Rowing the Atlantic: two years after being rescued by helicopter I try again with a complete stranger
- The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is a 3,000-mile, unsupported, paddle from La Gomera to Antigua that is billed as the ‘world’s toughest rowing race’
Call me mad but the relentless, grinding, monotonous and dangerous task of rowing the Atlantic Ocean unsupported sounds like fun. So on Wednesday December 12, I’ll be casting off from the Canary Islands in Spain in the hope of making the crossing.
Bouts of butterflies fill my stomach. But I’m no stranger to the nervous final build-up to this sort of adventure, even if I’m a stranger to how it ends.
When I pulled away from shore in 2016 on my first attempt to row the Atlantic it was a relief. I suddenly relaxed and the tension disappeared.
But little did I know, I would be returning to land via rescue helicopter 40 hours later with my tail between my legs.
Rowing the Atlantic is brutal. It requires a relentless sleep pattern – two hours on, two hours off – all day and all night. Food is limited to dried astronaut meals and blisters and chafe are constant companions.
The combination of agoraphobia from the empty expanse of the horizon, and claustrophobia from being stuck on, and physically clipped to, a tiny boat is confusing. The lack of sleep leads quickly to hallucinations. I expect to be talking to Santa at some stage.