Rowing an ocean is a daunting task – doing it alone even more so. As of September 2023, just 197 people rowed the Atlantic solo in modern times. Of these, 22 were women. There were a further 87 incomplete attempts.

To put things into perspective, 656 people had reached the altitude of space by July this year. That’s more than three times the number of people who took on the Atlantic rowing challenge solo.

By the time I get to go, there will have been at least another 21 people I know who will row the Atlantic, probably a dozen or so more.

My solo row takes place in 2025 – on 12 December of that year to be exact. Just over 30 other teams will also be in the race – the World’s Toughest Row orgnaised by Atlantic Campaigns. I will row from La Gomera to Antigua, around 3,000 miles of wild Atlantic Ocean. This will be my second row (see below), but my first solo.

Every one of us has a different reason to row, but we all share the common desire to do something which is relatively unique.

In my case, I will become the first Maltese person ever to row an ocean solo. I believe that for a nation so intimately tied with the sea, it is nearly a must for our flag to fly proud among the many nations who have produced solo ocean rowers.

Going solo means I have to take care of everything on the water during the crossing – rowing (duh!), navigating, steering, keeping the boat clean and maintained, making water, managing power, keeping a watch-out for ships and potential dangers, taking care of myself, cooking, ensuring the boat has a good trim, and removing barnacles from the hull.

There is a lot to do.

Back home, there will be a team who will be helping with my journey. With such a huge challenge, the backroom team will provide invaluable support for me to get to the other side.

The costs for my row are expected to be around €140,000 – if you know anyone interested in supporting me, please send me an email. More information is available below.

Source for statistics

It’s been an eventful but rewarding first leg of the journey for Steve and the rest of the team as they battle rough seas and high winds on their Atlantic adventure.

With swells of up to 3 metres, waves crashing over the side of the boat and the rowers frequently being swept out of their seats, it has certainly not been an easy start to the voyage.

Steve himself has been thrown from his seat countless times, cutting a finger on one occasion. And to make matters worse that finger then got infected which has hampered his rowing considerably. But the team have medical supplies on board and are treating the injury well.

They have also had to spend long periods on sea anchor to cope with the weather conditions and that has slowed their progress.

In one of his updates to home, Steve said he hasn’t been eating much during this first stretch, making do with energy drinks and chocolate for the most part and forcing himself to eat proper food on just the odd occasion.

The reality is that things which are normally simple – sleeping, eating, cleaning your teeth – become so much more complicated in the confined, turbulent environment of the boat, so they just don’t happen, Steve explained.

In one particularly distressing update, he told how the red bucket which the team had designated as their toilet broke meaning the black bucket, which was originally intended to be used for showers, has now been promoted to toilet duties.

It’s fair to assume there isn’t going to be a lot of showering taking place over the coming weeks…

Despite everything, however, the team is still making healthy progress and is many hundreds of kilometres on their way towards South America. A long way to go but they are well on their way.

Steve is rowing across the Atlantic Ocean to raise funds for three great organizations. To find out more and to donate, go to www.crossrower.ch (de.crossrower.ch in German)

We’ve now been in Portimao for a week and are more or less ready to go. As I write, we are getting the watermaker ready. It didn’t start up last time, but it’s probably just a set up issue. After that, we are ready. Ideally we would leave at once, but we really need the wind to be blowing in the right direction. The bad news is that the wind is all over the place. There was a window a week away, but that has now firmly shut. I must admit it is very frustrating. I am not well adapted to waiting.The good news is that the winds are constantly changing. This means it’s entirely possible we just up and leave with very little notice at all. In the meantime, we will be training and waiting. The wind may be messed up, but at least the sun is out.

Tight fit

In the event of a storm or very bad weather, three of us will be confined to the aft cabin. We tested it out the other day and found it to be a bit of a tight fit. But if we are lucky, this should not happen too often. Sometimes I will be in the cabin alone, other times it will be two of us sharing it. This happens on our downtime, which we don’t have huge amounts of. Having said that, right now I would prefer any sort of tight fit than this horrendous waiting.