Close to disaster (#6)

“We’re two blokes in the middle of the Atlantic. We have oars, a satellite phone, two GoPros, some freeze-dried food, a Dropbox Business subscription and Justin Bieber on repeat. Home is miles away. Barbados, our target, is miles away. We’ve met sharks and whales, 30 foot waves and had near misses with three gigantic cargo ships. This is our Dropbox journey to the cloud.”

Before we left, someone asked us what we’d do if our boat flipped over. We weren’t sure what the answer was. We are now.

Last night we had the music on as normal, throwing some shapes to Rhianna to keep our spirits up. Then just after 5am a big set of rollers came in.

Next thing I know, we’re vertical and skidding backwards.

A giant white wall of water came out of nowhere, and our boat turned into a washing machine. And thanks to that new motion, my job was to get thrown into the water – no hat, no head torch but Jaybirds still in and blasting out Rhianna.

Tommy had been in the cabin and woke to find himself face down on the ceiling, eye to eye with a baby-faced Justin Bieber (the secret santa calendar – not Bieber himself). Once the boat had righted he opened the door to come “face to face with what looked like an intoxicated homeless man caught in the rain” – that’d be me then.

We lost two oars overboard and all our water bottles.

Not brilliant.

But according to our maps, Barbados is getting much closer.

The sixth of out Tempest Two series which follows the boys on their Dropbox sponsored journey across the Atlantic.