Video story produced and reported by Julio Martinez and Samantha Freitas. Web editing by David P. Rose, Dylan Cohen, Jamie Newby, Zachary Wooten, Harriette Hanley, and Malachi Callwood.
A group of marine biologists will be making the biggest voyage of rowing in their history, from the Canaries to the island of Antigua in December 2023 to raise money for marine conservation.
Chantale Begin, a marine biologist, and her team, Salty Science, will be competing in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge to raise $300,000 to split evenly between The Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, Green Wave and Shellback Expeditions.
The Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge is an extreme series of endurance races where individuals from across the globe gather annually to test themselves against Mother Nature and compete to row thousands of kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean. Teams will battle sleep deprivation, salt sores and physical extremes inflicted by the race.
To qualify for the Challenge, all team members must complete 120 hours of rowing, with 24 of those hours being at night.
This nonstop voyage is expected to take six weeks, approximately 40-60 days, to cross the Atlantic. That is roughly 3,000 miles.
“We want to make sure that we’re well prepared as a team and that we’re well prepared for the mental challenge so that we don’t burn out so that we can support one another and so that we can do, you know, complete the challenge in a really positive way,” said Begin.
Sleep deprivation, hallucinations, starvation and the ultimate test of body and mind will be counterbalanced by seeing spectacular marine life, seeing the dawn of a new day and watching sunsets that are not seen from land.
“One of the things that folks do when they prepare pre-crossing is have everything lined up in packages per day. Its very easy. You don’t have to think about it too much, you just grab your food, rehydrate it. Everything is going to be dehydrated food so we can just very quickly add water and eat that,” said Begin.
If you are interested to compete in this challenge, visit their website to sign up.
