Four Estonians – Team Rowtalia – are planning to row across the Atlantic Ocean in December; the competition, called the World’s Toughest Row, is an extreme open-water rowing event that lasts almost 40 days and takes the teams from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean and this is the first time in its history where Estonians are taking part in it – and they’re also doing it for charity.
“Estonians have a historically strong connection to the sea. This land, saturated with bodies of water along the Baltic Sea, has influenced our lifestyle, culture and identity in many ways. Both as important trade routes with neighboring countries and as a source of livelihood through fishing. Our prowess on the water has given us a reason to be proud of the sailors, rowers, and other athletes on the water who represent us at various events,” Team Rowtalia is saying on its website.
“We are determined to prove that, with enough will, we can even row across the Atlantic. We aim to put Estonia on the world map once again and show that you don’t have to be a top athlete to take on such a formidable challenge!”
The World’s Toughest Row takes the participants from San Sebastián de la Gomera – the capital of La Gomera, one of Spain’s Canary Islands – to Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean. The journey will last almost 40 days and involves covering a distance of around 4,800 kilometres (around 3,000 miles; 2,600 nautical miles) at sea, unassisted.
Now, one might ask, why would the rowers undertake such a strenuous exercise, especially considering that the shortest distance from Europe to North America is, in fact, a mere 300-kilometre (186-mile) sail from Iceland to Greenland?
Well, one of the reasons has to do with winds and currents. Namely, the Canary Islands sit at the start of the North Atlantic trade wind belt and constant easterly trade winds – and the North Equatorial Current – flow westward across the Atlantic towards the Caribbean. That means the wind and current are literally pushing the rowers across and giving them a huge advantage.
Three PhD students and an innovator
It is also the same route Christopher Columbus took on his first voyage in 1482 – riding the trade winds from the Canaries to the Bahamas. It’s been the standard “downhill” Atlantic crossing ever since for sailing ships, rowers and modern races.
The Estonian Team Rowtalia consists of four men – three PhD students and one educational innovator. Andres Käosaar is a teamwork psychologist; Arnold Rein Tatunts is an educational innovator; Kait Kaarel Puss is a wood chemist; and Karl Jürgenstein is a geneticist. The main bond between them, they say, “is the search for a change from the everyday grind in the form of different experiences. Be it mountaineering, motorcycling in the woods, running marathons or spiritual challenges.”
Rowing across the Atlantic, however, will be their biggest challenge yet – spiritual or otherwise. The idea sounds so crazy that, as Käosaar says, it’s even difficult for the guys themselves to get their heads around it.
“We did a five-day sea training in June, 116 hours straight, so we could get some understanding what sleep deprivation and rowing 12 hours a day would do to our bodies and minds, but 40 days sounds insane even for us,” he tells Estonian World.
What makes it even more insane is, none of them have been engaged in rowing before. “So all this is new also to us,” Käosaar says. “We found a rowing trainer in Tartu called Rait Merisaar and, two years ago, under his guidance we started to slowly learn. There was a lot of room for development and the first rowing training on an academic row boat on Emajõgi was a proper challenge, both for our ability to row and from the team work point. But, slowly and steadily we learned more about rowing and now we can take our ocean row boat in the right direction.”
A lot of preparing
The idea of rowing across the Atlantic came from Arnold Rein Tatunts. He had just finished a marathon and saw a video on YouTube of four British women undertaking the challenge – and it started to haunt him.
“But he didn’t want to do it alone and, surprisingly, the first people he told about it weren’t too keen to jump in a boat with him. So he called me – my profession is teamwork psychology in difficult situations and, as an adventurer, I gladly put myself in situations where I myself experience and execute teamwork in extreme environments. So I said ‘yes’ pretty quickly and that’s how we got the ball rolling.”
Käosaar admits that there’s a lot of preparing for the event – individual physical, individual psychological, learning the boat and rowing at sea. But there’s also teamwork and the project in its entirety – marketing, communications etc.
“We’re training a lot. We’ve individually undertaken different endurance challenges, but we’ve also done teamwork exercises – a year and a half ago, we went to Lapland for five days to ski in freezing temperatures. There we learned how we communicate and manage in stressful situations and difficult conditions – and we’ve done the same on the boat.”
“But we aren’t completely ready and we can’t be. Forty days in these conditions is something we can’t test ourselves in before actually going, so there will definitely be surprises and, right now, our goal is to learn to manage with each other in a way that even if there are conflicts and somebody will be fed up with everything, then everything will still be under control and we’ll keep at our goal.”
Rowing 24 hours a day – in shifts
Even though over 40 boats will take part in the World’s Toughest Row, every team will be physically alone, miles away from other rowers. The organisers of the event also have to support vessels, but these are sailing boats – so Käosaar thinks that should someone get in trouble, some nearby cargo ship might come to their aid first, although even they might take over 24 hours to arrive.
“During the row, we have satellite connection with the organisers and, if necessary, with other vessels. The boat has all necessary safety equipment – including a lifeboat, a first aid kit, signal flares and GPS-powered buoys.”
The rowing during the competition goes on 24 hours a day. Two team members row and two rest. “The usual cycle is, two hours of rowing, two hours of rest. During that two hours, one needs to eat, wash, sleep. Sleeping takes place in two narrow cabins – one in the bow and the other in the aft. One of our team’s biggest concerns is that can we get used to this rhythm, both physically and mentally. So far, the trainings have shown that our bodies can adjust,” Käosaar explains.
The team will take 55 days worth of cold dried food and reserves with them that is kept in the boat’s compartments. Even though they plan to cross the ocean in 40 days, the organisers demand that every team had an ample surplus of food.
“Every team member needs to consume 5,000 calories a day, on the average, to maintain strength and avoid losing weight, so the amount of food is big.” The boats also have water purifiers that are used to make drinking water out of the ocean – and these purifiers use solar energy. Solar is also used to charge navigation, communication and other systems.
The fears are part of the challenge
“Hygiene conditions are very limited – there is no shower and natural needs will be done in a bucker – or, in case of ‘number one’, in bottles that is then poured into the ocean,” Käosaar says.
So, what are your expectations, fears and worries?
“The team’s expectations vary. One one side, it’s outdoing oneself and an adventurous experience, on the other a scientific and a charity mission. For me, it’s also the chance to experience my branch of study – teamwork psychology in extreme conditions – directly and personally, and to use the crossing to gather data for a scientific article.”
“Our fears are mostly about the physical endurance and sleep deprivation – how and if we can manage it over such a long time. Also the dynamics of the team – can we manage conflicts successfully, and there will be conflicts! How to keep up good teamwork, worries about sea sickness, the heat and salt bites and how to cope with them. We haven’t been able to test these properly on the Baltic Sea. Also extreme seriousness and the loss of our sense of humour – maybe we’ll start taking the project too seriously and forget to enjoy it.”
“All team members still agree that the fears are part of the challenge for which we’re going in the first place,” Käosaar adds.
Accomplishment – and charity
Team Rowtalia is also doing this for charity. The guys are collecting money for two charity organisations – peaasi.ee, an entity dedicated to promoting mental well-being, preventing mental health problems, early intervention and reducing stigma in Estonian society; and the Tartu University Hospital Children’s Foundation, the largest and oldest children’s hospital fund, which supports hundreds of children and their families in need of special treatment or care, and the purchase of equipment for hospitals.
So for the team, the World’s Toughest Row is both for personal outdoing and for charity. “We started the project with personal eagerness and desire for adventure, but we couldn’t have kept it going for three years without larger goals,” Käosaar says.
For the competition, the team needs €160,000, of which they’ve already collected over €103,000 on the hooandja.ee platform. “The team members have spent their own money on the project and made considerable efforts both financially and and time-wise. We’ve bought the boat (€60,000) and paid the participation fee (€25,000) from our own pockets. Unfortunately, we’re not so rich that we could cover the entire €160,000 budget on our own – we’re run out of our savings.”
“We’ve found sponsors and, in addition to the donations on the hooandja.ee platform, we also offer teamwork trainings and other forms of cooperation to help private citizens support us.”
After the competition, the team plans to sell their boat to future crossers. They will then add to this amount the surplus from the donations and donate it to the two charities.
“Our main goals are: to show to every Estonian that one can accomplish anything if they just believe in it; in cooperation with peaasi.ee help support young people’s mental health; in cooperation with the Tartu University Hospital Children’s Foundation support the cure of children with rare diseases. So after the crossing, all the money from the sale of the boat and what’s left of the collected donations will be shared by peaasi.ee and the Children’s Foundation,” Käosaar promises.
Should you like to donate to the team or learn more about their crossing, visit the Team Rowtalia website.
