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4 marine biologists—together with two from B.C.— got here in first within the ladies’s division on the planet’s Hardest Row throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
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The readability that comes from staring up on the inky, star-studded sky at midnight whereas rowing throughout the Atlantic Ocean is one thing Lauren Shea will always remember.
A halcyon second throughout a gruelling trek at sea, the place waves had been as excessive as a battleship is lengthy.
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The 28-year-old graduate scholar at UBC was one in every of 4 ladies who accomplished the World’s Hardest Row, a continuous 5,000-kilometre rowing race to Antigua from the Canary Islands, of their eight-metre rowboat known as Emma.
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The Salty Science Crew, which incorporates two B.C. members, made landfall final Saturday night time after rowing for 38 days and 18 hours—a lot sooner than the six to eight weeks they anticipated the journey would take.
It was a rush to achieve land, stated Shea in an interview this week type Antigua the place they’re recovering. As they climbed ashore their legs wobbled from not being accustomed to stable floor. They had been swarmed by members of the family and mates, who squeezed them laborious with shrieks of pleasure.
Including to the exuberance was the joys of realizing that they had simply gained first place within the ladies’s division.
Chatting with Shea it’s clear that elegant reminiscences, equivalent to swimming with dolphins or the ethereal nighttime present of shimmering flying fish, outshone the scary moments like rowing towards huge waves or gear failure. In the long run, the arduous 18 months of coaching, the aching limbs, the seasickness, the bum rashes from fixed rowing—all of it was price it for the expertise of a lifetime.
“It’s fairly wild to leap within the water and know there are literally thousands of metres beneath you,” she stated. “One other time a minke whale got here proper as much as us…it was so shut we may have scratched its stomach.”
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They’d colleges of tuna that appeared to comply with them the entire approach, sharks, and even noticed a dreaded blue marlin.
“We had been most nervous concerning the blue marlin as a result of a number of boats prior to now have been struck by blue marlin with the lengthy swords on their face.”
But the most important problem wasn’t worrying concerning the marine life. It was battling waves.
“At one level we moved into a extremely robust upwind slog, the wind was coming towards us, which these boats will not be designed for. In order that was actually laborious. Each single stroke felt like deadlifting 200 kilos. It was extraordinarily laborious on our our bodies and really exhausting. And we had a couple of week of that earlier than the climate type of calmed down once more.”
And with the calm got here a pod of dolphins that leapt 5 metres into the air.
“Ultimately we ended up getting within the water with them and obtained to swim with them and take heed to them discuss to one another within the water. It was superb. I feel that’s each marine biologist’s dream actually.”
Shea additionally celebrated one in every of her extra memorable birthdays in the course of the journey.
“Considered one of my teammates by some means made an instantaneous cheesecake and we drank a mini bottle of champagne,” she stated. “It was simply an superior day.”
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They didn’t count on to win. They had been in it to boost cash for ocean conservation (up to now they’ve raised greater than $250,000 for 3 organizations) and wished to savour every second on the journey, spending time swimming within the ocean.
However in the previous couple of days, the wind was of their favour and so they picked up velocity, and got here in first out of 13 different entries within the ladies’s division.
Shea will quickly return house to Vancouver and resume her research at UBC. However for now it’s all about restoration.
“I’ve robust muscle groups in very particular locations and type of misplaced every thing else,” stated Shea. “It’s been very laborious to bend, to even contact my toes surprisingly. So strolling and working have been a problem. Swimming has been OK. But it surely’s getting simpler every single day.”
The staff included: Shea, a grasp’s scholar on the College of B.C.’s institute for the oceans and fisheries; Isabelle Côté, a professor of marine biology at Simon Fraser College; Chantale Bégin, a professor on the College of South Florida; and Noelle Helder from the College of Alaska Fairbanks.
Anybody who desires to examine their extraordinary journey or donate to their fundraiser can accomplish that by visiting their web site saltyscience.org or their Instagram account @saltysciencerowing.
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To learn an interview with Shea earlier than they left on their journey go to vancouversun.com.
ticrawford@postmedia.com
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