IIt was always at night that things went wrong for Jasmine Harrison, the youngest woman to row solo across the Atlantic. Like when her boat hit a huge wave at 19.2 knots and capsized, leaving her badly injured elbow.
“I was basically thrown into a wall at 20 miles per hour. That’s going to hurt, especially when you’re in the middle of your sleep, ”she said. “Everything happened while I was sleeping.”
But the 21-year-old swimming instructor from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, made her 70-day journey in her stride, enjoying the freedom and independence of life at sea.
She was determined to take the journey, part of the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge, on her own terms, choosing to do it solo rather than as part of a team. ‘I’ve been pretty independent all my life anyway. I just thought, I want to do this, so I’m going to do it. I love the feeling you get when you do something on your own, it’s just so liberating for me, ”she said.
Instead of the ration packs that people normally eat on these long journeys, she lived on cookies and chocolate – “I think I ate 40kg of chocolate,” she laughed – and could choose not to row in the rain. ‘I could do what I liked. When it’s raining outside and I’m in my cabin because I just woke up, I don’t go out to row. “
She preferred to row in long 12-hour shifts, with short breaks to stretch, eat, and clean the boat before watching the sunset, taking a nap, and rowing again in the dark before sleeping longer.
She took off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands in December and landed 70 days, three hours and 48 minutes later in Antigua in the Caribbean. Harrison said she enjoyed the time away from the stresses of life and Covid, and far from feeling isolated, she used her satellite phone to make a lot of calls at home and talk to more people than usual.
Along the 4,828km route, she encountered a wide variety of wildlife – a pair of whales, a striped marlin, triggerfish, a pod of dolphins that followed her for days, and pilot fish swimming under her boat and to her hand every morning. ‘I’m around them, so you have to be nice. It’s just great and I love animals. I want people to be able to see what I’ve seen in 10 years, it’s incredible, ”she said.
Among the charities Harrison is raising money for is the Blue Marine Foundation, which aims to combat overfishing, and ShelterBox, which provides assistance to people affected by natural disasters.
Speaking from the port in Antigua near her boat, Argo, Harrison said she hoped her accomplishment would inspire others to realize their potential and, at a time when Covid has fewer opportunities, help people realize that there are still is a world.
“I just want to inspire people to change your mindset to what you can do, not what you can’t. The life you were born in doesn’t really have to be your life. It might be great if you love it, but you can be different, ”she said. ‘You don’t have to follow exactly what your parents did. We are all different people, find your own thing to do. “