HMS Oardacious Valkyries to take on "World's Toughest Row"

The News, Portsmouth

HMS Oardacious Atlantic campaign

Transcript

00:00So guys you've got the world's toughest row coming up it must have been hours

00:06and hours of preparation to do this wasn't it?

00:08Yes so we had to do minimum 120 hours on the water as a team as part of the race

00:14rules and that's just the minimum standard so we've tried to get as much

00:17as possible just because that is the best training that we can do so we can

00:22do as many hours as possible in the gym but really on the water when we are

00:26putting everything into practice is the best possible way to prepare for the

00:29upcoming crossing. So as though training was a mix of being out on the ship

00:33itself on the water but also doing all the gym work is it was there any of

00:36anything else involved in that? Yeah we did so in order to enter the race you

00:40have to do a certain amount of like prerequisite courses such as sea

00:44survival, first aid, basic navigation and just tick those boxes as well as some

00:49other courses so alongside all the training on the water and all the

00:53training in the gym we have to get through all those basic sort of

00:56seamanship courses as well just to ensure that when we leave Lagomera we're

01:01not a hazard to ourselves really and that we're sort of capable of making it

01:05across. I was gonna say it sounds like an entire world on itself with the amount

01:10of training what made you guys want to sign up in the first place? For me just

01:15the idea of how obscure it was so it was something that I'd never heard of

01:20before I got involved with sort of like the teams meetings and learning all

01:25about it I didn't even know ocean rowing was a thing so when the more I

01:29learnt about it the more I just wanted to be involved because it's something

01:33that so few people have done and it's just an incredible opportunity and the

01:37fact that we're doing it for two amazing charities as well RNRMC and Young

01:40Women's Trust it's just even better. What do you think about what made you decide

01:45to join? Yeah so I'd heard about it from a friend and I'd seen a few people that

01:50I know previously enter the race and I always thought wow that looks what

01:56awesome adventure and when when I heard that the opportunity for four women from

02:02the Navy to do it came along I instantly was hooked and I really wanted to get

02:06involved and I think like Ab said largely for you know the adventure and

02:10to do something so unique but also to push myself in sort of extreme

02:16environments and see how I cope with that and then since the the campaign's

02:20developed and matured it's become so much more about how we do that as a team

02:25and sort of like Abbie said with the charities as well involved like raising

02:30awareness raising some money for them and having a platform to sort of promote

02:34those two charities is really huge for us as well and yeah it's just been an

02:39epic adventure so far we haven't even got to the start line. And what do you

02:43guys think of being a part of the first all women's team to be able to do this

02:46do you feel like it could inspire others to give it a go or take on other

02:50challenges that they may want to do? Yeah absolutely I've had I've been surprised

02:56and overwhelmed by the random messages or people that I haven't spoke to in a

03:00while reaching out and saying what you're doing is incredible I've told my

03:03daughter about this I've told my niece etc and you just don't realize what an

03:09impact you're having on people because for us it's really quite easy to get

03:13caught up in the campaign and all the organizing that we have to do and all

03:16the courses we spoke about and when you get caught up in all that you forget

03:21about how many people are actually watching and admiring and you know we're

03:25inspiring people to do these incredible things and that's not you know it's one

03:28of the reasons we've done it to show that anyone really can achieve anything

03:32I mean a year ago well over a year ago if you told me that I'd be doing

03:36something like this I would have thought you were crazy but yeah it's just an

03:39incredible opportunity and it just shows that anyone can do this. And you guys are

03:43taking on what's been billed as the world's toughest row from the Canaries

03:46to Antigua hundreds of miles roughly around 3,000 I believe. Are you guys

03:50nervous about doing that? Do you think you're all prepared? I think we're

03:55excited now like we've we've had so much time to think about it and prepare and

03:59everything's in place we just you know our race boats there all of our kit that

04:05we're racing with is there on board so we've just got to get ourselves to the

04:09airport and get to La Gomera now which is the start line and obviously the

04:14anticipation will build I think when we're there and we're around the other

04:18rowers but it's exciting and we yeah we're as prepared as we can be we you

04:23know we'll control the controllables and everything else we'll manage and deal

04:26with as and when it arises. And what do you think the toughest part will be for

04:30this race coming up? Oh I think do you know what we we've sort of changed

04:36throughout the the campaign as to what we thought would be the toughest point I

04:40think initially it was oh my god we've got to do all of this training to get

04:45there get ourselves our bodies ready and I think personally now it's you know

04:50when we actually start the race if you asked me this four months ago I would

04:55have said you know are the dangers on the on the ocean such as like container

04:59ships and potentially seasickness and stuff like that but now I think it's a

05:04not letting you know our supporters down our family and friends and you know

05:10I'm confident that we'll get through it and everything you know we'll be

05:13absolutely fine we've got such a strong team that you know I wouldn't want to be

05:17doing it with any other girls in the world like we've got an incredible team

05:20all four of us and I think yeah so potentially the pressure which will

05:25hopefully as soon as we leave the wall that will go and we've just got

05:28ourselves to deal with and one for me randomly is the amount of food we have

05:34to eat a day and that the rations that we have there they're good rations and

05:38they're good meals but they're big and it's hard to get them all down isn't it

05:42is a lot of is a lot of food to eat I was gonna say how much you have to eat a

05:45day to be able to fuel yourselves to be able to do this so we've got just before

05:50different weights we've had our calories based on our weights individually so for

05:55me personally I need to have about 5,200 calories a day which is a lot so when we

06:01were counting and looking at all the food laid out when we were preparing for

06:04shipping it it's like Ali says it just seems like a lot of food and if you're

06:09potentially just not in the mood for whatever it is that you pull out or you

06:12know you put out five different meals you're like no I don't fancy any of these

06:14but you need to consume them otherwise just because it's our energy it's what's

06:18gonna keep us going so we've tried to really have a variation to make it a

06:23little bit more bearable we've tried these we've tried these meals and

06:26they're really tasty some of them you know but again it would just depend on

06:30what our palate fancies it depend on our mood if we've been seasick if we

06:34just don't fancy a curry for lunch you know it's a it's a whole mix of whole

06:39mix of tastes it sounds like it's a mental and a psychological challenge as

06:42well as a physical one oh yeah huge yeah they say about 25% of being able to take

06:47part in this challenge is rowing and the rest is all just a mental game and that's

06:52why you know we've worked so hard to spend time together as a team because

06:56we're gonna be what gets each other through we've learned about what each

07:00other's tics are what works what doesn't and yeah that's what teamwork is just

07:04such a big part of it I just couldn't couldn't be more proud to be doing it

07:07with a better bunch and finally the full women team we're all doing this for two

07:10very good causes and those courses must mean a lot a lot to you personally to be

07:14able to put yourself through 3,000 miles of rowing yeah I think for young

07:19women's trust we work in a job that you know our pay isn't by our gender it's

07:25just by our rank and when you see that there is charities out there still

07:29having to fight for you know gender equality with pay it's it's it's just

07:33shocking and young women's trust are working really hard to get that gender

07:37equality with the pay especially for women who are on little to no pay so

07:41yeah it's really it's really important to try and you know make that work for

07:46these charities and to fundraise for them is a really big deal for us thank

07:50you so much guys thank you I think

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