A four-woman team, including a pair of B.C. residents, has claimed victory in one of the world’s most grueling races and raised more than a quarter-million dollars for ocean conservation while they were at it.
The “Salty Science” crew claimed first place in the women’s class of the World’s Toughest Row — Atlantic 2023 on Saturday. The competition involves rowing, with no stopping and no support, from San Sebastian de la Gomera in the Canary Islands to Nelsons Dockyard in Antigua.
“We’ve been training, the four of us together, for three years,” Lauren Shea, a master’s student at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries told Global News. Shea was joined by Isabelle Côté, an SFU marine biology professor, as well as Chantale Bégin and Noelle Helder, both U.S. academics in marine biology.
The quartet, who range in ages from 28 to 61 years old, spent 38 days travelling 5,000 km at sea, powered only by their arms.
But why?
“To have a really great challenge, to go on this epic adventure that you have no idea what its going to be like but will push you mentally and physically, to see incredible wildlife, and of course all of us really love the ocean and that’s what we’ve spent our career doing — working on the ocean, being in it and under it as much as we can,” Shea explained.
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Nothing about the journey was easy.
They worked in pairs, rowing two hours on and two hours off during the day, and at three hour intervals at night — the boat never stopped.
During their off shifts they slept, ate, prepared food and did maintenance on the boat. Their only toilet was a 19-litre bucket.
And they faced major challenges both early and late in the race.
“We definitely had some very heavy weather for the first week or two, and being in heavy water is hard on your body but it’s also very hard on the boat, so we broke quite a lot of equipment during the first week, and that’s pretty scary because you’re like, we’re potentially at sea for six weeks and its only been one week and we’ve already broken some things,” she said.
“But the boat is amazing, and this is what it is designed to do. So it’s pretty incredible to be on this super small, super exposed boat, and we’re just like surfing down waves and were relatively stable in comparison to what you might think.”
Fortunately the team was able to repair a broken water maker, and had spare oars to replace those that snapped in the stormy weather.
When they were just over 150 kilometres from the finish, they also had a hair raising encounter with some marine life.
“We had a shark come up behind us and there were a lot of fish swimming around our rudder, and the shark started trying to catch the fish and it ran into our rudder multiple times, which is super dangerous because if it were to break our rudder we could no longer steer,” she said.
There were also moments of levity. The team packed Secret Santa presents and did a gift exchange on Christmas. And one the woman snuck the ingredients to make an instant cheesecake aboard, in order to celebrate Shea’s birthday which occurred at sea.
While the crew was generally aware of their position in the race, they didn’t realize they’d won the women’s division until they crossed the finish line.
Shea said winning was never the priority. They set out with three goals, in order of importance: to finish the crossing safely, to make themselves proud and remain friends when they arrived, and to row as fast as possible.
“Winning was an extra perk,” she said.
Shea said despite knowing where the team was on their charts, seeing the island of Antigua pull into view as they rowed their final kilometres still felt like a surprise.
“When we finally pulled into the harbour, you pull in and you hear all your friends and family shouting for you and shouting your name, and that is pretty emotional,” she said.
“When you finally cross the finish line the safety officer lights off a flare … and then you get to light your own flare and you have this moment with your team just recognizing what you just accomplished together, and that was really amazing. It was one of the happiest moments I’ve ever experienced.”
On top of the personal accomplishments, the women also raised more than $250,000 for a trio of causes.
Some of the money will go to starting a scholarship at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on Vancouver Island, along with support for the U.S.-based GreenWave sustainable seafood initiative and Shellback Expeditions, which supports marine research and conservation in the eastern Caribbean.
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