Tic Tac has arrived!

Hello from an elated team Tic Tac.

We are still basking in the reflected glory of Liz’s magnificent Atlantic crossing.

I’m sure all of you will now have heard; Liz broke the current Race Record for a female solo by an incredible 15 days. She was also more than 24 hours faster than the female pairs World Record, just outstanding.

The final 150 miles were some of the roughest conditions on the row. 36 hours before her arrival, we had severe squalls and howling wind. I barely slept, I was so worried about what Liz must be experiencing out there. I checked my emails at 2 am and read the following;

“Just capsized, I’m ok. Tic Tac is ok as far as I can see, have lost some electronics.

A bit scared, but sitting tight “

This was serious, a capsize is a full 360 degree roll. Rannoch boats are designed to self right, but in the meantime Liz, along with everything else loose in the cabin will have been thrown on the ceiling. 

Later Liz told me she was asleep when it happened and woke up with everything upside down. The stuff of nightmares! Tic Tac went almost all the way back up, but sat on a bit of a tilt with the sea water sloshing on the deck holding one side under the waves. This meant she had to push open the hatch onto the waterlogged deck, climb out of the cabin, crawl up the high side and lean out as far as she could, to help get the boat upright. She did this in 25 knots of thick wind with 30 knot gusts in a 4.5 metre swell, in the dark, the courage that would have taken is phenomenal.

Thankfully, after this terrifying awakening, Liz managed to steer through the squalls without further setbacks. 

It was then her final full day, followed by her final night, she didn’t sleep for the last 24 hours of the race, her focus was on one thing, getting into English Harbour. That alone was causing anxiety, the entrance is challenging enough for sailing and motorboats as the winds are predominantly pushing West right past the entrance, or towards Guadeloupe, the French island to the South. The boats come around a huge cliff face and are immediately confronted with partly submerged rocks through a narrow passage to the finish line, the final test to complete.

It was incredibly emotional, and a colossal sense of relief to see little Tic Tac rounding the headland bouncing her way safely over the waves towards us. Jamie, Micky, Georgia, Neil (a friend of mine from UK) and I had gone out to Berkeley's Fort, we were joined by Pawel and his daughter, who had flown in especially from Poland as a surprise the day before. The fort is a great vantage point and has the tremendous advantage of Liz being able to hear and see us waving, cheering and clapping as she soared across the line, 44 days, 4 hours and 47 minutes after setting off on the 13th December from La Gomera.

It was a moment we will never forget.

What a remarkable achievement, she showed such tenacity, resilience, skill and strength of character. I, for one, am totally in awe, if you'll excuse the pun!

I think we can all agree Liz is one of a kind.

Fair winds and following seas.

Louise 

Closing in on Antigua

Hello, I hope you are all keeping well.

This is very likely to be my final newsletter whilst Liz is at sea.

She has been out there for 40 very long days, what a total hero she is.

Currently TicTac’s eta is 26th January and she has just 335 nautical miles to go. 

Her routine of rowing and resting has been working well over the last week , the seas and winds have finally been helping her achieve some big mileage days ( big mileage is relative in ocean rowing! ) For two full days last week, she was the fastest boat in the entire fleet. This included teams of 4, 3 and 2’s. Quite a phenomenal achievement for a solo. 

Her strategy before the start was to be as light as possible. Liz looked at every thing that was onboard and worked out a way to make it lighter. When the boats were launched in La Gomera, each one was weighed, Tic Tac was 300 kg less than the next lightest solo boat.

This is now making a considerable difference to her speed.

She’s had her share of drama recently, Liz was knocked down in the huge swells and the gunwale was held under the water for what seemed like minutes, Liz hauled herself to the high side and managed to right the boat. This was not an experience she wishes to repeat, being alone for these incidents must be extremely challenging. She is one inspiring human to follow on her incredible adventure.

As I’m in Antigua, I went down to cheer in Oardacious for the race win last Wednesday. What a great team the submariners are. They completed their row in 35 days and given the challenging weather conditions, their achievement is nothing short of superhuman.

Since then we have seen 7 more teams come around the headland into English Harbour, and relish the glory of holding flares aloft which family and friends cheering.

In a couple of day’s I will be joined by Jamie, Micky and Georgia, she has been doing a fabulous job with Liz’s social media;   https://www.facebook.com/LizWardley. 

I can’t wait for the end of this week, when we will put our team Tic Tac t-shirt’s on and head down to welcome Liz, Barney and Javier in. 

It will be quite a moment for all of us.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Fair Winds and Following Seas.

Louise 

I have attached a photo of the winning team, 5 man crew, Oardacious after the arrival at The Dockyard, English Harbour.

Under 1000nm

Hello from Antigua!

I can really feel the Worlds Toughest Row excitement revving up here. 

Roxy, Rannoch’s, 12 man/ woman ocean rowing boat is due on Tuesday (16th)  and there are lots of supporters and family in town already, adding to the WTR crowd.

The marinas are packed with magnificent mega yachts and massive power boats; the thought of the fuel bills for those floating palaces is truly terrifying! It is, however, wonderful to see the yachting industry flourishing and bringing revenue to the island.

Liz has had a mixed week, with some great winds and surfing, but also more than her fair share of windless days with virtually no breeze assisting Tic Tac towards English Harbour. Those days are tough, although not quite as tough as the ones with wind on the beam (side) pushing her off course, or worse headwinds pushing her backwards. It seems, gone are the days when a mariner could set off from the Canaries, in confidence that the Trade Winds would, pretty consistently, blow from varying degrees of East until they arrived in the Caribbean.

Depending on where the rowers are in the fleet, the tricky wind conditions have had a greater or lesser impact. Liz had opted to take a more northerly course and when the winds pushed the boats down further South, she remained on a good latitude for the finish line. English Harbour is at 17 degrees North; the aim is generally to stay above this line until the rowers get quite close to Antigua. If they go too far south it can be virtually impossible to get back up, and no one wants to be towed into the finish!

Liz was asked by Sky News to take part in The Weekend Live Show. She spent some time last week working out how she would manage a live feed. She was ‘stoked’(her words) because the focus of the interview was the Chumpy Pullin Foundation, and the scope was huge. Unfortunately however, on the day, the connection just wasn’t stable enough, and after over an hour of trying, they aborted the mission. As you can imagine, Liz was desperately disappointed not to be able to promote the charity to a huge audience. She has raised $1,164 of her $10,000 goal and wants to thank everyone who has generously donated, it's much appreciated, but this was a real blow to her.

Tic Tac now has just over 900 nautical miles to go. Can we raise $1000 for each 100 miles? It would mean so much to Liz, I keep her updated on the figure weekly and I know it would give her a HUGE boost that she’s achieving her fundraising goal.

Please click on the link to find out more about her charity;

https://chumpypullinfoundation.org/

Or simply to donate in one click this is the link you need;

https://worldstoughestrow-lizwardley.raisely.com/

As always, thank you for taking the time to read this.

Fair winds and Following Seas.

Louise.

P.S. The picture of the marlin was taken by Liz’s GoPro, he ‘stalked’ (her words) Tic Tac  for most of the day!

In Memory of Alisdair

Hello and Happy New Year.
I hope you have recovered from the festivities and you are more or less back to normality.
Liz is continuing to amaze me with her resilience and tenacity, she is a phenomenal woman.

Unfortunately, I have some extremely sad news to pass on this week, regarding one of the teams in the race.
Aussie Old Salts, a crew of four Australian men, have been transferred onto a vessel heading for land. This followed a cardiac incident where, despite the crew's best efforts, they were unable to revive their skipper, Commander Alisdair Putt. 

Alisdair was a former ASIO agent, and reserve naval officer, the crew included a Royal Australian Navy Submariner, a Royal Australian Navy legal officer, and a retired Australian Special Forces soldier. 

Our thoughts are with the crew, family and loved ones at this devastatingly sad time.

The World's Toughest Row safety officers, organised the evacuation and passed on the tragic news to the families. They then called each team on the water individually. 

I spoke to Liz last night and she was, as you can imagine, shocked by the news. At the start of the race, she helped untie Aussie Old Salts lines from the dock, and Alisdair called out to her as they rowed away “ Make us proud Liz”

She will continue to do just that.

Fair Winds and Following seas.

Louise

Liz would like to personally add;
On Friday night at 22h utc myself and the rest of the fleet stowed our oars and dimmed our lights, suspended racing for 10 minutes whilst looking into an amazing starry sky and raising a toast (green tea and honey for me) to Alisdair and the crew of Aussie Old Salts.
I can say in that moment, I felt very small, alone and far far away.  I am grateful that the crew are together and they have each other for support in this time.

Seeing Out 2023

Happy New Year's Eve.

What a challenging week Liz has endured to see out 2023.

It started well with her first solo drone flight at sea. She sounded so elated after she’d flown and successfully retrieved it, of course there was a funny story too, as the ‘battery level low’ light came on when it was ¼ of a mile away and Liz struggled to get off her seat as it got back to the boat - at that point she was convinced she’d lose it on the first flight. But we all know Liz, and after a couple of fly by’s she successfully caught it. The image she got of her little white boat out on the vast blue ocean is brilliant.

Those of you who are following the race on YB tracker, will have seen the daily mileage go down dramatically amongst all the teams over Christmas. This has been caused by a weather system creating South Westerly winds; pushing the boats backwards. Unlike sailing boats, ocean rowing boats do not go well to windward. Even the larger teams struggled to make headway, most of the crews went on para anchor just to hold position. Liz rowed for an unbelievable 20 hours on Christmas Day before finally deciding that, even she needed a break! She really is extraordinary.

The conditions continued to be very challenging with the wind and a confused swell and although Liz was determined to keep rowing, she had to repeatedly deploy the para anchor in an effort to keep Tic Tac from being blown East. She’s hoping the trade winds will fill back in early next week. It’s really demoralising for all the rowers when the weather is against them, but particularly the solo’s, as they can’t double up and push into it.

With slow moving boats, slime and barnacles can build up in warm waters, reducing the speed and increasing the effort needed considerably. Liz applied a very good anti-foul (paint that helps prevent the attachment of unwanted organisms) on Tic Tac's hull and so far it’s worked pretty well. She also designed a system for flossing, by attaching carpet-like pads to a rope, she then throws the rope over the bow, while holding both ends, she pulls each side up and down to clear any growth. The only part of the boat she can’t clean with this method is the rudder and stern. Her plan yesterday, Saturday, had been to jump over the side and clean the rudder if needed, she popped the Gopro in first and was delighted to find no growth. Surprisingly, Liz is not a fan of swimming in the sea, so she’ll be very relieved her pre race preparation has worked well so far.

Strangely anti fouling ocean rowing boats is a controversial topic. Liz and I are totally on the same page with this, but some teams apply polish to the gel coat and off they go. Personally, I’d rather not go over the side to scrub the hull every week, instantly get as much as an extra knot of boat speed for a day or so, then gradually see the improvement diminish until it's cleaned again 6 or 7 days later. Give me a decent application of anti foul any day!

This morning Liz sent us some great videos, music blaring, laughing as she rowed, and clearly enjoying being out there. It was great to see. She’s doing so well, and holding her own in the solo class, currently 4th, just 30 odd miles behind the leader. She’s hoping to get to halfway tomorrow, what a fantastic way to start the New Year.

If you have a minute, please take a look at Liz’s charity page, here’s the link: https://worldstoughestrow-lizwardley.raisely.com 

Your generosity is so appreciated and thank you, if you've already donated, I'm keeping Liz updated on the fundraising, she's hugely grateful for your support.

That’s it from me for this year. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I’d like to wish you and your loved ones a peaceful, healthy and happy 2024.

Fair winds and following seas.

Louise

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve everyone.

I’ll keep this short and sweet, I’m sure you’re all very busy getting ready for a social week ahead.

Liz has continued to amaze me with her daily runs. When crossing an Ocean the navigator will choose a time of day, often midday and calculate the number of miles covered over the previous 24 hours. With ocean rowing boats travelling at an average of 2 to 3 knots a good daily run would be around 70 miles. With the recent strong winds, Liz has clocked up as many as 84 miles in a day. This is sensational for a solo.

She made a number of weight saving changes to TicTac over the summer. This has meant the power to weight ratio ( Liz’s effort to the boat's weight) is better than other solos. She is also being very strict about carrying food waste. Any food that has been leftover for the day allocated, will feed the fish. Each competitor has to carry a minimum amount of food calculated for their body weight. Liz had to pack 4000 calories for 80 days. It was hilarious going around the supermarket together searching for the highest calorie, lightweight snacks and filling our trolley’s with chocolate, peanuts, biscuits and cake. You can imagine the looks we got !

Back to the race.. Liz has maintained 3rd place in solos, mid teens in all boats and 5th in women's class. Just phenomenal.

It has been hard fought and with very little sleep. She had her first full hour after 9 days! Up until  then she had only taken short naps of 30-45 minutes, before the sound of a wave rushing under the cabin got her up to help Tic Tac steer down the surf.

During windy periods Liz hasn’t been able to row, when the waves are big they can catch the blades (the end of the oars) and force the handle forwards, whacking the rower in the shins or chest, not fun at all. In these conditions it's safer to keep the oars inside the boat. 

TicTac has had a couple of knockdowns due to the conditions, during one, an oarlock was broken. Liz has spares and it was replaced. Another little mishap was whilst climbing into the cabin, her harness caught on something. She was stuck for a moment with the hatch open and a wave crashed over the deck and sprayed into the cabin swamping her bedding. Very frustrating! 

It's now almost a full moon and Liz is enjoying the night hours in the moonlight. Last night she had very little wind and had time to appreciate how pretty it was out in the Atlantic.

I promised I’d be short, so I’d better stop here.

She’s so easy to write about and I’m in total awe of what she’s achieving.

You’ll be pleased to know she has some special Christmas chocolates and a few cards, with lovely messages from friends and family to open on Christmas.

I wish you and your loved ones a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

Fair winds and following seas.

Louise

Pizzas and Friendly Fish

Hello, I hope you’ve had a good week and are enjoying the weekend.

What an incredible week Liz has had. This is a brief update of the last 7 days.

Last Sunday Micky and Jamie fitted GoPro clamps to Tic tac to ensure the camera angles work for the documentary. Liz is hoping to get some unique footage out there.

On Monday Liz and Jamie went out for the final test row and drone practice. It's a real skill grabbing a drone from a rolling and pitching little deck, after a couple of tries Liz successfully retrieved it and filmed herself from another camera catching it. Nice multi-tasking!

On Tuesday, the final preparation day, all crews were given start times and the itinerary for Wednesday. First boat to start at 8:15, with another going every 2 minutes after that, Tic tac’s time was 9:17. 

In the afternoon Jamie headed back to Australia, it is always hard saying goodbye to important people in your life, particularly just before a challenge like this one. 

The penultimate briefing was held at 18:00 before Micky and Liz went out for pizza. They ordered extra for the first couple of days onboard as a treat.

Start Day, Wednesday 13th December, final briefing at 6:15am, Liz was onboard before daybreak, last minute radio checks were being carried out amongst the fleet, only the rowers were allowed onto the pontoons. Micky and all the other friends and families had to view from the walkway above as one by one the little row boats pushed out and were cheered off. And suddenly by 9:29 they were all gone. All off on an adventure of a lifetime.

Day one is a huge adjustment on an ocean crossing, settling into life at sea and the routine of eat, sleep, row, repeat is tough enough, but they also had a swell and breeze from an unhelpful direction to contend with. This made the first waypoint, 20 nautical miles away, tricky to get to. Liz didn’t want to be pushed the wrong way when off the oars, so she rowed non stop for over 9 hours! What an incredible feat.

Liz was particularly pleased with how Tic Tac handled herself in rough seas, these Rannoch built ocean row boats are like little corks, they bob along over the waves quite happily, in fact in my opinion they feel more comfortable in biggish seas than a yacht does.

Day two Liz was visited by some fish who thought her bespoke ‘anti-seaweed catching’ rudder design was interesting. She put the GoPro in to see, they were about 70cm long and ended up hanging around most of the day. During the second night it had calmed down enough to get the jetboil out and enjoy her first proper hot meal in two very long days.

Day three is another tough one for ocean rowers, muscles and joints are starting to really complain. Liz rowed a huge amount over the previous 48 hours and even overtook teams of four, moving up from her start place of 31st to 24th. This is virtually unheard of for solo’s, particularly women, but we know Liz is no ordinary woman. Although she admitted to aching a bit, she then put in 20 hours on the oars to get past the first seamounts before the wind picked up again.

Day four saw Liz move up another three places to 21st overall and 4th out of 11 solo’s. Obviously it's very early days but in previous years we expect some of the fleet to go on para-anchor at some stage during the first week. This is when a huge spinnaker type drogue is deployed from the bow and sits in the water to hold the boat in position, this enables rowers to rest and not go backwards in less than ideal conditions.

Liz says she’s looking forward to the new moon getting bigger as its pitch black at night and surfing down waves you can’t see is pretty exciting!

* Stop Press * Just received an email and today has been pretty rough, Tic tac got hammered from every direction and was knocked down twice going over the last seamount, thankfully she’s safely through and no more of these on her current route across. 

I’m so incredibly proud of how well she is doing, she’s a total legend.

I forgot to mention in the last newsletter that Liz is raising funds for the Chumpy Pullin Foundation, an Australian based charity that breaks down barriers to provide support and inspiration for young Australians to participate and grow in sport. This is her link, please help if you can, even a small amount makes a huge difference. https://worldstoughestrow-lizwardley.raisely.com

That's it from me, thank you for taking the time to read this.

Fair winds and following seas.

Louise 

Chumpy Pullin Foundation

Team Liz is absolutely stoked to be partnering with the Chumpy Pullin Foundation to raise funds for them during The World’s Toughest Row.

The Chumpy Pullin Foundation breaks down barriers to provide support and inspiration for every Australian to participate and grow through life.

Liz is absolutely going ALL IN in her challenge across the Atlantic Ocean. The Worlds Toughest Row is going to take a huge amount of courage, determination and mental toughness.

Learn more about the foundation at their website: https://chumpypullinfoundation.org/
And give via Liz’s fundraising link here: https://worldstoughestrow-lizwardley.raisely.com/

Introducing Louise

This is my first newsletter for Liz. I’ll do my best to keep up the excellent standard she has set!

My name is Louise, I met Liz in early May 2022 when she flew from Australia to Charleston, South Carolina, to come to our rescue and skipper Maiden on her East Coast tour, we sailed the iconic racing yacht up to Canada over 4 months, stopping along the way to raise funds for The Maiden Factor Foundation. We had an instant connection and once I said I rowed the Atlantic in 2021 we had lots to talk about. It’s hard to believe this was only last year as I feel like we’ve been buddies for decades. I think it might be the yachting and adventuring that helps us get to the bare bones of a person quicker; the bonds made at sea are strong.

And here we are, 19 months later in La Gomera together. Liz gave me the role of Team Manager. As you can imagine, I’ve had very few tasks sent my way as she is so organised and on top of things. So, apart from storing and transporting Tic Tac this summer and helping pack provisions it’s been smooth sailing. Newsletters are now my main responsibility, and I hope to keep you all up to speed over the coming months, when we’ll be avidly following Liz, Barney and Javier’s little dot across the Atlantic.

It is often said that the hardest part of any challenge is getting to the start line.

Liz has done this with flying colours. Tic Tac was the first boat to be inspected by Atlantic Campaigns Safety team at 9am on the 30th December. The safety officers used Liz as a glowing example for all the other 37 teams on how to prepare and complete a proper inspection. No real surprise there to those that know Liz.

Over the next few days, all the rowers were invited to join the professional photographer for a photoshoot on the north of the island. This took place on an old shipping port. Huge pillars were used for craning cargo from ships anchored off the rocks. Unfortunately, the port was destroyed by a tidal wave in the 1950’s, all that remains are 4 huge brick pillars and a pool below them. A fascinating and stunning location for the team photos, I particularly love the one I have attached.

On launch day, each boat was docked in number order ,in front of every berth, each competitor’s Worlds Toughest Row flag flies displaying their nationality. It’s quite a spectacle to see 38 ocean rowing boats lined up smartly behind the banners. To witness this is such a highlight of travelling to La Gomera.

Every morning Liz attended the briefing in the Atlantic Campaigns(WTR) tent by the ferry terminal next to the marina. On Thursday, December 7th, due to unfavourable weather potentially arriving on the 12th (the original race start date), the teams were told there was a 90% chance of a Saturday, December 9th start date. This caused a flurry of activity, as each boat had to get out into the bay to complete a final systems check. To get all 38 boats out in time, each team had to book an hour time slot that they would share with 5 other boats. Liz booked Tic Tac’s slot for 2-3pm, as she had her head shot photo appointment at 10:50am and an electrics briefing between 12:30pm and 1:30pm.

By 2pm, when I cast off the lines the wind was blowing 20 knots offshore. Luckily, Liz had Jamie onboard in case things got worse - for instance, not being able to return to the marina against the strong breeze. She joked when they got back in - “thank goodness I had another 2 horse power with me!”. For those of you that haven’t met Jamie, he’s a gem of an Australian who any one of us would want on our team; he’s kind, thoughtful and laughs easily.

On Friday, December 8th, the 9am tent briefing produced a new start date of Wednesday, December 13th. This was good news for Liz as Micky Montoya was due in on the ferry from Tenerife, having flown over from Chicago the night before. Micky has successfully managed to source funding to film a documentary about Liz’s row, and the delay meant he would get some vital footage before the start onboard Tic Tac. Micky is providing a drone and camera equipment for her to use to document the crossing. He’s keen to get unique footage, and understand how Liz is feeling and coping mentally, given the physical and emotional demands of this endeavour.

With a delayed start date, this meant the team had a free day! So naturally, we hired a car and went exploring. During our adventure, we unintentionally drove along a track looking for a rare rock formation only to find out a couple of miles later that is was an extreme mountain bike track and not a road at all - oops! Our little 2-wheel drive VW polo did a great job as it pushed along the narrow mountain track, surrounded by spectacular ocean views.

La Gomera weather has been wonderful with the winter sun, so you can imagine how sad I am as I sit on the plane and write this, heading back to a damp and grey England.

If you’d like to follow Tic Tac on the YB tracker https://www.ybtracking.com/ . You can download the app and add Worlds Toughest Row-Atlantic, it should also be on https://www.worldstoughestrow.com/

There is live-streaming of the start on Facebook on Worlds Toughest Row page. Its very well done by Charlotte, I watch it every year.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this update, I will try and get another one out shortly after the start next week.

Stay well and thanks for your time reading this.

Fair winds and following seas.

Louise 🤓