An all-female crew successfully rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in an “eco” boat.
In case you didn’t know, women can do anything. In today’s story, a group of women who wanted to make a statement about sustainable living rowed across the Atlantic in a boat with no backup motor. Sure. Why not?
“The BBC has the story. “Having spent nearly 47 days at sea and rowed for 3,000 miles (4,800km), the Bristol Gulls finished the ‘world’s toughest row’ in Antigua [this month].
“In so doing they became the first crew to complete the crossing in a sustainably-made boat. Skipper Sofia Deambrosi said the foursome was ‘exhausted but happy.’
“The Bristol Gulls — Miss Deambrosi, Lorna Carter, Phoebe Wright and Sarah Hunt — began the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge from La Gomera in the Canary Islands on 12 December. Rowing in two-hour shifts, they survived seasickness, scorching temperatures, being capsized by huge waves and stronger-than-normal headwinds.
” ‘We’re all very proud and happy but our levels of exhaustion are pretty high,’ said Miss Deambrosi. …
“As well as raising awareness and money for charities the RNLI [Royal Navy Lifeboat Institution] in Portishead and Clean Up Bristol Harbour, the team wanted the boat to promote sustainability.
The Bristol Gulls’ motto is ‘To be the trailblazers that inspire others to embrace sustainable change and equality.’
“Their resin and fibreglass boat was built using renewable energy and its foam core was also made from 10,000 recycled plastic bottles. It had no engine and the women, who wore clothing partly made from recycled marine waste, used a solar-powered desalination unit to convert seawater into freshwater.
” ‘We hope in the future that manufacturers will start looking at making boats whose core, at least, is 100% recycled material,’ said Miss Deambrosi. ‘There’s no reason they shouldn’t do that. It doesn’t make a boat any slower or any less robust.’ …
“Miss Deambrosi, who first decided to take on the event in 2018, said she hoped their efforts would inspire others. ‘A lot of the male teams are army guys, navy guys, super endurance athletes, which makes sense because it is a very, very tough thing to do. …
” ‘We are all very down-to-earth, chilled people. It required a lot of training, but we wanted to prove anyone from any background can do it. And we did.’
“The Bristol Gulls placed ninth overall and Miss Deambrosi became the first person from Uruguay and the first woman from South America to row across any of the world’s oceans. ‘I left Uruguay 10 years ago but to represent my country is amazing,’ she said.”
More at the BBC, here.
Update: Earle sent this photo of the replica tule balsa his daughter made for an art project. She rowed it between two islands near the Golden Gate Bridge. Cool, huh?
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I’m forwarding this to a friend whose daughter rows. I rowed myself, briefly, after grad school, but I kept banging up my hands and didn’t like the look. Silly me–I’ve rued the day often since, but not badly enough to to down to the river…
Women rowers are impressive. And just think– next time Greta Thunberg needs to go back across the Atlantic without using fossil fuels, maybe the Bristol Gulls could row her!
Sounds terrifying except for the beaches in Antigua at the end. Bravo!
Rowing across the Atlantic wouldn’t be my idea of fun, but clearly they got tremendous satisfaction from it. Glad the world’s people are all so different and cool!
Absolutely.
How impressive! Not surprisingly, those women look so strong and healthy. Why wouldn’t they be?
Well, I note that the training for this competition was pretty rigorous!
My daughter fabricated a replica of a “tule balsa” essentially a native canoe fabricated from marsh reeds, but California’s few relict tule wetlands are all protected, so she bound hers together from foam pipe insulation as an art project, and paddled it from Tiburon near the Golden Gate, over to Angel Island, which is an historic park on what was once an immigration station, the west coast equivalent to Ellis Island in New York.
Wow, how cool is that! I will try to add the photo you sent me of the craft.
Great story. Glad there is a place for recycled plastic bottles in boats. Thanks, R
I don’t buy plastic water bottles, but ordering groceries online in the pandemic, I’ve found I have to be careful with things like olive oil and pasta sauce. A market’s online photo may seem to show something in a glass bottle, but turn out to be in plastic.
Stock photo doesn’t match the item, how frustrating. We buy distilled water in plastic bottles for my husband’s CPAP machine. Worth it for the convenience.
Now you’ve taught me something new.