Pacific Row Diaries: Monster Waves, Moonlight & Milestones
Since setting off again from Peru in May, Jess and Mims have clocked up some serious miles, powered by dehydrated curry, adrenaline, and a slightly questionable playlist. (Their words not ours!) Now over 4,000 miles now rowed, they are officially past the halfway point and a lot has happened since the last blog update…
🌊 “BIG WAVE!” – The Salopettes Incident
One of the more dramatic moments came just after sunrise on a breezy morning in early July. Jess, heading out of the cabin for a rowing shift, got the shout from Mims, “BIG WAVE!” just in time to slam the hatch shut behind her. Clinging onto the hatch handles as water pummelled the stern, Jess managed to keep the cabin dry but not without cost: a few bumps and bruises, some very soggy laundry, and one seriously swollen hand (which rendered her temporarily one-handed for rowing).
Mims stepped up to take extra hours on the oars while Jess became the team’s one-armed deckhand for a couple of days - made slightly more bearable thanks to autohelm and a shared sense of humour. Jess is now back on the oars, and they are both rowing together during daylight hours and shifting into two-on, two-off rotations after sunset.
😴 Sauna Sleep & Spoonless Meals
Daytime heat has become its own adversary to Mims and Jess. Trying to nap in the cabin is like being zipped into a sleeping bag and placed in a greenhouse - They wake up feeling like dehydrated raisins. Meanwhile, their trusty freeze-dried meals are putting up a fight of their own, with wind gusts regularly sweeping spoonful’s of food straight across the deck. Bonus points if it happens right after they’ve cleaned up or hung laundry. (Which it always does!)
🌕 Silver Seas & Midnight Rowing
The full moon lately has been putting on a proper show. They reported that the light bounces off the water like something from a dream, and it’s a surreal feeling rowing through the night with only the ocean and moonlight for company. Those little moments; silver waves, phosphorescence in the wake, a calm stretch after a tough patch, are what make it all worth it.
💧 Maintenance Magic
Mims and Jess’s watermaker continues to just about hold it together. Every day they get through without needing to pump manually is met with cheers from the deck. They’ve learned that quote “it’s not magic, it’s maintenance” applies to just about everything on board- including themselves.
Their batteries are being divas, which means more hand-steering than they would like, and a lot of careful power planning (usually involving switching everything off, charging during the day, and hoping the solar panels behave). But with some smart routing and clever tweaks from shore support, they are in a great position to glide between the Marquesas and French Polynesia.
📍Navigation & Support
Jess and Mims are still navigating without a chart plotter, which makes having good people in their corner even more important. Huge thanks to Simon Rowell, their weather router, and to Mims’s dad Christopher (now dubbed “Officer of the Watch”) who’s keeping a lookout for any ships nearby and relays marine traffic back to them. What a dream team!
REMEMBER: You can track Mims and Jess on the homepage or on the YB Races App 📱 by searching Seas the Day.
📈 One Third of the Way… and Blowing Up on TikTok
You lot have been keeping Mims and Jess going from afar, and they couldn’t be more grateful.
Since relaunching in May:
Seas the Day videos have been viewed more than 8.4 million times across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Jess falling asleep mid-row? Yeah, that clip went viral with over 3.6 million views.
TikTok has grown to 118k followers, Instagram nearly 17k, and the Seas The Day Facebook following has tripled.
They have had reels hitting 198k, 246k, and even 2 million views (without a single ad)
Since May, over 1,700 people have tapped through to the site via Instagram alone.
All of this helps raise awareness for The Outward Bound Trust, boosts morale, and makes Jess and Mims feel like they’re not alone out here. So thank you! ….for sharing, liking, commenting, and laughing with them - It truly makes a difference and means the world to them!
🌏 Final Thoughts from the Ocean
They still have a long way to go, but they’re in good spirits (and mostly dry socks!). There’s no such thing as a normal day out here - just slightly different flavours of chaos - but every time the autohelm holds, the batteries charge, or a whale decides to cruise past the boat, Mims and Jess remember why they are doing this.
Keep tracking them, keep cheering them on, and they will keep rowing (and posting) as long as the snacks hold out!
❤️💙💛🚣♀️🌊
Please follow Seas the Day on socials and share your encouragement with the team.
Jess and Miriam are raising vital funds for The Outward Bound Trust, a charity helping young people get outdoors, push their limits, and grow in confidence. The team hopes to inspire the next generation to take on challenges of their own.
If you’d like to be part of their story and help Seas the Day make history with the Great Pacific Escapade, please donate.
