As one of the members of Team Antigua Island Girls, if I had to tell you what made the Pacific row in June-July 2023 so much more intense than our Atlantic row in 2018-19, I would start and end with the weather conditions. Yes, there were other challenges before, during and after but those are stories for another time. The weather, however, set the tone for our respective rows.
Team Antigua Island Girls (left to right): Christal Clashing, Kevinia Francis, Samara Emmanuel (Photo credit: World’s Toughest Row)
Firstly, the Pacific waters we were in can only be characterised as angry. In the Atlantic we would have said the waters were confused because as it was a ‘slow’ year where there was minimal wind blowing from the coast of Africa to the Caribbean. As a result, it often felt like we were rowing through treacle as the currents, wind and waves each seemed to be going in conflicting directions, none of which being in the direction we wanted it to go, which was towards Antigua, our home. The Pacific in contrast, wasn’t confused at all, it was just angry. With waves hitting us from the side at all manner of angles and intensities, it felt like there was no rhyme or rhythm to its tune. It was just simply angry. Big and angry.
Secondly, was the temperature of the air and of the water. We were warned about how cold both Monterey Bay (the starting line) and the Pacific Ocean would be. So, we came prepared. We had fleeces, thermal underwear, sleeping bags and hand warmers. We were prepared, just not mentally prepared for four weeks of cold. We were thinking it might be two weeks of cold weather similar to how long the coldness lasted when we were on the Atlantic. However, the Pacific certainly had different ideas, and the reason we were so bundled up in the majority of our social media posts was because to three island girls from the tropical Caribbean, it was freezing out there.
(Photo credits: World’s Toughest Row)
Thirdly, was the general cloudiness and overcast nature of the skies. For the first two weeks we didn’t realise how strong the UV rays were coming through the overcast skies. Photos fairly early into the row show us with sunburnt lips and faces. Then there were the nights. On the Atlantic nights were stunningly beautiful with clear skies, billions of stars and a very bright moon. We had no more than three pitch black nights during the Atlantic. In the Pacific, nights were opposite. We were lucky to get a sighting of the moon, and when we did it was closer towards the end of the journey than the beginning and middle. And even then the moon would only show itself for two or three hours at the most.
Fourthly, was the squalls, especially at night. It seemed that once nightfall came, the clouds would cluster even more and hang so low they looked like land masses on the horizon. Often those clouds came with squalls, bursts of intense wind and rain that would sometimes aid us if the wind was blowing in the right direction, and sometimes deflated us since once a squall passes, it takes all the wind with it, leaving us almost no wind at all to work with. In the Atlantic, we saw squalls but they never touched us. They would almost be surrounding us in a circle in the distance but fortunately, or unfortunately, we never experienced them on the Atlantic.
Finally, one of the most marked differences in the weather conditions was the conditions on which we rowed into the finish line. Both on the Atlantic and on the Pacific, we were asked to slow down to allow for a daytime finish instead of nighttime one to allow for better media coverage of our arrival. On both occasions, we initially said no then subsequently acquiesced. The difference was that the arrival from the Atlantic was far less traumatic than the arrival from the Pacific. In both cases we started to speed up as we got closer to land but whereas in Antigua we had brilliant blue skies and sunny weather, in Kauai we had a storm system sitting on top of the island on which we were to finish. This meant the final 14 hours were absolutely brutal with all three of us on the oars with no opportunity for bathroom breaks, hydration breaks or eating breaks. It was non-stop rowing trying (and repeatedly failing) to get the boat back on course to the finish line as we were blown further and further north away from the finish line. We were only able to make headway in our course adjustments when daylight broke and the conditions shifted. Thus giving us an opportunity to get back on course and avoid being towed in by the coast guard.
(Photo credit: World’s Toughest Row)
This is but a taste of the trials and tribulations of rowing the Pacific compared to the Atlantic but is an insightful peek into what made our two rows very different experiences from each other.
(Photo credit: World’s Toughest Row)
To continue to learn more about the Team Antigua Island Girls story, follow us on social media and our website, and consider continuing to donate as we seek to pay off our boat so that it can be used for other Antiguan teams in the future. Excess funds will go towards building a facility that homes Antiguan girls who have run afoul with the law.
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