Two friends aim to row around the UK in the fastest time
Pair are facing a perilous 1,650-mile trip to beat the world record of 41 days, four hours, and 38 minutes
WHEN AN adventurous 2,300mile rowing trip from Los Angeles to Hawaii was ruled out, Duncan Roy and Gus Barton set their sights on something closer to home.
Instead of crossing the Pacific Ocean, the two friends decided to try to row around Britain instead.
But to make it even more challenging, they are trying to break the world record of 41 days, four hours, and 38 minutes which means they cannot touch land.
The pair, who are now off the coast of Scotland about halfway around the UK, admitted it was proving a tough challenge.
“It doesn’t sound that difficult,” said Mr Roy, 29, a former British Army Royal Engineer who now lives in North Yorkshire.
“But people are surprised to hear it’s around 1,650 nautical miles and there are lots of challenges on the way like whirlpools, strong currents and some very rocky coastline. It’s far from easy.”
The row is completely unsupported and they cannot touch land at any stage to make it a valid circumnavigation.
However, both are experienced ocean rowers and have already travelled from Ramsgate clockwise around the UK.
They navigated the Gulf of
Corryvracken, home to one of the largest permanent whirlpools on Earth, where author George Orwell almost drowned in 1947.
Mr Roy said: “We didn’t have any problem with the whirlpool, but then we found ourselves stuck by the current off Mull.
It means we are unlikely to break the record but we will try.”
The pair are rowing 1,200 strokes an hour, 18 hours a day and are consuming 6,000 calories a day. Last night, the pair were just off Peterhead with Aberdeen in their sights.
Mr Barton, who is from London, is fundraising for the Sport in Mind charity, after a friend’s father committed suicide in February.
Mr Roy, of Ingleby Cross, near Northallerton, is rowing for the NHS Charities Together where his partner works as a nurse.
He has rowed the Atlantic Ocean twice in 2017-2018 and then in 2018-2019, and has since shared his knowledge and skill with many ocean-rowing teams. Last year, the friends came together as part of Latitude 35 team to row across the Pacific Ocean, from San Francisco to Hawaii.
After the tough decision was made at the end of May to call off the Pacific crossing due to coronavirus, they began exploring ways to use their physical training and mental preparation nearer to home. In 10 days, they chartered an ocean-rowing boat, found sponsorship, sourced ration packs, plotted their route, refined their training plans, sourced all of the equipment needed and checked the Government’s guidelines to ensure the challenge can go safely ahead.
They say the biggest challenges are navigating shipping lanes, sleep deprivation and salt sores. They also said that being able to see land will be psychologically more challenging than being on the wider ocean.
Mr Roy only took up rowing through rehabilitation for an injury, and said: “I started competing and fell in love with the sport.
“This organically led to river rowing and then ultimately spiralled into ocean rowing.”