Everyone has a Pacific Ocean that they need to cross
Four women took on a life-affirming challenge to row a distance of 8,000 miles across the ocean, from San Francisco in the US to Cairns, Australia, to raise Dh918,250 for charity
Imagine the ‘do-or-die’ spirit of a gritty woman. Then throw in a good chunk of resilience, will power and discipline into it. Multiply it by four. What you get is ‘The Coxless Crew,’ which took on the Pacific Ocean and created history by rowing more than 8,000 miles from America to Australia — all by themselves. ‘Four women, one boat, one ocean, one dream!’ Four women: Natalia Cohen, 40; Laura Penhaul, 32; Emma Mitchell, 30; and Meg Dyos, 25 One boat: The 29-foot bright pink Doris One body of water: The Pacific Ocean One dream: To raise $250,000 (Dh918,250) for charity
The all-women epic journey that started from San Francisco on April 20, 2015 ended on January 25, 2016 at Cairns in Australia. During the nine months, the four women battled brutally rough weather, deceptively calm seas and even monster sharks that were chasing them for weeks. During each leg of the journey, one new rower joined the team, releasing one member.
Losing sight of shore
All the action and drama on the high seas were caught on camera, and turned into a 92-minute documentary by director Sarah Moshman. Losing Sight of Shore; Everyone has a Pacific to
cross will be shown at the Manarat Al Saadiyat auditorium on Saturday, May 20 as part of the British Council UK/UAE 2017 Year of Creative Collaboration.
Khaleej Times caught up with Lizanne van Vuuren, one of the rowers, who is in town to attend the screening. She joined the Coxless Crew in the third and longest leg of the voyage, and rowed from Hawaii to Samona for 90 days. Another rower, Isabel Burnham, 30, was also part of the adventure, and rowed from San Francisco to Hawaii.
“My 97 days at sea... one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. There were thousands of people who were following our story, and drawing inspiration to fight their personal challenges,” said Lizanne, a qualified Osteopath from Cape Town. Joining the team midway, her main role was to infuse fresh energy into an exhausted team and motivate them to keep going.
But what was an Osteopath who has never rowed before, doing out at sea? Lizanne says it all started when she completed her first half Ironman marathon in 2014 and was stunned by her own physical strength and stamina.
“That got me fascinated with endurance sports. I decided to join the row to push those psychological barriers even further and truly test the meaning of resilience and perseverance.”
“When I first e-mailed the Coxless Crew and got a positive response asking me to join them, it sounded like a joke. I live in Cape Town. They live in London.”
But nothing mattered as Lizanne had the will to take on the challenge. “I knew that it was going to be a predominantly psychological challenge rather than a physical one. In fact, 90 per cent of the journey was about your mental capabilities and just 10 per cent about physical strength,” said Lizanne.
And it indeed was, as she had to fight constant sea sickness, overcome the emotional trauma of losing her uncle while she was at sea and of course conquering the infinite and unpredictable ocean, day and night.
“We could not sleep for more than two hours at a time. We were rowing 24 hours, seven days a week, in two-hour shifts.”
“At night, it was pitch dark and we could only hear the giant waves come crashing towards us. All we could do was hold on, brace for it and let it wash over us. That was scary.”
Humour on the high seas
But, Lizanne says, there was never a moment when any of them wanted to quit. “We were all incredibly driven and determined to get to the finish line. But of course, there were times when we were exasperated by going back and forth because the wind was not on our side, and we had to do the same thing again and again to fight the currents.”
And when everything fails, humour works, even when you are caught between the sharks and the deep sea. “We had sharks chasing us for weeks. Instead of panicking, we found humour and started calling them Spanish names like ‘Fernando’ and ‘Edwardo’.”
And then there was the endless, sinful chatter about food that kept them awake.
“That was something we spoke the most about. We used to ask each other what they fancied the most and salivate about a good steak.”
The crew had to survive on frozen dried food to make good their 5,000-calories per day intake, and had to live with the barest minimum possessions like a few t-shirts, shorts, a sunscreen lotion and a hat.
Mission completed
After spending 97 days rowing in the rough seas, and becoming part of history, will Lizanne do it all over again? “No,” comes the emphatic reply. “Not again. I may do something else in future. But not venturing into the sea again.”
But the life-altering experience, Lizanne says, has given a fresh perspective on life.
She may not have cracked the Rubix cube her brother gave her for the journey, but Lizanne definitely has learned to crack the complex game called life.