Sharks, orcas and hallucinations – my 97 days rowing solo across Atlantic
'The scariest moment was actually when I had a near-miss with a big ship one night,' says Lachlan. 'It passed within 0.1 miles of me, which is really nothing in the ocean. It had no idea I was there. It hadn't seen me on the AIS [the tracking system that alerts vessels to each other's position]. That really could have been it. But that doesn't sound as exciting as a shark.'
Lachlan, who last Saturday became the first woman, and youngest person, to row solo, unsupported and non-stop from mainland Europe to mainland South America, laughs. She certainly has some colourful stories to tell her university friends when she goes back to Loughborough to complete her physics degree over the coming weeks.
Truth be told, Lachlan – an Army reservist who will be heading to Sandhurst this autumn to train as a technical officer – is still kicking herself that she did not break the record outright for fastest crossing. Arriving into French Guiana 97 days, nine hours and 20 minutes after leaving the shores of Portugal on October 27, she was 19 hours slower than the only other person to have completed the voyage.
'I would much rather have missed out by three weeks than 19 hours,' she admits. 'Because all I could do when I got into French Guiana was pick apart my last three months and think about the days where, you know, 'Oh, what if I had done this differently?' It was really difficult to have something be all-consuming for over three months of my life, and then not to achieve my goal. I struggled with that for a few days, but I feel a little bit more OK with it now.'
Lachlan, who was supported on her challenge by Team Forces, an Army charity, was actually aiming for 60 days but endured horrific luck with trade winds, which did not play ball at all. On some days she would row for '21 or 22 hours essentially to stand still'. Lachlan would then deploy her 'sea anchor' – a large parachute which hangs off the bow of the boat to slow its drift – and grab a couple of hours' kip knowing she would lose more ground while sleeping than she had gained rowing.
'For the first 39 days, the weather was against me for 35 of them,' she says. 'They were hard, hard weeks. I had a log book and pretty much every single day in the Canaries I just wrote 'soul-destroying', because it really was.'
Lachlan is clearly made of stern stuff, though. Having signed up for the Army at the age of 15 (she started rowing at Welbeck, the Army's sixth-form college), she is not the sort to be deterred by unhelpful trade winds, flying fish (one hit her in the face), orcas or sharks.
Even after she broke her phone, and with it her source of music, and began to hallucinate, she ground it out. 'I actually had a great time hallucinating,' she says. 'All of my hallucinations were really pleasant. Lots of grey horses running towards me when waves broke. And I had birds swarm the boat one time and they turned into flowers and then just disappeared, stuff like that.'
Lachlan called her boyfriend at midday every day on her satellite phone so that she did not go completely mad. 'I'd say it kept me sane, but I'm sure he would say that he just watched me get madder and madder,' she observes. But other than that, she was all alone.
Apart from the container ship in the night, the nearest she came to disaster was when she got into the sea one day to clean her boat and forgot to lock off her rudder. A big wave came along, the boat's auto-pilot kicked in, trying to keep the boat straight, and she was thrown towards the moving rudder.
'I hit my head really hard,' she recalls. 'And I just started drinking water because I was so disorientated. I managed to clamber back on to the boat and just lay there for a while waiting for my senses to come back.
'Again, that was a lot more dangerous than a shark following me, behaving all nicely, or a barracuda taking a bite out of my foot. With the barracuda, I was actually more worried about getting an infection than getting eaten, because they've got so many bugs in their mouth.'
Lachlan made it in the end, showing huge grit and determination, and raising money for two charities, Team Forces and Women In Sport, in the process. For a 5ft 8in, 64kg (10st 1lb), 21-year-old who was 'not a great swimmer' and 'dreaded getting into the sea when I set off', it was no mean feat.
So, any chance of going again to knock off that record? Lachlan laughs. 'Umm, I'm not sure what my boyfriend would say about that. But I definitely want to do something else. Even at the hardest points of this trip, I still felt lucky to be there. It was an incredible experience. And I do want a world record.'
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
a day ago
- USA Today
Paralyzed travelers reveal just what it takes for them to hit the road
Shaun Castle cannot imagine a life without travel. 'I love seeing the world. For me, there's no bigger fear than I'm stuck at home staring at a wall,' he said. However, it's not easy as a paraplegic. 'There's no room for spontaneity. There's no room for surprises,' he said. 'Every single portion of my traveling life – and pretty much my life in general, but my traveling life especially – is planned out.' The same goes for Anne Richardson, who is quadriplegic. Both are Army veterans who were paralyzed in training exercises years ago. For Castle, it was an L4 spinal cord injury in Heidelberg, Germany, in 2003. Richardson broke her neck at C4, 5, 6 in a training exercise in Alaska in 1999. Now they both work with Paralyzed Veterans of America, which describes itself as 'the only nonprofit Veteran Service Organization dedicated solely to helping Veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D), and diseases, like MS and ALS.' 'We want to enjoy things like everybody else,' said Richardson, a national vice president for PVA. PVA helped push for the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law on July 26, 1990. Thirty-five years later, the organization says barriers still exist. Richardson and Castle shared a glimpse of the hurdles they face in travel. Hitting the road Richardson travels upwards of 25,000 miles a year, all by land. 'I can't fly. I've attempted twice,' she said. One time, her shoulder was dislocated during a transfer. The other time her wheelchair was damaged, and as she called it, 'dead on arrival.' 'I don't take any chances anymore,' she said. 'It's too dangerous for me to try to get on a plane.' Her husband, a former trucker, does all the driving. 'The first thing that we look at is the actual route. How many days is it going to take us to get there?' she said, adding that they always build in extra travel time for unexpected hiccups. She can only handle about 8 hours or 350 to 400 miles a day in their van. 'My husband starts checking the weather way out,' she said, to plan around possible delays. He also looks for construction and other issues that could impact their drive. 'Potholes and things (like that) really affect me, the bouncing and the hard hits,' she said. Those can't always be avoided, but they've found other types of workarounds. 'We haven't found family-friendly bathrooms any place that we've stopped, so I use a urinal and he empties when we're out away from folks,' Richardson said. Even when there are wheelchair-accessible stalls, she said, 'You don't know if the door or the way the toilet in the center is in the right place, where you can maneuver your chair ... things that we run into that a lot of folks don't even think about.' Taking flight Castle's biggest challenge is air travel. He travels about two weeks each month as PVA's chief operating officer. If he can drive to a destination in less than eight hours, he does so to avoid flying, but for most trips, he flies. When booking flights, he pays close attention to connections and layovers. He prefers to have about an hour and a half between flights so he can deplane, collect his things, put his equipment back together, use the restroom, rehydrate and get to the next gate with plenty of time, in case anything goes awry. 'Since I have no access to a bathroom on a plane, I have to dehydrate myself two to three days in advance because I can't risk having an accident on the plane,' he said. He packs wipes and extra clothes, just in case. He also brings his wheelchair, a seat cushion, side guards, and his adapter power device on board. According to the Department of Transportation Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights, "Priority in-cabin stowage (either a closet or a row of seats designated for seat strapping) must be available for at least one normal-sized collapsible manual wheelchair in any aircraft with 100 or more passenger seats." 'There is nothing worse for me than them accidentally checking my wheelchair all the way through because then I have to risk being on an aisle chair or risk being on an actual airport chair, hospital chair, which could be any million different ways damaged or not upkept to where the bars or the padding are gone or whatever the case may be, and it can be dangerous. I can get sores," he said. He knows people who were left in airport wheelchairs too long, who then developed pressure sores and had to be hospitalized. "That is literally life-threatening." Aisle chairs, those narrow wheelchairs with rigid backs that fit down airplane aisles, pose a different danger. 'When you get on a plane, they're not level to where the gate ... so literally they have to tip you back and you're in the hands of– it's almost like a trust fall,' he said. Richardson said she knows horror stories of people being dropped or having their wheelchairs broken. Airlines are subject to penalties for mishandling mobility devices. Still, Castle noted, it's not just damaged property: 'If something happens that damages your wheelchair, you're literally taking my legs away from me.' Getting around While getting to destinations presents a host of challenges, getting around them poses others. Cabs, rideshares, and public transportation are not always accessible. 'Just because you have a minivan doesn't mean I can physically get in and out of that minivan,' Castle said. 'I have my wife – my caregiver – with me at all times, and she is a lot of the time having to deadlift me in and out of taxis and hoping that something doesn't go wrong.' He prefers renting cars. 'If it goes correctly, it's the best thing because we can show up; I know I have a safe mode of transportation,' he said. He always calls ahead to the rental car company's accessibility desk to request an automatic car with adaptive driving devices, such as a spinner knob. However, he said they aren't always available when he arrives, even though he has been assured they will be. In those cases, his wife can step in. 'If I were a disabled traveler who was by themselves, what do you do?' he asked. 'They're literally just stuck.' Traveling with disabilities: What fellow travelers should know Accessible accommodations Lodging can pose other difficulties. PVA notes that hotels built after January 26, 1993, are required to offer accessible accommodations under the ADA. However, Richardson said, "No matter where you go, one hotel room is not like another hotel room, so there's no standardization," and what's accessible for some may not work for others. 'The width or the depth of a shower, it makes a whole lot of difference (in) whether or not you can get in it, or if there's a slant ... or there's a little lip and your chair won't go over it," she said. "I can't use a bathtub. Doesn't do me any good.' She wishes a few more things could be added to the ADA. 'Without any incentives to make it better, usually the minimum is what they try to do,' she said. Some hotel chains have accessibility desks to help travelers with disabilities, but hiccups still happen. Both she and Castle have had their rooms given away to others or found the rooms don't suit their needs. At least once a trip, Richardson said she and her husband have to scramble to find alternative lodging, but they keep moving forward. 'Having the spinal cord injury, being a paraplegic, will not stop me from seeing the world, from being a part of the world,' Castle said. 'I will always travel until I can't."
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Washington Post
Early Hawaiian petroglyphs on a beach are visible again with changing tides and shifting sands
WAIANAE, Hawaii — Hawaiian petroglyphs dating back at least a half-millennium are visible on Oahu for the first time in years, thanks to seasonal ocean swells that peel away sand covering a panel of more than two dozen images of mostly human-looking stick figures. The petroglyphs are easy to spot during low tide when gentle waves ebb and flow over slippery, neon-green algae growing on a stretch of sandstone. This is the first time the entire panel of petroglyphs are visible since they were first spotted nine years ago by two guests staying at a bayside U.S. Army recreation center in Waianae , about an hour's drive from Honolulu. Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner Glen Kila , who traces his lineage to the aboriginal families of this coastal Hawaii community, said he believes the resurfacing of the traditional marvels are his ancestors sending a message. 'It's telling the community that the ocean is rising,' said Kila, a recognized expert on the local culture and history of Waianae who is consulting with the Army on the protection of the petroglyphs. Army officials are trying to balance protecting the petroglyphs with their accessibility on a public beach. John and Sandy Stone consulted tide charts and drove about 30 minutes from their home early Tuesday to get a glimpse after a watching a local TV report about the petroglyphs. 'It was so interesting to touch them,' said John Stone, who splits his time between Hawaii and California. 'It felt interesting to kind of have a connection with the past like that.' It is difficult to date petroglyphs, but an archaeological site in the area is from about 600 years ago, said Laura Gilda, an archaeologist with U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii. According to Kila, Hawaiians arrived in Waianae at least 1,000 years ago. The beach here fluctuates in size and profile each year, with low-pressure weather systems that form in the eastern Pacific between May and November causing waves that cut away loose sand from shorelines and redeposit them further out, according to an Army report on the petroglyphs. That shift is likely what causes their temporary exposure. Archaeologists identified a total of 26 petroglyphs. Of the 18 anthropomorphic stick figures, eight are depicted with possible male genitalia and the remainder are of undetermined gender, the report said. The entire panel stretches about 115 feet (35 meters) long, Gilda said. When the petroglyphs first reemerged in July 2016, it was after late spring and early summer storms, including hurricanes, with a lot of wave action that swept the sand away, Gilda said. They remained visible for a period and then got covered again. 'So there's been portions that have ... been exposed since then, but this is the first summer that the whole panel has been exposed again,' Gilda said. Based on the teachings Kila learned, the lineal petroglyphs appear to be telling a religious, ceremonial story. He interprets the largest figure, which appears to include hands and fingers with one arm raised and the other down, to represent the rising and setting sun. Kila said that when the military in the 1930s took over the area and evicted Native Hawaiians, including his family who lived there for generations, his great-great grandmother refused to leave so his family exchanged mountain lands with a coffee plantation so she could remain near the bay. In an interview included in the Army's report, he recalled growing up in Waianae without television. So 'the ocean and mountains were our playground,' he said. The Army recreation center was off-limits to the public, and the seawall was the barrier between Native Hawaiians and the military, Kila said. Kila, now 72, recalled that if they walked on top of the wall, they were clubbed and pushed off by military police. 'We were proud and knew where we came from, so we never fostered any hatred for the military because one day we believed that the land will eventually return to us,' he said. Kila, while visiting the petroglyphs earlier this week, told The Associated Press that the Army's protection of them represents a shift in that community relationship. Officials have been grappling with how to share the petroglyphs with the community while also protecting them, Gilda said. 'How much attention do you want to bring to this area? You don't really want people to go digging for them when they're not exposed,' she said. 'But they're certainly awesome to come and see on the public beachscape.' Donald Kauliʻa, a Native Hawaiian who was born and raised in Waianae, snapped photos of the petroglyphs Tuesday. Seeing them, he said, feels like 'validation that our ancestors were from here.'
2 days ago
Early Hawaiian petroglyphs on a beach are visible again with changing tides
WAIANAE, Hawaii -- Hawaiian petroglyphs dating back at least a half-millennium are visible on Oahu for the first time in years, thanks to seasonal ocean swells that peel away sand covering a panel of more than two dozen images of mostly human-looking stick figures. The petroglyphs are easy to spot during low tide when gentle waves ebb and flow over slippery, neon-green algae growing on a stretch of sandstone. This is the first time the entire panel of petroglyphs are visible since they were first spotted nine years ago by two guests staying at a bayside U.S. Army recreation center in Waianae, about an hour's drive from Honolulu. Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner Glen Kila, who traces his lineage to the aboriginal families of this coastal Hawaii community, said he believes the resurfacing of the traditional marvels are his ancestors sending a message. 'It's telling the community that the ocean is rising,' said Kila, a recognized expert on the local culture and history of Waianae who is consulting with the Army on the protection of the petroglyphs. Army officials are trying to balance protecting the petroglyphs with their accessibility on a public beach. John and Sandy Stone consulted tide charts and drove about 30 minutes from their home early Tuesday to get a glimpse after a watching a local TV report about the petroglyphs. 'It was so interesting to touch them,' said John Stone, who splits his time between Hawaii and California. 'It felt interesting to kind of have a connection with the past like that.' It is difficult to date petroglyphs, but an archaeological site in the area is from about 600 years ago, said Laura Gilda, an archaeologist with U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii. According to Kila, Hawaiians arrived in Waianae at least 1,000 years ago. The beach here fluctuates in size and profile each year, with low-pressure weather systems that form in the eastern Pacific between May and November causing waves that cut away loose sand from shorelines and redeposit them further out, according to an Army report on the petroglyphs. That shift is likely what causes their temporary exposure. Archaeologists identified a total of 26 petroglyphs. Of the 18 anthropomorphic stick figures, eight are depicted with possible male genitalia and the remainder are of undetermined gender, the report said. The entire panel stretches about 115 feet (35 meters) long, Gilda said. When the petroglyphs first reemerged in July 2016, it was after late spring and early summer storms, including hurricanes, with a lot of wave action that swept the sand away, Gilda said. They remained visible for a period and then got covered again. 'So there's been portions that have ... been exposed since then, but this is the first summer that the whole panel has been exposed again,' Gilda said. Based on the teachings Kila learned, the lineal petroglyphs appear to be telling a religious, ceremonial story. He interprets the largest figure, which appears to include hands and fingers with one arm raised and the other down, to represent the rising and setting sun. Kila said that when the military in the 1930s took over the area and evicted Native Hawaiians, including his family who lived there for generations, his great-great grandmother refused to leave so his family exchanged mountain lands with a coffee plantation so she could remain near the bay. In an interview included in the Army's report, he recalled growing up in Waianae without television. So "the ocean and mountains were our playground,' he said. The Army recreation center was off-limits to the pubic, and the seawall was the barrier between Native Hawaiians and the military, Kila said. Kila, now 72, recalled that if they walked on top of the wall, they were clubbed and pushed off by military police. 'We were proud and knew where we came from, so we never fostered any hatred for the military because one day we believed that the land will eventually return to us,' he said. Kila, while visiting the petroglyphs earlier this week, told The Associated Press that the Army's protection of them represents a shift in that community relationship. Officials have been grappling with how to share the petroglyphs with the community while also protecting them, Gilda said. 'How much attention do you want to bring to this area? You don't really want people to go digging for them when they're not exposed," she said. "But they're certainly awesome to come and see on the public beachscape.' Donald Kauliʻa, a Native Hawaiian who was born and raised in Waianae, snapped photos of the petroglyphs Tuesday. Seeing them, he said, feels like 'validation that our ancestors were from here.'
