Oldham Athletic owner Frank Rothwell who has vowed to row the Atlantic a second time, aged 73, to raise money to cure dementia (Image: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/frankrothwell) Reality hit during my time in the cabin. This isn’t quite what I had imagined. The Boat Falling Apart You state that you had been used to a world “where effort and results went hand in hand. But here on the ocean, the rules were different” (p. 145) Did this reality discourage you at first? How did you learn to adapt to it? How has this affected how you perceive effort/results in your own life today? Alzheimer’s Research UK exists for a cure, and we won’t stop until everyone is free from the heartbreak of dementia."

I’m hugely privileged to be able to join the team at Monkey Fist Adventures. The logistics, the funding, the PR, the expertise. I have zero ability for all of that. I’m humbled and hugely grateful, to be given this chance. It would be criminal to waste such an amazing opportunity. For a year or 2, I watched all these legends rowing across oceans via Facebook. People seemed consumed by it. And for the people who had completed it, defined by it. Social media profile pictures showing their triumphant pictures upon reaching dry land, even years later. I think the previous indoor rowing challenges I have completed before have prepared me for what sitting on a rowing machine for such a long times feels like. I think it’s a mixture of both because sitting on a rowing machine is different to sitting on a boat, it’s a different rowing position. So I think the mixtures of experiences indoors and at sea is what really helps, coping with my body and everything else. I think, now that we’re reaching the end of Day 5, my body is starting to react and starting to adjust to where it needs to be. It’s really difficult to work on this area in particular, unless you are actually doing the challenge itself. In this challenge, there is also the aspect of your body “downpowering” every muscle of your body that you don’t use rowing, which I experienced during my previous Atlantic row. After 40 days of rowing, going for a walk will be a much more exhausting experience than rowing, as the body will need to relearn using those muscles it mostly forgot about for several weeks.”So since then I have adopted a much more relaxed attitude to training - doing what ocean rowers call "wait training" - you wait until you get in the boat, and then start training. (Definitely works better when said out loud - "weight training" - geddit?!) probably the most important technique that I now use is to “focus on the process”, i.e. what needs to be done TODAY to bring me closer to my goal? So I have a very vivid image in my mind of the goal itself – how it will feel to arrive at the end of the journey, how this fits into the bigger picture of my life direction, etc – and I know what needs to be done in the here and now to work towards that goal. But I refuse to contemplate tomorrow and all the other days that will pass between where I am now and where I want to be. I find that just too overwhelming. I concentrate on taking it one day, one stroke at a time.

And then it got me thinking about integrity. I always like to think I push my comfort zones. And then through my blog and social media, I truly hope I help encourage others to push their comfort zones. You don’t know yourself until you’ve been dark and had to dig deep. That’s true.After your satellite phone failed you confess you had a “guilty delight” about being disconnected from everything. Do you still long for that today? Are you able to disconnect while on dry land or do you need the sea to help you accomplish that? Billy Taylor: The skipper, and the boss. A veteran of crossing oceans, and a campaigner for Parkinson’s. He’s, amazingly, rowed the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. He’s basically our lifeline! This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. ( August 2014)

My next international trip is the Serengeti Marathon in Tanzania. I have organised a charity event to raise money for Cure Parkinson’s with my mum. That should be fun. And then we have a school build for the Burmese refugee community with our non-profit in January in the north of Thailand. Before then, I have a wedding ceremony where I’ll be the GROOM (!) sometime I think in December, and my house should be finished in February. Then perhaps my honeymoon. All-in-all, quite a busy 6 months ahead. FAQs about Rowing the Atlantic Why Did You Row Across the Atlantic?Anything is achievable if you break it down into small enough steps. If you have a big dream but it seems almost impossibly daunting, make a list of everything that you would need to do to achieve it. What skills would you need? Who would you ask for advice? What money and resources will it require? Then look at the list and see if there is anything that still seems too daunting. If so, then you haven’t broken it down far enough. Take it to the next level of detail, and repeat until your whole list is do-able. And when the going gets tough, remind yourself that nothing great is ever easy, and the feeling of achievement when you reach your goal is directly proportional to the effort you’ve gone through to get there.

In a time where mental health seems to be causing more problems than ever, this expedition will be supporting Humen. A mental health charity, with a movement to improve and maintain men’s mental health through campaigning. Also Dean Farm Trust, an animal sanctuary will also be one of our adopted charities, promoting cruelty-free choices. The logistics, the funding, the PR, the expertise. I have zero ability for all of that. I’m humbled and, even after a pretty horrific experience, still hugely grateful, to have been given the chance. It would have been criminal to waste such an amazing opportunity. Things began to get a little heated within the team. The company we were rowing with, Monkey Fist, do things a little differently from most companies. The whole logic behind this expedition was, along with raising money for men’s mental health, was to showcase their existence by partnering with Matthew Pritchard, of MTV’s Dirty Sanchez Fame (an absolutely lovely, lovely guy it turns out by the way), so they wanted to make a documentary about the row. Makes sense, fair enough.The last 20 days felt better. Still a drag, and admittedly, the second month on the row boat was still probably the second-worst month of my life, but it was a vast improvement to the first month. And with each day, the finish line became a more realistic prospect in a way that, during month one, it never did. What was once a seemingly endless, relentless pursuit, suddenly became tangible. He added: "It took six long weeks to row the Atlantic, but the challenge itself has taken over 18 months of training and preparation, so I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved and the unbelievable journey I’ve been on." Race Entrants | Atlantic Campaigns". atlanticcampaigns.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017 . Retrieved 20 February 2017. Why the Atlantic?: I strongly remember bribing some university friends with dinner and pitching the idea over some form of pasta in our slightly decrepit student kitchen. That was about 3 years ago now. There was a universal ‘are you mad?’ look on the majority of faces. The whole concept of rowing ourselves 3000 miles unsupported across an ocean seemed so unachievable at the time. Of them all, Laura was crazy enough to say yes and once we found Frankie and Millie the rest was history. I am grateful for this team of like-minded women and for my family and friends who are in support of what is a rather bold endeavour. Someone said that life only really begins at the end of your comfort zone – if this is the case then I think we’re all in for the journey of a lifetime!