Page 187 - Mind, Body and Spirit No. 105 2021/22

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2 days before starting the 3000-mile row
anything. Simple games became the hardest tasks and whoever decided a game of quick maths was a good idea, quickly changed their mind when it took us 15 minutes to work out that 5 x 5 = 25.
As with all endurance events, nutrition and hydration were key. Eating between 4000-6000 kcals a day might be daunting for some, especially when it means forcing yourself to eat every 2 hours, both day and night. Luckily for me, eating is not something I’ve ever struggled with, and this didn’t change out at sea. Sitting eating a hot meal in a boiling hot cabin whilst sweating just became the new normal. Chocolate became our new best friend, and it turns out chocolate spread goes with anything, including avocados.
Solar panels, electricals, blades, and gates are common things to break or stop working on ocean rowing boats. The water maker is the one piece of equipment that no one wants to go wrong. With the team needing a minimum of 40L of water each day, hand pumping water would have made life onboard significantly more demanding with far less sleep. Did our water maker break? Yes. Did we manage to fix it? yes! After six hours of pulling the entire thing apart, changing all the spare parts, checking all the seals, and rewiring all the electrics, repeatedly, we found our problem. A small squid had decided to make its home in our water inlet, the simplest thing to fix that caused us the biggest headache.
As we got closer and closer to Antigua, the excitement started to build. The excitement of being on land, eating normal food, sleeping in a bed for more than 90 minutes and, most importantly, having a shower and using a toilet. The last 48-hours at sea were incredible! Morale was at an all-time high, we sang our hearts out, we ate our final bar of team chocolate, we cleaned, we washed, and we didn’t sleep a wink, it was amazing.
The team at the start line with veteran APTCI WO2 (QMSI) Pat Kaufman.
There are no words to express how it felt reaching the finish line. The flares, the clapping and shouting and the realisation of what we had accomplished. We were now ocean rowers and world record holders. The next seven days were a blur of trying to catch up with all our families and friends; interviews, eating and sleeping a lot, and just generally trying to return to normal life. Before we knew it, we were on a plane back to the UK ready to return to work and share our journey with the rest of the world.
If you ask each team member what their favourite part of the journey was, the answers will all be different. It could be the wildlife we saw, whales, dolphins, turtles, marlin, and the huge amounts of flying fish. Or perhaps it could be the sunrises and sunsets, the night skies filled with thousands of stars, it was beautiful. Or maybe even swimming in the open ocean above the unknown. For me, having reflected on the journey, my favourite part of it was sharing it with three incredible RAPTCIs.
Calm waters of the Atlantic
Mixed four World Record Holders completing the row in 40 days 23 hours and 57 minutes
On dry land once again pictured in Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour, Antigua