Blog 1
“In media res” My feet are unsteadily grounded on the bowside boat deck as my hands press against the dock piling. A 30-knot gust of wind threatens to either run us aground or into the dock. The hip-high “grab lines” - taut ropes that run along the port and starboard sides of the 28’ x 4’ pod-shaped boat - are hinge points that keep me from falling into the water and surrendering my position as a buffer. I push off the piling, slip back into my rowing seat and grab hold of the oars to maneuver us away from the dock. One teammate runs into the water and pushes our bow away from the shallow area. My other teammate, who is on deck with me, releases her grip on the dock and adjusts the rudder so we can turn around. We try to get our boat from the marina slip to the boat trailer. However, the narrow waterway coupled with the strong winds proves a challenging obstacle course. Jaws clenched, we make a tight circle meters away from the area we just evacuated and realign ourselves with the trailer. I take a deep breath and listen for directions. One of our teammates on land shouts, “Libby, I need you to row like your life depends on it!”
I think to myself, “That’s the only way I know how.”
Our team has just completed a weeklong ocean rowing intensive course covering everything from navigation and radio to emergency first aid and evacuation safety in a quaint English seaside town. Our minds are full, our energy is renewed, and everyone is mentally and physically preparing for their upcoming long journeys home. We are a global group - two of us travelled in from the Pacific Coast of the United States, three from Switzerland, one from Bermuda and another from London for this training trip. Some of us have met in person before, but this week was the first time we were all together, in-person, working towards our mission at the same time: to row across the Atlantic Ocean in December 2026.
How did we get here? About 6 months after landing in Hawaii July 25, 2022, Sophia (“DJ”) received a DM from the Pacific Discovery team who were preparing to row from California to Hawaii the following summer. Pacific Discovery was composed of 4 Swiss re/insurance professionals - Cam, Tia, Celo, and Stu.
The first thing one notices about Cam is his smile, which stretches about as wide as his open arms. The first things one notices about Tia are her stoic eyes and her strong quads. She is tactile and strong. Sophia spoke with them multiple times leading up to their race start in Monterey, California, where the two of us traveled that June to meet them in person and see them off. They completed their row in 34 days, 08 hours, and 22 minutes, setting the standing world record for the fastest mixed team to cross the mid-Pacific.
After a few months of recovery, Cam reached a natural inflection point in his ocean rowing career. Having completed an Atlantic crossing in 2018 with an all-male crew, and the mid-Pacific as a mixed gender crew in 2023, he encountered the age-old question: what’s next? As someone who actively seeks opportunities to inspire and invest in others, the idea of helping build an all-female team seemed perfect. An all-female team would give him the opportunity to play more of a management role than he had before, and to collaborate entirely differently. The ownership of his vessel, Iron Ore, gave him a pitch.
Cam convened a group of six women who seemed like a good fit for the team in spring of 2024, and the gears started turning. The women brought a variety of connections - colleagues, friends, friends of colleagues. A hearty group of curious humans, four seats on the boat, and just over two years until the launch date.
Once a month, for six months, we all gathered in virtual meetings to get to know each other better and see what the project could turn into. We asked questions like, “How important is it to you that the team is all-female and why?”, “Describe yourself when you are at your best and your worst”, “How do we get to know each other better?”, and “How do we choose the final team?” Before every meeting each team member would submit answers to survey questions in time for everyone to read them. These meetings were welcoming and serious, exciting and daunting. They held the possibility of a new adventure but no promise of how that adventure would unfold, or who would be a part of it. Nonetheless, they were usually the highlight of whatever day they landed on. The process by which we operated was made by the team for the team. One of our earliest lessons was that when everyone has a hand in creating the machine, everyone is bought into how it works.
Over time, our group emerged more united. We were still not fully aware of what we were signing up for, but we knew we wanted to do it together. We felt the earliest sparkle of something we have since dubbed “Seabirds Magic”.
In January 2025, after half a year of online meetings, questions, prompts, and reflections, we agreed upon our team selection process. Everyone cast their votes and let the process run its course. From that, we have Sophia, Anima, Anna, and myself (Libby!). Cam and Tia eagerly took their places as land crew, and the next chapter of the journey began.
Tell me more about this race! The Seabirds rowers will leave the docks of La Gomera in the Canary Islands in the middle of December 2026, along with 41 other teams for the annual World’s Toughest Row – Atlantic. We will set our waypoint towards Antigua in the Caribbean, a journey of approximately 3,000 Earth miles, or 2,600 nautical miles. We will face the open ocean with only the power of our bodies, the strength of our minds, and the bond we’ve built as a team. You can read about the history of this race here.
The race organizer oversees the entire event from start to finish, including safety checks and communications with teams, family liaison, photography, and videography. Since 2013, 123 fours have rowed across the Atlantic as part of World’s Toughest Row. Of these, only three vessels failed to complete the event.
The most common reasons for failure are boat problems (lack of repair knowledge), lack of preparedness and time in the boat, medical issues (including injury and seasickness), human error (such as leaving hatches open) and poor seamanship. Our preparation for the race will be focused on risk mitigation, conditioning, and incubating our team dynamic (details of which will be captured and explained in future blogs). Details of how to follow along with our team during the race will be released closer to race day.
Why do you have a blog? We are between the start of an idea and the start of a race. What an exciting place to be! SO MUCH HAPPENS during the two years leading up to an ocean row, most of which rarely gets shared. This blog is because the next 18 months, this is our life and we love that and we want to share it with you all.
This blog is our metaphorical welcome mat into the behind-the-scenes look at weekly tasks, team training trips, campaign progress, revelations, reflections, and anything that might be interesting or helpful for those who wish to follow along. It will be as honest and wholesome as possible, covering everything from the nuts-and-bolts of ocean rowing to the personal experiences of this team in the lead up to launching from La Gomera. By keeping it in the blog format, we hope people who find our story later have the option to catch up from the “beginning”.
This blog is NOT a how-to guide, a checklist, a replacement for professional training/coaching, a substitute for other resources or a one-stop-shop roadmap. It is simply an attempt to bridge the gap between the sentences “So-and-so is going to row across the Atlantic” and “Whoa, how is that going?”
Closing scene (for now) On our third attempt, we align with the trailer and pull the boat up in time to beat the gusts. Once the boat is secured, we collectively exhale and look around at each other. We had done it: navigated through our first very high stakes situation. And almost more notably, we had done it together. Hundreds of tasks had led to that day in the marina, and thousands more will follow, but at this moment, we have tangible proof that we could accomplish hard things together. That is our Seabirds Magic, a bit inexplicable, yet incredibly palpable. It is the kind of feeling that gives you the courage to try because you know that your team has your back. The kind of feeling that gives you the confidence to jump off your seat because even in the off chance you don’t land where you’re looking, you know you’ll still land somewhere good. The kind of courage that changes the question of “what if” to a bigger, bolder “what’s next”?
