© Ben Duffy / Atlantic Campaigns
Building Resilience : the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge
As I grappled with the ladder to secure myself , one final pull enabled me to hook my legs into the bottom step as if I was sitting on a swing . This felt like safety . But hanging from the side of a 250-metre oil tanker in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the night during some of the worst sea conditions in over a decade could never be considered safe .
Two years earlier , in 2015 , I had decided to attempt to row across the Atlantic Ocean . The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is a 3000-mile row from the Canaries to Antigua , estimated to last between 40 and 90 days . It is a completely unsupported race and a brutal battle against the elements .
At Sevenoaks , sport was important to my development , building a relentless desire to test myself . When I left for university , I began to lose that part of me , so I decided to transform my life in pursuit of elite physical and mental performance . I sought out an ‘ ultimate test ’ as part of this journey . My search led me to the Atlantic row . I had never rowed and had no nautical experience . There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity ; I was committed to being the right side of that line . It is steep learning curves like these that offer the most significant opportunities to develop .
I recruited my friend Chris Williams to take on the race with me and we raised the corporate sponsorship to take us to the start-line in 2017 . We were not prepared – it is impossible to be . We spent the first nine days being battered by high winds and huge , frantic seas . Fighting for our place at the front of the race , we rowed 24 hours a day in alternating two-hour shifts . Our open cockpit rowing position had no protection from the seas and when we did go into
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