The Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge – “THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST ROW”

I’ve always been up for a challenge, loving hiking up mountains, attempting to canoe around Comino island in Malta and the like and in 2017, I signed up for the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, choosing to do some of the hardest legs despite having never sailed before. This is where I met and bonded with my mate Abby over a love of sunnies, trainers, bubbles and all round good times.

On our final leg, after 31 days together at sea crossing the North Pacific and battling 14-metre high waves, as soon as we were safely back on dry land, with a beer in hand, we wondered what our next challenge would be. Abby said she’d always wanted to row the Atlantic. For me, it was a toss-up between that or riding across Kyrgyzstan on a donkey. The Atlantic won.

However, it wasn’t plain sailing and after being diagnosed with cancer in March of 2019, the rowing plans were shelved.  After going into remission, I decided that I was ready to channel my energy into something positive, by raising money for Cancer Research, Macmillan and The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, and so, at the start of the year, I signed up, along with my teammates Abby and Charlotte, to take part in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge.

The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is a rowing race like no other. It is the ultimate endurance race across the world’s second largest ocean – the Atlantic.

The Atlantic Ocean was first rowed in 1896. Since then there have been numerous epic voyages and records broken, yet more people have climbed Everest than have successfully rowed across the Atlantic.

In December 2021, approximately 30 crews will set off to row the 3,000 nautical miles to Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua. The fastest crews may cross within a month, but over 80 days at sea is not unheard of.

We will row non-stop, two hours on, two hours off, in a 23-foot ocean rowing boat.

We will have to carry everything required for the race with us, because once we set off from La Gomera we are unlikely to see another boat or human being until our arrival in Antigua.

We will battle storms, 25-foot waves, salt sores, sleep deprivation, hunger and a lack of home comforts. In fact, we will be lacking most things – including beds and a toilet! Christmas and New Year will bring little in the way of presents and pudding, delivering us potential equipment failure, sharks, shipping lanes and capsizes instead.

However, with careful preparation, plenty of support from family and friends and team work on the crossing, we hope to make it to Antigua in record time.

If you want to find out a bit more about the race, and what we’ll face, take a look at our team page https://www.weareextraoardinary.com