This is the year. 352 days until we set off on our small boat from La Gomera, Spain, hoping to arrive in English Harbour, Antigua around 40 days later. We thought this would be a good time to look at the year we have ahead. We’re finding what many have told us to be true - over half the battle is making it to the start line.
January
Whilst Tom looks to recover from an injured back (spending time in the physio room, pilates studios and stretching in extreme amounts), the rest of the team will be building strength with the help of our specialist trainer Gus Barton.
February
The million metre challenge? More to come.
March to April
Building on strength - generally the team train five times a week with three strength sessions, one conditioning session and one rowing session. On top of this, we stretch for 30 minutes seven times a week. As well as strength, mobility is key.
May
For the first time since we drunkenly decided to row the Atlantic at a wedding 16 months ago, the team will be back together. Lewis and Chris fly to Devon early in the month for a 10 day training course with SeaSports (our newly announced sponsor for this year). An interesting fact - the main hub in the entire world for training to row an ocean is about a mile from where we all grew up. Convenient.
After that, we hope to hold a couple of fund-raising events in Devon, before travelling up to Essex for more training - for the first time, we’ll meet our new boat and get out at sea for a few days with Rannoch Adventure.
After all of that, we will be holding our main launch event in London at the HAC, Moorgate. We want as many family, friends and anyone remotely interested to attend. Full details of the event can be found here. It promises to be a fantastic evening of fun and entertainment so please confirm your tickets if you can.
June to October
After May, everyone will have to work back into the flow of their full-time jobs - Lewis - finding himself in Sydney in the market of cutting edge software development (no-one predicted this), Chris - keeping the legal peace in Singapore, Charlie - the brainchild of the group, making complicated maths in London and Tom - continuing to grow his start-up Athletic Tea Co. - no one predicted this either!
However, we’ll still be working flat out to prepare everything for December. We’ll be on the water for at least two or three days each month from now, getting used to how the boat works and developing the key skills needed at sea.
November
Chris and Lewis will be back in Devon for the team to come together again. We hope to have at least two or three more weeks of team-building, preparing our food and mentally getting ready for the toughest challenge of our lives.
December
In early December we fly to La Gomera, just off the coast of Africa, where we will have a further two weeks to make sure everything is ready for our boat to depart into the wilderness.
Depending on the weather, we aim to start the race on 12 December 2018, taking around 40 days to complete the trip. You can visit the challenge page of our website to read more about the conditions at sea but needless to say, we're expecting it to be a very tough time. We'll only be able to sleep for an hour or two at a time for the entire trip and are hopeful / not hopeful of encountering sharks and whales. Not your usual adventure… but I don't think we’d have any other way.
The boys still need to raise a significant amount of money to be able to row the Atlantic this year and after that will donate all proceeds to our four chosen charities. If you know of anyone willing to support us, (from as little as £1), please send them here. Individuals and small companies can also join the 250 club by using this link.
Wish us luck this year and follow along on our Instagram - drop us a message if you're thinking about taking on a similar challenge and don't know where to start.
Let’s go 2019.
Tom, Chris, Lewis and Charlie
