All-Woman Team Preps To Row The Atlantic

An all-woman team is preparing to row the Atlantic this December as part of the Woodvale Challenge and to help raise awareness of the horrible crime of human trafficking – something that is still all to prevalent, even in the 21st century.

The expedition has been dubbed the Row For Freedom and it will get underway in December when the crew sets out from Canary Islands in an attempt to cover the 3000 miles required to reach Barbados. They estimate it will take about 40 days to cross the Atlantic, rowing in two-hour shifts, 24-hours per day. As mentioned, they'll be rowing as part of the Woodvale, which is an annual ocean race that has earned a reputation as being amongst the most challenging in the world.

The Row For Freedom team includes Julia Immonen, Andrea Quigley, Debbie Beadle, Helen Leigh, Kate Richardson, and Katie Pattison-Hart. Each of these ladies has dedicated their efforts towards stamping out slavery and human trafficking across the globe, and as a result, they're working with ECPAT UK to call upon the U.K. Government to provide safe harbor for child victims of trafficking in particular.

You'll be able to follow the progress of these ladies on their website once they get underway in about six weeks or so. Good luck to the whole crew, who are not only embarking on an amazing adventure, but they're doing so for an incredibly important cause as well.

Another Team Preps To Row The Atlantic

A team of Slovenian and British adventurers are planning to row the Atlantic in early 2012, making the journey along the Trade Winds Route between the Canary Islands and Barbados. The crew plans to set out in January, when conditions in the Atlantic are best for such a crossing.

The four-man team consists of three Brits, Nikkie Brown, Simon Osborne, and Stephen Bowens, as well as Marin Medak, who is the lone Slovenian on the squad. They hope to complete the 2500 nautical mile journey in about 60 days, braving the vast and open ocean along the way.

You can read more about their plans on the team's official website TransAtlantic20212.com, where you'll find info about each of the men, their specially designed row boat, and more.

Paddler Makes First Ever Atlantic Crossing In Sea Kayak

Yesterday our friend Jon Bowermaster, who happens to write for Gadling.com as well, posted a great story on that site about a paddler who completed the first ever crossing of the Atlantic in a sea kayak. The journey took just shy of 99 days to complete and covered 3352 miles.

Way back in October, Polish paddler Aleksander Doba set out from Dakar, Senegal with his sights set on arriving in Fortaleza, Brazil. Jon points out that that is a distance of just 2000 miles or so, if you travel in a straight line, but thanks to high winds, especially in the first two months, and drift from ocean currents, Doba wasn't able to travel in a straight line, or anything close to resembling such. Those high winds and currents helped to tack on the extra 1300+ miles of paddling.

Doba is no stranger to long distance paddle either. Amongst his other achievements in a kayak are a 2,600-mile paddle around the Baltic Sea in 1999, a 3,300 mile journey from Poland to Norway back in 2000 and a 1,200 mile circumnavigation of Lake Baikal that was completed just last year. Jon notes that the Pole paddles a 23-foot long sea kayak "with monster roll bars and a pair of flotation cabins at either end."

As if reading about Doba's accomplishments in a kayak weren't inspiring enough, he also happens to be 64-years old. Pretty impressive accomplishment at any age, and even more so after 60. I hope I can be anywhere close to that active when I'm that age.

Well done Aleksander!