SA eco-warrior Grant Blakeway takes on world’s toughest rowing race
SOUTH African eco-warrior Grant Blakeway watched from the marina in San Sebastian de La Gomera last year as 35 teams set off on an epic rowing race across the Atlantic Ocean.
On December 12 this year, he will begin the same voyage as a solo competitor and the only South African in the 2020 Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.
The premier event on the global ocean-rowing calendar is organised by Atlantic Campaigns. It involves an approximately 4 800km unassisted row from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to English Harbour in Antigua and Barbuda. Race teams compete solo or in groups of up to five people, and carry everything they need in their boats.
Held annually, the challenge attracts competitors from all over the world. Recent local entrants include MAD 4 Waves (2018) and Watering the Mind (2019).
Blakeway is taking on the world's toughest row to help raise awareness about the effects of marine plastic pollution.
Blakeway said he was on holiday with his wife in Indonesia several years ago when he realised that plastic pollution was a truly international crisis.
“The high tide came in, and with it, everything from sweet wrappers to shopping bags and bottles to broken toys. Plastic was the common denominator. As soon as we arrived back home, I started searching for ways to make a difference,” he recalled.
He didn't go looking for a gruelling test of endurance, but when he discovered the Talisker Whisky Atlantic
Challenge, he knew that he'd found an event to inspire people as well as a platform from which to share his environmental message.
“Plastic pollution is devastating ocean ecosystems. It's our problem. We cannot ignore it. And we need to act before it's too late,” Blakeway said.
Blakeway chose the name Melokuhle, meaning ‘stand for good' for his one-man race team.
With the possibility of mid-Atlantic storms, swells as high as 12 metres, and an estimated 1.5 million oar strokes to complete from La Gomera to English
Harbour, Blakeway is expecting to be pushed to the limit.
“This race is difficult enough when you're in a group, but when you're a solo rower, everything becomes more challenging. I'll be alone on the boat, and I'll be the human engine as well as the navigator, the radio operator, the repair man, and the chef,” he said.
Support Blakeway on his BackaBuddy crowdfunding page: https:// www. backabuddy. co. za/ champion/ project/melokuhle
Visit https://grantblakeway.com for more.