We are on terra firma, we made it! And somehow we managed to steal a world record, for the fastest female pair to row the Atlantic.
What a crazy few days!
In the last few days on the ocean we went dark and into stealth mode. We put away our sat phone and reduced our coms to the outside world and focused solely on the job in hand....getting to that finish line. We rowed none stop with a sleeping pattern of 45 mins. We looked horrendous and the salt sores built up as our cleaning routines got reduced in favour of more rowing.
The weather was calm and we prayed for wind and big waves every hour. Our prayers finally got answered 10 hours from Antigua. We got wind! We rowed like fury!
We were lucky enough to break the world record by just under 2 hours. 3000 miles came down to just 2 hours inside of the record. It was Mad and was certainly the cherry on top of our trip to finish.
The last 2 weeks of rowing were by far the toughest. You’ve already experienced all the firsts, by this point the excitement of being on the ocean reduces and your focus is less about the journey and more about the finish. Which seemed to get further and further away with the calm weather we received.
On arrival it was a huge explosion and assault on the senses. So much so that Jemma even fainted during the interviews. More due to lack of sleep and food though. Seeing our families, hugging and laughing with them was such a fantastic moment full of love, relief and happiness.
Our bodies are tired and we are treating them to everything and anything they want. Avocados, fruit, pina colados, steak, vegetables, chips, ice cream, chocolate. Jemma lost 10kg and Lauren 4kg so the above is totally allowed we hope. We’ve had a couple of dips in the ocean and a rescue in a pedal (a story for another day), but we are now very much land based and will not be venturing out to sea for a long while or stepping on a boat.
We have both been staying with our families and found the separation from each other after 50 days, although laughable, quite difficult to adjust to. A routine for the last 50 days where you rely solely on the other person and really trust them with everything, it’s the strangest thing suddenly not having them around all the time.
It’s been the most popular question from people since we arrived “are you still friends?”....We couldn’t be better. We both laughed none stop at sea and it’s been a truly mad and unforgettable time that we will both cherish forever. There just aren’t any words at the moment to really give it justice.
We want to thank so many people. Our friends, family, sponsors, supporters, charities and messages from long lost friends and strangers, all have been just amazing. We can’t quite put our enormous thanks in to words. Just THANK YOU.
Thank you also to all those who have donated to our charities. We are so close to our target of £30,000, thank you so much.
Lauren is now getting ready for her next endeavour, the Marathon Des Sables, with just 2 months to get used to using her legs after they have been wasting away for 50 days.
Jemma is very much an open book. Any suggestions please send them her way :)
Again thank you from the bottom of our boat and hearts.
What an amazing journey and thank you for following and supporting us.
Wow, just wow.
Love
Jem and Lauren. Xxxx