Four women who met online managed to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in just over 39 days. Despite two of them falling overboard and having to fix parts of their boat with duct tape, they still came in eighth place.
Victoria Monk, 31, Ana Zigic, 28, Ellie Reynolds, 25, and Abbey Platten, 27, decided to take on The World's Toughest Row after meeting for the first time online in 2021. They trained hard, going to the gym for two hours a day and learning how to row every weekend.
The team took on this challenge to raise money for Eating Matters, Endometriosis UK and Women's Sport Trust. They ended up breaking the record for the fastest British women's team to cross the Atlantic. They completed the challenge on January 21, 2023, in 39 days, 12 hours and 25 minutes. They started off in La Gomera in the Canary Islands and finished in Antigua, rowing 3,072 miles on a small boat with no running water or shade.
During their journey, they faced many challenges including going overboard, dealing with a damaged boat that needed duct tape, and losing most of their muscle mass. Despite these hardships, they managed to raise more than £8,000 for charity.
Victoria shared some of their experiences with PA Real Life: "We were contending with 30-foot waves, we very nearly capsized and we were black and blue." She also mentioned the difficulties they faced such as sea sickness, broken equipment, and navigation issues.
She described the harsh conditions on the boat: "There's two sleeping cabins, one at either end, and when conditions are rough like that, it's like you're inside a washing machine it was so hard to sleep."
Victoria first heard about the race five years ago and encouraged the other three women, who were strangers at the time, to participate. Now, they plan to visit schools and youth groups to inspire others with their story.
"I was just so unbelievably inspired by this completely bonkers thing I'd seen these 'normal' people setting off on this just extraordinary journey, taking on something seemingly completely impossible," she said. "I knew at that point that it was something that I just had to do and I knew also that it was something that I wanted to do in a team of women, to share what women are capable of."
Victoria then put "feelers out" on LinkedIn, Instagram triathlon groups and an explorer's blog, and set up her team. The women then decided the charities they were going to raise money for Endometriosis UK, Women's Sport Trust and Eating Matters.
Victoria, a sports marketers living in London, said: "A lot of it was about inspiring girls to get into sport, so Women's Sport Trust does a lot of work championing for more visibility of women's sport. And then the other charities linked to people dropping out of sport for different reasons. Ana has endometriosis so that was really close to her heart, and was something that has prevented her from being involved in sport and so, obviously, that was something that we wanted to raise the profile of. And then Eating Matters was one chosen by Abbey and Ellie."
Abbey added: "I always did loads of sports at school but unfortunately I got diagnosed with an eating disorder at 15. So from the age of 15 to 20 I was in and out of hospital and, as you can probably imagine, in an eating disorder ward they don't really promote you doing any sports apart from yoga or going on a walk or something. So I kind of lost out on that massively through those years but I started doing CrossFit with women of all shapes and sizes and it completely reshaped my whole idea of sport and movement, and it's massively helped my mental health to no end."
Ellie, a PhD student from Cardiff, was also diagnosed with an eating disorder when she was 16 and used exercise as a "mask" for her illness, but when she went to university she rediscovered her love for sport. The women then started a rigorous training plan of a minimum of two hours in the gym per day, and gave up every weekend to train together on a boat, with some members even having to miss birthdays and their best friend's wedding.
"Abbey, Ellie and I had never rowed before," Victoria explained. "Not only that, being on the Atlantic is completely different to river rowing you're being thrown around by Mother Nature, so we had to get really strong. We did stuff to help with stress training, so we were also working with sports psychologists to help with mental preparation, as well as navigation courses, seamanship courses, survival at sea and first aid."
On December 13 2023, the four women started the race in La Gomera and finished on January 21 2024 Antigua.
Abbey, a personal trainer from Norwich, shared her scary experience of falling into the sea at night: "It was slightly terrifying it was pitch black," she recalled. "A wave hit the side and I just lost my balance and tumbled over."
She also mentioned how quickly she was rescued: "It just happened so quickly before I knew it, I was back on the boat and everyone was trying to get me dry and give me food. By the end of it, I was eating squashed Snickers bars that no one else wanted. Now I can't even look at a Snickers bar or a flapjack!"
After completing their challenge, Abbey described the joy of having an ice cream: "Ana's husband got us all an ice cream when we finished and oh my God I still can't explain how amazing it was, I don't think ice cream will ever taste that good!"
Ellie reflected on the emotional finish: "The finish moment was incredible. I don't think there's anything that will ever come close to the emotions that day."
After the race, the women were so exhausted they could barely walk for 10 days and are still trying to regain their lost muscle. "My muscle mass has completely disappeared I think it'll be several months until we're back to where we were pre-row," Victoria said.
The team managed to raise over £8,000 for their chosen charities after the race, with support from their sponsor, Iroha, a Japanese sexual wellness brand. The team now hopes to inspire girls to get into sport.
"Now we have the platform, we're planning to speak to girls and women in school, Scouts and Guides to try to inspire as many as possible." said Victoria. "Inevitably we'll do more challenges together in the future but raising awareness is the thing I want to focus on."
To donate to the team's GoFundMe, visit www.gofundme.com/f/there-she-rows-atlantic-challenge
