Ocean GigRowing Girls :: Take on Indian Ocean

Gig Rowers Madeleine Steer and Christine Bunting are two young women from Salcombe Gig Club, South Devon who have entered into the first ever Indian Ocean Rowing Race in April 2011. This involves them rowing 3100 miles (Atlantic is 2900 miles, completed in 2005 by James Cracknell and Ben Fogle) across the Indian Ocean from Geraldton, near Perth in Australia to Mauritius in a 24ft ocean row boat. The race is organised by a company based in the South West of England called Woodvale Challenges. They have run Ocean Rowing Races every other year since 1997 across the Atlantic.

Only 300 people have ever rowed an ocean and of those only about 50 were women. We are currently the only women’s pair team entered and will become the first ever Women’s Ocean Row Pair to cross the Indian Ocean.

The boat is a Woodvale Pairs Class Boat, originally designed by Phil Morrison and Spud Rowsell. We are going to build our own boat at Lincombe Boat Yard in Salcombe. This design is the most successful ocean row boat in history, originally created for the 1997 Atlantic Race, and has since made more crossings than any other design. It is 24ft long and just over 6ft wide with an aft cabin for sleeping and storage and a forward cabin for storage, with the rowing positions in the middle.

Once built the boat has to be fitted out so that we can be self sufficient for up to 90 days at sea.

For up to three months we will be rowing a shift pattern of 2 hours on and 2 hours off, sleeping in the aft cabin whilst the other one rows. We will have solar panels to power our watermaker, navigation equipment and other electronics onboard. Safety equipment is vital, we will have 2 EPIRBs, a satellite phone, liferaft, survival suits, comprehensive medical kit, various sea anchors and smaller survival items onboard. We have to carry enough food to keep us in good shape whilst burning up to 5000 calories each per day. Entertainment will be provided by mp3 players, audio books will be our new best friend! There will be spares on board of vital equipment, including another set of our specially designed oars.

The boat will be named “Salcombe Spirit” at its launch.

For more information on the girls and this awsome challenge see: http://www.oceanrowgirls.com/