Rowing the Atlantic Ocean Solo: 10 Weird Things That Happen

It has now been a year since I stepped on land after completing my solo row across the Atlantic ocean. It was a journey that took me over 3000 miles from La Gomera to Antigua over the course of 59 days, 16 hours and 36 minutes. It was brutal but absolutely brilliant. Here are 10 weird and wonderful things that happened on my journey.

1. Your boat becomes your best friend.

In the solitude of the open sea, my boat, Jack Keane, became more than just a vessel. I very rarely talked to myself, but during challenging moments battling massive waves, I found myself talking to Jack more. Especially in times when I really had to focus, in tough conditions and when speed was important, ‘Come on Jack, we got this!’ I’d say as we surfed down waves the size of my house, trying to stay upright.

2. Wolves don’t live in oceans!

Undoubtedly after a certain amount of sleep deprivation your brain starts to play some tricks on you. Under a full moon, approximately 1200 miles from land and just before midnight I was going through the motions, in a bit of a trance getting through my shift on the oars. Suddenly, I completely jumped out of my skin and scrambled backwards against the cabin hatch, thinking a wolf was trying to get on the boat. I had to think logically, ‘wolves don’t live in the Atlantic Ocean you idiot’. It turned out it was just a mid-sized wave that had broken against the boat. However, that wasn’t the first time. On nights like those, when the sea is lit up from the moonlight, I was constantly ‘seeing things’ out of the corner of my eye.

3. You see shooting stars so bright they light up the night.

I often hated the nights when it was a new moon as you could never see the direction the waves were coming at you. But when it was calm and a clear sky, it was truly magical. I’d argue there’s no truer way to feel connected to the planet than in the middle of the ocean under the stars. I always love seeing shooting stars and would observe then semi-regularly on my night shifts. This one particular shooting star was so bright it lit up the sea completely, as if it wasn’t even night.

4. You feel like a guest of the ocean.

Despite very much feeling comfortable and ‘at home’ living at sea, I very much felt like a guest of the ocean. There is a bit of a saying in ocean rowing that you don’t cross an ocean, mother nature lets you. It can be a very ferocious beast, but also the most beautiful sight you’ve ever seen. It demands respect. During the day I’d often have a daily scream, to release any tension and vent out my frustrations, but at night, I’d find myself automatically whispering, feeling like I would be disturbing ‘someone’ if I was too noisy.

5. You think more profoundly.

I truly felt extremely privileged out on the Atlantic, just to have the opportunity to be there. To be so close to the ocean and experience mother nature in its rawest form was simply incredible. Some days, I would just break out smiling thinking ‘I get to experience this’.  Don’t get me wrong, not everyday was like this, there were some I thought that I’d never want to repeat, but there were many days I would just find myself in awe of mother nature, that sunset she gave  or that busy night sky.

6. Sometimes it feels like you’re riding a dragon.

I had thought it was maybe just me that felt like I was going super fast at night, almost like riding a roller coaster but upon speaking to Jess, she agreed said it felt like riding a dragon. The easiest way I can describe the feeling is like going down a hill really fast on your bicycle. Now this doesn’t make much sense because you’re rowing backwards. But, when you have 20 knots of wind blowing in your face and it’s so dark you can’t even see your oars in the water, it can feel like you’re riding a dragon.

7. You don’t mess with the god of the sea.

Poseidon, Neptune, whatever you call him, you do not mess with him. I am not religious, nor would I say that I am superstitious, but even I stopped pushing his buttons. Rowing an ocean, there is so much out of your control, namely the weather. In the last 10 days when I was desperate for some decent waves and strong winds, I’d find myself shouting at the top of my lungs in frustration ‘oh for god sake, would you just give me some wind!’ only to be swiftly hit by a rogue wave resulting in a knockdown (near capsize) or a wave breaking over the stern of my boat, soaking me from head to toe as if I was getting a stark warning. This proceeded to happen every time I said something out of line. I soon learnt to zip it.

8. You get slapped in the face by wet fish more than you’d think.

Flying fish are funny little creatures, flying and skimming off waves in great shoals for up to 45 seconds. They are not so funny however, when they're slapping you in the face at 5 am in the morning. These are one of the wildlife encounters you hear of a lot when speaking to other people from the ocean rowing community. I did not expect to spend most of my day dodging these little fellas or rescuing them from the deck after coming out of my cabin from an off shift.

9. Your taste buds change.

Taste Buds change a lot at sea. At the start of the crossing, when I was really struggling with the freeze dried food which made it super hard to get the calories. In a bid the get what I could in, I ate biscoff spread like it was yogurt. However, approximately 2 weeks in I could not stand the taste or the smell of it, and haven’t touched the stuff since. I also had some lovely treats in my snack packs, including chocolate coated oreos, but these all got thrown overboard to begin with as there was nothing about them that enticed me. But close to the finish line, after a particularly tough week with changing weather, they came up in my snack packs again and it was all I wanted. I certainly regretted the multiple packs I’d tipped into the ocean in the first half.

10. You’ll spend a high proportion of your day thinking about food you can’t eat.

It goes without saying that freeze dried food is not the most appetizing. It was something that I really struggled with most of the journey. It made me feel quite sick and did not digest well. As a result, your brain naturally drifts towards the foods you can’t have, thousands of miles out of reach. For me my biggest food craving was toast, not entirely sure why but it was absolute bliss when I could scoff as much of it as I wanted upon finishing. I’d also find myself thinking about very specific meals I’d had over the years but when you haven’t got much to think about, your mind goes to what you can’t have.