, in response to that, I wrote on here that I try not to think of the outside world too much and focus on the job at hand.
Well ever since I posted that, I have been bombarded (by so called 'friends'), with offers for pizza delivery, chinese takeaway, bbq party invites, a trip to the cinema and TV shows.
Today being Eurovision Song contest weekend, I got no less than three invites to come over and watch it with them.
(For those not familiar, the Eurovision (is quite a funny) Song contest is an annual event where each European country puts forward their best party-pop song to a Europe wide TV audience. They who vote for each song as it is played on TV by calling a phone number. A country is not allowed to dial in to vote for its own song. The winner with the most votes wins the Eurovision award.)
Anyway, preparing for the night row ahead, it did give me something different to think about for a change. Trying to predict who would win it this year. Quite an easy one if you look at what usually happens each year. To start off, the French and the Belgians only vote for each other. The Spanish, Portuguese and Italians do the same for one another. The Scandinavians vote for each other, except from Sweden that votes for everyone. In the Baltic states, Finland votes for Estonia thats across the water and their linguistic cousins Hungary. Estonia returns the favor by voting for Sweden. Latvia and Lithuania choose each other. Norway votes for Iceland. Unfortunately, nobody votes for England. Germany depends on Austria. Swiss don't vote. Turkey records the most phone calls coming from Germany. The Czech Republic, Poland and Romania get the most votes out of England, as these days everyone lives there now. Israel gets a tough time because some people think there has been some confusion on screen. (Isn't it in the Middle East?). Greece and Cyprus help each other out. Around the black sea, Romania supports Bulgaria. Slovenia and Croatia give each other points. That leaves only the Balkan states and the Dutch that get an even vote from everyone.
The trick is to gradually teach everybody in the EU to be fair in their voting so that some day there will be hope of having standard electric wall sockets.
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Anyway, that was my digression of thought for Saturday night. Back to “reality”, here in the Atlantic. I have a few tasks on board including cleaning the deck, making more water and trying to experiment with an alternate solution for the rudder. I've been thinking of trying to fix an Oar to act as a rudder.
Rowing alone and trying my best to enjoying it while it lasts.
Let me know who won the Eurovision. Just curious.
B
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