Ocean rowing is a growing sport in which specialised boats are used to row across open oceans. The sport is as much psychological as it is physical – ocean rowers have to endure long periods of time at sea rowing anything up to 12 hours a day. The first ocean row was undertaken by two Norwegians - Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo - who rowed an open wooden rowing boat from New York to France in 1896.

It would be seventy years before the next ocean row – 1966 - when John Ridgeway and Sir Chay Blythe succeeded in rowing from Newfoundland to Ireland. In recent years, the sport of ocean rowing has grown in popularity. The following table shows the steady growth in the sport over the past thirty years (courtesy of the Ocean Rowing Society):

Ocean rowing has been termed by some as ‘the new Everest’; however, despite the increasing number of rows across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, fewer people (as of 2006) had rowed across an ocean than had climbed Everest or had been into space!! Due to the dynamic nature of the oceans, it is necessary to row with the prevailing winds and currents. This means that an east to west traverse of the North Atlantic must be done in the lower latitudes to take advantage of the Trade Winds and currents, and a reverse journey done in the northern latitudes. Due to the colder and rougher conditions of the north, the majority of Atlantic crossings are east to west. The Canary Islands off the coast of Africa are an ideal launching point for east to west ocean rows, being situated at the base of the Trade Wind Belt. It is 3000 miles from the Canaries to the Caribbean. Although this route starts and finishes on islands, it is considered by most to be a complete Atlantic crossing, and takes advantage of the ideal weather conditions and currents.

“I don’t think that those of us who have felt the need to climb a mountain or row an ocean have done it, or will do it, “because it’s there” but “because we are here”. Without us mountains and oceans have no meaning by themselves: they “are there” and always will be but, for a very, very few, their presence inspires a dream of pitting our puny strength against their might, and to conquer not them but ourselves. The quest to prove worthy of an almost inconceivable challenge is our greatest reward. To us it is not the final result that matters but how we measure up to our self-imposed task to confront and do battle with Nature at its rawest. And those who die in the attempt do not die in defeat; quite the opposite, their death is, in many ways, a triumph, the symbol of that indomitable human spirit that will break before it bends. To test what we are made of, that is our pursuit”

John Fairfax - First solo rower of the Atlantic (Gran Canaria to Florida, 180 days, 1969)