Rowers reach halfway in Atlantic crossing contest

A FORMER Trinity Primary School pupil has reached the halfway point on a journey across the Atlantic by rowing boat.

Rosie Tong, who grew up in Henley and now lives in Reading, has been out at sea since December 14.

The 27-year-old is part of a crew of three that are taking part in the World’s Toughest Row, which sees teams take on a 3,000 miles journey from San Sebastián de la Gomera in the Canary Islands to English Harbour in Antigua.

So far the team have celebrated Christmas at sea and been followed by dolphins.

They have also battled rough seas, soaring temperatures and the task of scraping barnacles off their boat.

Miss Tong, who works as a personal trainer, spoke to the Henley Standard via satellite phone on Monday.

She said the challenge had been simultaneously harder and more enjoyable than she had anticipated.

Along with her teammates, Clare O’Reilly, who marked her 47th birthday at sea, and Mel Jarman, 33, Miss Tong has been rowing in endless shifts, only stopping altogether on the rare occasion the wind allows.

“Although it’s hard, it’s amazing,” Miss Tong said. “In some ways, it was hard to know what to expect because it’s such a big thing.

“But then I think the good bits are even better than you imagine and the hard bits are maybe slightly harder and a little bit more extreme.”

The crew are currently around 1,500 miles from the closest bit of land, which Miss Tong described as “quite weird”.

She said: “Right now we’re literally pretty much bang in the middle of nowhere, kind of in line with Antigua, our destination. It is just horizon everywhere.

“To be honest, we all said that in some ways it doesn’t feel like we’re that far away because, depending on the weather, it appears that there is not a massive distance between us and the horizon.

“But then, when you stop and think, the closest piece of land is more than 1,000 miles away.”

Miss Tong said that the hardest element of the challenge had been contending with 40C heat on the deck of the boat during the day. She said the group had an old fridge thermometer to measure the temperature, which drops to around 25 degrees at night.

During the day the crew has no shade from the sun apart from the cabin, which stretches underneath the deck.

“I’m blonde and fair-skinned, so I’m constantly lathering myself in sun cream,” Miss Tong said. “For me, I think the heat is at the minute one of the biggest challenges.” Despite this, Miss Tong has found the rowing most challenging at night.

She said: “As soon as the sun comes up, it’s not too bad but the night-time rowing is quite tough, especially when you’re falling asleep.

“But, at the same time, the night sky is incredible and the sunset and sunrise is incredible.

“I think I’ve seen shooting stars every night and I saw a fairly big meteor — that was cool.”

Miss Tong said that she had been looking forward to reaching the halfway mark and more favourable conditions after starting out the challenge in rough seas.

She said: “Each day we do will be one day less and we’ve also got some better weather.

“We started after a storm, so it was quite rough. We went out into big waves, so there was a lot of seasickness in the first 48 hours or so.

“There were 4m or 5m waves straight away and that lasted until Christmas Day.”

After a rough start, Miss Tong said the seas quietened down and little wind meant that it was like “rowing through cement”. She added: “We would wait for the wind to build again so we could speed up again.”

In their downtime, Miss Tong said the crew would help each other out by making clean water by using a desalinator.

Their meals consisted of oats in the morning and couscous and noodles for lunch and dinner.

However, she added that most of what the crew was eating was made up of snacks that they were taking on all day and all night to stay fuelled.

For Christmas, the crew enjoyed a special meal made up of food they had picked up in Spain before departing.

Miss Tong said: “We still had quite good weather so we were able to stop rowing and have a meal together, which is nice, even though the boat was still moving.

“We had what we called a ‘charcuterie board’ with chorizo and cheese and some crackers and olives.”

Miss Tong said that food was one of the main topics of conversation.

She said: “I mostly miss fresh food or just being able to do a simple task like getting a drink because everything just takes so much longer on the boat.”

Through their challenge, Miss Tong’s crew, “Row with the Flow”, is raising money for the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust and Ocean Generation.

The crew has been sponsored by local businesses, Gabriel Machin butchers and the Three Tuns pub in Market Place, Henley, and the Henley Distillery, in Binfield Heath.

You can follow their journey via their Instagram account. Search for row.withtheflow