Amy Jones ideaXme bravery ambassador and founder of Recollect interviews team Status Row, a trio of incredibly brave and relatively inexperienced female rowers who rowed 3,000 miles in The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge 2018. Her objective is to discover, what made them so brave?
Bravery moves the human story forward. We make progress as a species through individuals pushing themselves beyond their comfort zones. This is the first interview by Amy Jones as ideaXme bravery ambassador. Her mission is to find out what makes the brave, BRAVE! Hopefully, to inspire others who are contemplating something challenging to consider that maybe they are just capable of achieving what they’d like to do!
Amy Jones, ideaXme bravery ambassador: [00:00:03] We share stories that move humans forward. You are Status Row – Caroline Wilson (right), Jess Rego (centre) and Susan Ronaldson (top left).
Caroline Wilson: [00:00:53] Yes, we’re team Status Row. We got to know each other through indoor rock-climbing. Susan Ronaldson: [00:01:2] The minute we decided to do it, we just stuck with it.
Jess Rego: [00:01:49] It was the perfect platform for us. It met our objective to physically and mentally challenge ourselves and to do good with our adventure. It was a great fit.
Motivation for bravery
Amy Jones: [00:02:24] Tell us about how you wanted this endeavour to be “something good” and the particular organisation The Marine Conservation Society for which you raised funds and awareness through this activity.
Support The Marine Conservation Society
Caroline Wilson: [00:02:29] We didn’t just want it to be an adventure for adventure sake. We wanted a purpose and talked a lot about what united us. Jess says: “The Planet and the need to protect and save it is the thing that unites us all”. Rowing an ocean felt so congruent to protecting and saving the oceans. [00:03:26] Eight million tons of plastic go into the oceans every year. If we carry on at that rate there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050. We saw a parallel of rowing across the ocean which seems impossible with the challenging task of tackling pollution. Achieving both things is just a series of strokes, an oar at a time. If we begin as individuals to use a reusable coffee cup or reject plastic bags, then those small actions add up to a big change. Find out more about: The Marine Conservation Society.
Amy Jones: [00:04:05] I love the way you just acknowledge that something really extraordinary like the journey that you made together is a series of small things and things you do one stroke at a time, in this case one hour, one day at a time. Jess, could you give us a high-level description of the journey that you have recently completed?
The courageous: Only female trio in the race
Jess Rego: [00:04:40] We participated in the 2018 Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, a 3000-mile race from the Canary Islands to Antigua. There were 28 boats in our race ranging from soloists up to 5 people in a boat. We were the only female trio in the race and the second ever female team to attempt the crossing. So, it was interesting. It was not what we expected. We prepared as best as we could. But the ocean throws a lot at you.
Being brave is about overcoming fear
Amy Jones: [00:05:19] Could you describe some key moments for yourself? Maybe for you Caroline, when you were brave, that is, you were scared but did it anyway?
Caroline Wilson: [00:05:38] When you’re in a boat in such confined space and you are rowing constantly, bravery kind of takes on a different challenge. The race became so much more mental than physical. We were rowing more than 12 hours a day. We were exhausted. We had to keep going. We had an ocean to row across. And then you know your lives depend on each other and you have to put the needs of your teammates ahead of your own.
Courage: Stepping into the unknown
Susan Ronaldson: [00:07:04] There’s a phrase “there’s nothing that can prepare you for rowing an ocean”. When you go out to row an ocean you don’t really know what it is going to be like. There have been big strong men who have quit after a few days. You set off from the start line and you don’t really know what it’s going to be like. The bravery is stepping into the unknown.
To be brave is to persevere
Jess Rego: [00:07:49] Just reaching the start of the official race was a moment of bravery. I had a lot of people tell me that I was going to die or that I just couldn’t do this. So, to even say “I’m willing to sign up”, I think that was probably one of the bravest aspects of the race for myself at least. And once you’re out there, it’s the days you want to quit, and you keep persevering.
Courage: Deciding to keep going
Amy Jones: [00:08:34] Very few of us are taught how to be brave. It is hard to imagine the magnitude of rowing 12 hours a day and being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean without having extensive experience. I imagine you must have had moments when you doubted yourself. How did you decide to keep going when your body was saying: “Go back to land, turn around!”
Is bravery more a mental than physical challenge?
Susan Ronaldson: [00:09:42] It was more a mental than a physical challenge. We had a lot of problems with our rowing seats which plagued us from day 3 to day 61. It meant that we were constantly having to stop rowing and make repairs on seats so that they would move in way that we could row properly. It became such a mental block. It happened 10 times a day. We wondered: “Are we going to make it to the end?” We thought “Can we do this physically?” Request the full transcript: [email protected].
Watch or listen to the entire interview in audio or video format to discover the full story of these three amazing women’s 3000 mile journey crossing the Atlantic ocean in the The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge 2018.
Credits: Amy Jones, ideaXme audio and video interview.
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This interview is available in audio format on iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, Radio Public, TuneIn Radio, IHeart Radio and in video format on ideaXme’s YouTube channel.
