What is hardest part of rowing an ocean? The adventure begins long before you even see the water

The mundane reality of ocean rowing is that the mountain of work to get to the start could wash you overboard before you even set foot in a boat

The Northwest Passage Expedition crew delay their expedition amid concerns of spreading Covid-19 to isolated Inuit communities

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The journey across an ocean starts months, or even years, before rowers pull their first stroke. Photo: Ollie and Michael Pitts

Mark Agnew

Mark Agnew joined the Post in 2017 to capture the booming extreme sports scene in Hong Kong.

Published: 3:02pm, 4 Mar 2021Updated: 3:02pm, 4 Mar 2021

Rowing unsupported across an ocean is hard, gruelling and life changing for most who even attempt it. Alone in the vast sea, rowing in non-stop shifts all day and night, suffering from blisters, sores, sunburn, dehydration and sleep deprivation, and going to the loo in a bucket while on a roller-coaster ride are all par for course. But you will be surprised to discover what the hardest part really is.

The most common crossing is the Canary Islands to the Caribbean, usually as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, which can take anywhere from 29 to 100 days. But as experience and technology improves, rowers are pushing the boundaries – a team rowed across the Drake Passage to Antarctica; a Russian priest rowed solo across the Southern Ocean from New Zealand to South America; another man spent 336 days alone at sea rowing non-stop from North America to Australia.

A duo is attempting to row further north than anyone before, above Svalbard, this summer; and a team of rowers, including myself, are attempting to be the first to row the Northwest Passage, the Arctic route that links the Atlantic and Pacific over North America, in a single summer.

The hardest part of ocean rowing is not a romantic tale of pushing into the unknown, the emotional lows or the towering swells. The hardest part is getting to the start.

Last Great First from George Hopkins Films on Vimeo.

That may sound rich coming from me, given I have made it to the start of the Atlantic twice and been rescued once, and had to abandon my boat for technical reasons on the second attempt.