Atlantic Row
| 40-day unsupported Atlantic crossing | Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge 2018-19 |
In December 2018, I set out with a team of four to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, widely regarded as the world’s toughest row. Our route took us from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean, entirely unsupported.
We rowed in a two-hours-on, two-hours-off shift pattern, 24 hours a day, for 40 consecutive days. The boat was a 28-foot ocean rowing vessel with no engine, no sail, and no support craft. Everything we needed for the crossing (food, water via desalination, and equipment) was carried on board from day one. Conditions ranged from flat calms to 40-foot swells, through squalls and the relentless physical and psychological toll of open-ocean rowing. Our most persistent equipment failure was the auto-helm, which kept overheating until we resorted to drilling holes in it to keep it cool. When it failed, the boat would heave sideways to the wind, and it nearly tipped us over.
We finished 5th in the fleet, 23 hours and 33 minutes behind the lead boat, and raised £25,000 for Multiple Sclerosis charities.
