The Atlantic Dash is a new ocean rowing event that will see crews set off from Marina Rubicon in Lanzarote and head for Jolly Harbour in Antigua, a journey of about 3,200 miles, making it the longest organised Ocean row in the world.
Our boat is less than 9 m long and 2 m wide with the main cabin being roughly 2/3 the size of a double bed. That space will be our entire world while we are at sea and the boat will be our life support system. There is no support vessel to come and resupply the crews taking part in the Atlantic Dash so we will have to be carrying everything that we need on board as we push off from the shores of Lanzarote. Food, safety equipment, medical kit, spares, tool kits, navigation and electrical equipment will all have to find a home on our tiny vessel.
We will be rowing in pairs and adopt a 2 hour shift pattern, which means that each crew member will row for 2 hours then rest for 2 hours, row for two hours and rest for two hours, all day every day until we reach Jolly Harbour after anything between 40 and 60 days later……
That 2 hours rest? It’s not really 2 hours at all. We will have to get into the cabin, take off our safety and wet weather gear, boil water to make meals (each rower will consume around 6,000 calories a day), eat the food, clean our bodies and take care of any medical issues that we are dealing with. All that takes up about 30 minutes of their 2 hours rest which means that we will never sleep for more than 90 minutes at a time for up to 60 days!
During the row each member of the crew will.
Take approximately 750,000 oar strokes
Eat 300,000 calories
lose between 5 and 15 kg in weight
As a crew they will have to deal with
Sleep deprivation
Huge storms
Salt water boils
Other ships
Unfriendly marine life
Extreme temperatures.
Why are we going to put ourselves through all that……
When you look at al the hardship that we are going to be putting ourselves that’s a question that we get asked a lot……
Luckily, we have some good answers.
We get to represent Antigua! We all love our beautiful Island and to be able to claim a new world record and bring it home as an Antiguan crew is something that we are very proud to be able to do.
Inspire other young Antiguans. We want to be able to show other young adults in Antigua what is possible through teamwork and determination. We are working together with the Sports and Education minister Daryll Sylvester and plan to visit schools after the crossing to talk about our experiences at sea.
Raising money for charity. We are using the row as a platform to help raise funds for two local Antiguan Charities, The ST John Hospice and the National sailing academy. You can find out more about the incredible work that they do on our “Charity” page .
For ourselves. There are not many people who get the opportunity to challenge themselves in such an extreme environment. It will allow us to test our mental resilience, be there for each other as part of a team and have a shared experience that we will never forget. We will see incredible sunrises and sunsets, night skies that are so bright and full of stars, be inches away from marine life in locations where it is entirely possible that no other person has ever been. We will be forced to realise our true potential and carry that knowledge with us when we get back to land.
We hope that we can make the people of Antigua proud and want you all to be part of our journey.
Please show your support by following us on social media where we will be posting regular updates of all our training, fundraising and the crossing itself.
