Rowing the Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean

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You made the comment that you vowed never to become blasé about things you previously had taken for granted on dry land; yet you also comment that it would be mentally exhausting to be constantly grateful for all the minutiae of life. Where do you stand on this now, almost five years later? Are you still grateful for all the things you took for granted or has that subsided a bit? Atlantic Campaigns Partners | Atlantic Campaigns Ocean Rowing Race". atlanticcampaigns.com . Retrieved 8 March 2017. Billy Taylor: The skipper, and the boss. A veteran of crossing oceans, and a campaigner for Parkinson’s. He’s, amazingly, rowed the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. Billy was great. He led from the front, fixed the endless problems on the boat, was always the first to jump into any sh*tty jobs, and he was also a super-strong rower. Sure, MonkeyFist as a company were a little loose in organisation, but Billy as a man, skipper and friend? Top guy. And Martin, having seen that, was more than entitled to think he could enjoy the experience, row when he could, rest when he needed. Why not?! It’s still an adventure. You still cross the ocean. He didn’t sign up to kill himself. He didn’t sign up to row with the effort, or output, of anyone else. And if that was his maximum level of effort, then that’s his maximum level of effort. I had to accept lots of people have no desire to get dark and suffer. To see how far they can push it. And they’re probably much more relaxed about life living in that gear. Without the pressure, I seem to pile on myself.

And then it got me thinking about integrity. I always like to think I push my comfort zones. And then through my blog and social media, I truly hope I help encourage others to push their comfort zones. You don’t know yourself until you’ve been dark and had to dig deep. That’s true. I came on to another night shift around midnight and I had to wear a t-shirt, hoody, and large ‘bad-weather’ coat. Shivering, I had to row hard just to keep warm. Every time I built up some steam, I got smashed by freezing cold saltwater. A wave smashing against the side of the boat, ‘the beam’. I hadn’t worked out how to wear the foul-weather gear properly (no sea trials, remember?!) so I was drenched. Soaked to the skin. So each time my shift ended, Martin and I clambered into the cabin and tried to sleep, fully clothed in our seawater-drenched cotton hoodys.While rowing, I received heartbreaking messages from people who have had similar experiences to my own, with my brother-in-law, Roger, so I hope I’ve helped other families in some way too.

Where I once thought that the ocean was relentless, the waves were relentless, the routine and schedule were relentless, and that all of those things had the prospect of beating us. In those last 2 or 3 weeks, I realised that those things were merely consistent. But in fact it was us, our team, our boat that was relentless. Regardless of the obstacles, of the weather, of the chaos, we showed up for our 2-hour shifts every single shift. In fact, Martin and I didn’t miss one shift the whole time. We were relentless. Us. Our expedition was relentless. And finally, that relentlessness was paying off. Londoner wins 'world's toughest' race". Evening Standard. London. 14 January 2014 . Retrieved 20 February 2017. I believe that I have been successful in incorporating the best of the new Roz with the best of the old. I now get a marvelous feeling of integrity in myself, whereby I see that everything that has happened in my life – all the skills and experiences, even the ones that seemed bad at the time – have helped to form this person that I am now. It is as if everything was leading up to this point, equipping me with exactly what I needed to do what I now do. The normal complaints from other people who had rowed oceans didn’t bother me. The food? It was fine. More than fine actually. Dehydrated food that you eat by adding boiling water and leaving for 5 minutes. Kinda tasty actually. The exercise? Enjoyable. Using your lungs, heart, and muscles. That’s what I signed up for. I wish we rowed harder if anything. The sleep deprivation? I mean, sure, it’s not ideal. But it wasn’t something haunting me. We could carry on.

probably the most important technique that I now use is to “focus on the process”, i.e. what needs to be done TODAY to bring me closer to my goal? So I have a very vivid image in my mind of the goal itself – how it will feel to arrive at the end of the journey, how this fits into the bigger picture of my life direction, etc – and I know what needs to be done in the here and now to work towards that goal. But I refuse to contemplate tomorrow and all the other days that will pass between where I am now and where I want to be. I find that just too overwhelming. I concentrate on taking it one day, one stroke at a time. He is due to set off from the Canary Island of La Gomera on December 12 to row to Antigua in the Caribbean, a distance of 3,000 miles.

We reached the half-way point. A point where I hoped my spirit would lift. But it didn’t. If anything I felt worse. I had been truly miserable for so long, for over a month. And the thought of doing exactly the same duration again was soul-destroying. I felt incapable, yet there was no way off. Not good.Things began to get a little heated within the team. The company we were rowing with, Monkey Fist, do things a little differently from most companies. The whole logic behind this expedition was, along with raising money for men’s mental health, was to showcase their existence by partnering with Matthew Pritchard, of MTV’s Dirty Sanchez Fame (an absolutely lovely, lovely guy it turns out by the way), so they wanted to make a documentary about the row. Makes sense, fair enough. Since Frank’s last row, there has been incredible progress in dementia research, with two new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease proving successful. But this is only just the beginning. At Alzheimer’s Research UK, we exist for a cure, so we can save everyone from the heartbreak of dementia. Frank and Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation’s continued support will help us to get there.