‘I get horrible seasickness – so I anticipate being very seasick,’ says 34-year-old Johnnie Ball, who's planning to row a staggering 3,800 miles throughout the Atlantic Ocean for charity – with two of his mates.
The trio shall be rowing continuous for 2 months in an eight-metre-long boat, beginning in Portugal and ending in South America – all to boost cash for Dementia UK.
Johnnie shall be joined alongside his good friend of greater than 20 years, Stefan Vine, and their 48-year-old pal Dirk Von Delft.
To finish the epic journey, the staff will row in shifts – solely having three hours off at a time – and surviving solely on dehydrated meals and a solar-powered water-maker.
Johnnie and Stefan are at the moment ready in Portugal for the arrival of Dirk, who is because of fly over from South Africa (nevertheless, is caught up with Covid restrictions) – however their goal is to set off by mid-January.
The concept for the charity challenge first got here to Johnnie 18 months in the past – in the course of the first lockdown.
Having by no means rowed earlier than, he thought the route can be a problem individuals would need to get behind – particularly contemplating they might be the primary staff of three to do it.
‘There’s solely about 10 boats to have ever accomplished this, and the quickest was in 48 days,’ Johnnie tells Metro.co.uk. ‘So we’re aiming to be the quickest – to interrupt that world document. We’ll goal to be the primary boat of three individuals to do that, too.’
‘Extra individuals have been to the moon than accomplished this crossing with three individuals,’ provides 35-year-old Stefan.
Breaking information is all nicely and good, however the principle motive the group are doing the diagonal row throughout the Atlantic is to boost cash for dementia carers – a subject very near Johnnie’s coronary heart.
He provides: ‘I got here up with the thought often because my dad had dementia for 20 years and handed away about 4 years in the past. It was my mum who spent the overwhelming majority of her time taking care of him. She mainly needed to put her complete life on maintain for that complete interval.
‘Dementia carers don’t get any coaching and nobody’s there that can assist you – there’s little or no assist from the NHS.
‘For somebody with dementia, it’s goes on for such a very long time and it’s such a horrible illness.
‘I made a decision I wished to do massive problem to firstly increase consciousness of the state of affairs that dementia carers discover themselves in – and the household of dementia victims discover themselves in – however to additionally to boost funds for Dementia UK, a charity that basically focuses on dementia care.
‘So I used to be attempting to consider a extremely massive problem that was probably going to boost some huge cash and I got here up with the thought of rowing continent to continent, throughout the Atlantic.’
After Johnnie recruited mates to assist him with the problem, the trio started working with coaching and sourcing a ship for his or her journey.
The vessel accompanying them on their journey is simply eight metres lengthy, with a most important deck for rowing and cabins for sleeping and navigation.
Johnnie continues: ‘It has an enormous open prime and, at both finish, there's a small cabin. A kind of cabins has all of the communication and navigation in it – and you'll sleep in both of them.
‘All our meals shall be dehydrated ration packs, which you simply add water to – however there are not any different cooking services on board and there's no rest room on board.’
‘Effectively, simply two yellow buckets,’ provides Stefan.
The staff will work in shifts – three hours on and three hours off – so the boat shall be rowed 24 hours a day by at the least one individual.
‘So out of your three-hour shift, you’ll have two hours rowing with one different individual, after which you'll one hour by yourself – and that can rotate,’ explains Stefan.
Johnnie, Stefan and Dirk admit they weren't rowers earlier than embarking on the Neglect Me Knot challenge, however fortunately they'd a number of time to coach at house throughout varied lockdowns.
They’ve additionally taken the boat out for a number of take a look at runs.
Stefan continues: ‘We’ve had the boat for some time now, so we’ve been out on a number of journeys out to the Isle of Wight, and simply getting used to tips on how to row the boat and tips on how to take care of the wind and what occurs when it will get a bit uneven.
‘So we’ve spent period of time with the boat itself. We all know our manner round it. We all know tips on how to manoeuvre it and we all know what it likes and what it doesn’t like – as unusual as that may sound, however all boats have their quirks.
‘We’ve additionally accomplished our survival at sea coaching – so we’ve had various weekends in school rooms, doing programs and that kind of factor.’
However they haven’t simply needed to bodily practice for the problem.
The trio have additionally obtained teaching from a sports activities efficiency psychologist, who has helped them mentally put together.
Johnnie provides: ‘We’ve had group sports activities efficiency teaching, to assist with communication, battle decision and simply normal skippering the boat and making certain that if issues do come up – say the climate does flip actually tough and there’s threat of capsize and hazard – that we’re all in the correct mindset: so we all know what to do, and that we’re all sticking collectively and dealing collectively.’
Key information in regards to the Neglect Me Knot marketing campaign:
- Johnnie, Stefan and Dirk are the rowers collaborating.
- They are going to be rowing 3,800 miles from Portugal to South American (diagonally throughout the Atlantic Ocean).
- They're elevating cash for Dementia UK – and shall be serving to to do marine analysis within the course of.
- Their boat is eight-metres lengthy with two cabins on both finish.
- They're surviving on water and dehydrated ration packets.
- They may row continuous for 2 months – to finish the voyage.
Whereas nearly all of the marketing campaign shall be to boost cash for dementia through their GoFundMe web page, the buddies can even be doing a little marine analysis within the course of.
Johnnie explains: ‘We requested round a number of charities about what we may do to assist, and one of many issues that got here up was amassing oceanographic knowledge for giant marine mammals.
‘So we’re going to pull a specialist hydrophone behind us and we’re going to document all the songs and the communications of the marine mammals within the space. Then we’re going at hand that knowledge over to some specialist researchers in South Africa, who work for a charity referred to as Sea Search.
‘Then we’ll publish that knowledge for different marine researchers to try to perceive migration patterns and threats to different giant marine mammals in the Atlantic Ocean.’
After months of getting sponsors, elevating funds, coaching, planning the diet and the logistics and getting the boat, the large day is sort of right here.
Johnnie and Stefan are actually simply ready for Dirk to reach in Portimão, Portugal, earlier than they begin their Atlantic row.
Except for a number of nerves, the three mates are desperate to get began and hope to boost as a lot cash as they will.
Johnnie provides ‘It’s been so lengthy within the planning, we are able to’t wait to go.
‘Clearly it’s unhappy to go away household behind for this era, however we’re actually simply excited to get on the water and get on the market.’
You may donate to the Neglect Me Knot row right here and updates may be discovered over on the staff’s Instagram account @forgetmeknotrow.
Metro.co.uk shall be following their journey – so keep tuned for additional updates.
Extra data on the marketing campaign may be discovered at forgetmeknotcampaign.com.
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