The countdown to my Atlantic Challenge has now begun in earnest, with less than seven weeks to go before departure.

Preparations in the final weeks are well under way with a considerable amount of administrative work, putting together equipment and necessities, and loads of training left to be done.

I will leave for Portimao in Portugal and meet up with the rest of the team around February 22. We will there hold training sessions, safety drills, and conduct all the necessary tests to ensure that crew and boat are ready for the expected two months at sea.

We will be crossing in Rose, a Rannoch 45 ocean going row boat that is considered among the best in its class.

It will be back to basics for the duration of the trip, with the 9m x 1.7m boat playing home to five adults.

Getting to the start line will take quite a bit of work. Apart from organizing travel and accommodation, I need to get a long list of things done. The personal things I need is long and there is not a great deal of allowance for bags.

The list includes clothing, including bad weather gear, creams, vitamins, water flasks and spoons, shoes, towels, medicines, caps, suntan lotion, washing gel, dry bags, sleeping bags, and much more.

I also need to get audio books, music, and kindle books ordered, and make sure I have an MP3 player for the last days (Spotify stops working if offline for more than 30 days).  The list is endless.

As I’m collecting money for three charities, I have extensive work to do to make sure I can regularly update followers with the aim of boosting fundraising. Until now, I’ve collected around 10% of my CHF30,000 target.

At the beginning of February, I will be going back to Malta to do press interviews and participate in a nationwide all-channels telethon that is also collecting funds for one of my charities. One week after returning to Switzerland, I leave for the row.

Then there is the training. Covid-19 restrictions have hampered on-water training, so a great deal of work was done on the rowing machine at home. Over the past two years, I have done around 8 million meters. Apart from that, there have been another few hundred – I estimate around 300km – on water.

I dislike weight training, but have maintained a regular weekly session lifting weights. I probably should have done more, but hindsight is 20/20 vision. I’m running far less than I would have liked to do with rowing taking up the majority of my training time.

Now, I’m also planning to do a month of High Intensity Interval training (HIIT) to strengthen my core, and my plan is to do some more time on the water.

I was also lucky over the past months in that I was able to train with the Swiss Raw boys – training on a Rannoch 45 is by far the best thing that I could have done.

The training also included time in the cabin. While outside was fine all the time, I instantly felt slightly sick inside the cabin – I guess my first days on the ocean will not be fun.

Meeting my team will be very important – I believe the chemistry between us will be fundamental to crossing the ocean in the fastest time possible. We are still hoping to break the world record of 48 days 4 hours for the Trade 2 route.

In total, we will take around 800,000 strokes from Portimao to Kourou in the French Guiana. We will work on a two hours rowing, two hours off, day and night for the trip. In this time, we will consume around 6,000 calories a day and still end up losing around 10kg.

Despite the two years of intensive training, I am still beginning to feel anxious about the trip.

Failure is not an option – I can’t decide to abandon the project half way through. And I have no intention of doing so.

This is why I have been preparing myself mentally for this challenge in the best way possible. I am working on changing my mindset from one where arriving at the destination is the goal to one where the journey itself is an integral part of my target. It’s not ‘finish as quickly as possible’ but rather ‘work hard to get there quickly while enjoying the trip’. I have also started breathing exercises aimed at increasing my focus and concentration in difficult times.

I have also asked my three daughters and wife to write letters to me which I can turn to in times of crisis – I’m planning on returning home with the envelopes closed.

Go to www.crossrower.ch / de.crossrower.ch to find out more and donate to Steve’s charities