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4 marine biologists—together with two from B.C.— got here in first within the girls’s division within the World’s Hardest Row throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
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The readability that comes from staring up on the inky, star-studded sky at midnight whereas rowing throughout the Atlantic Ocean is one thing Lauren Shea will always remember.
A halcyon second throughout a gruelling trek at sea, the place waves have been as excessive as a battleship is lengthy.
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The 28-year-old graduate pupil at UBC was one among 4 girls who accomplished the World’s Hardest Row, a continuous 5,000-kilometre rowing race to Antigua from the Canary Islands, of their eight-metre rowboat known as Emma.
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The Salty Science Crew, which incorporates two B.C. members, made landfall final Saturday night time after rowing for 38 days and 18 hours — a lot quicker than the six to eight weeks they anticipated the journey would take.
It was a rush to achieve land, mentioned Shea in an interview this week from Antigua the place they’re recovering. As they climbed ashore their legs wobbled from not being accustomed to stable floor. They have been swarmed by members of the family and associates, who squeezed them laborious with shrieks of pleasure.
Including to the exuberance was the fun of realizing they’d simply received first place within the girls’s division.
Chatting with Shea it’s clear that chic reminiscences, similar to swimming with dolphins or the ethereal nighttime present of shimmering flying fish, outshone the scary moments like rowing towards huge waves or tools failure. Ultimately, the arduous 18 months of coaching, the aching limbs, the seasickness, the bum rashes from fixed rowing — all of it was value it for the expertise of a lifetime.
“It’s fairly wild to leap within the water and know there are millions of metres under you,” she mentioned. “One other time a minke whale got here proper as much as us…it was so shut we might have scratched its stomach.”
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They’d faculties of tuna that appeared to observe them the whole approach, sharks, and even noticed a dreaded blue marlin.
“We have been most nervous in regards to the blue marlin as a result of a couple of boats previously have been struck by blue marlin with the lengthy swords on their face.”
But the most important problem wasn’t worrying in regards to the marine life. It was battling waves.
“At one level we moved into a extremely powerful upwind slog, the wind was coming towards us, which these boats will not be designed for. In order that was actually laborious. Each single stroke felt like deadlifting 200 kilos. It was extraordinarily laborious on our our bodies and really exhausting. And we had a few week of that earlier than the climate sort of calmed down once more.”
And with the calm got here a pod of dolphins that leapt 5 metres into the air.
“Ultimately we ended up getting within the water with them and received to swim with them and take heed to them discuss to one another within the water. It was superb. I feel that’s each marine biologist’s dream, actually.”
Shea additionally celebrated one among her extra memorable birthdays throughout the journey.
“One among my teammates by some means made an prompt cheesecake and we drank a mini bottle of champagne,” she mentioned. “It was simply an superior day.”
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They didn’t count on to win. They have been in it to lift cash for ocean conservation and thus far they’ve raised greater than $250,000 for 3 organizations — and wished to savour every second on the journey, spending time swimming within the ocean.
However in the previous couple of days, the wind was of their favour they usually picked up velocity, and got here in first out of 13 different entries within the girls’s division.
Shea will quickly return house to Vancouver and resume her research at UBC. However for now it’s all about restoration.
“I’ve sturdy muscle tissue in very particular locations and sort of misplaced all the pieces else,” mentioned Shea. “It’s been very laborious to bend, to even contact my toes surprisingly. So strolling and working have been a problem. Swimming has been OK. But it surely’s getting simpler each day.”
The group included: Shea, a grasp’s pupil on the College of B.C.’s institute for the oceans and fisheries; Isabelle Côté, a professor of marine biology at Simon Fraser College; Chantale Bégin, a professor on the College of South Florida; and Noelle Helder from the College of Alaska Fairbanks.
Anybody who needs to examine their extraordinary journey or donate to their fundraiser can achieve this by visiting their web site saltyscience.org or their Instagram account @saltysciencerowing.
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To learn an interview with Shea earlier than they left on their journey go to vancouversun.com.
ticrawford@postmedia.com
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