Miriam Payne and Jess Rowe are two-thirds of the way through an 8,000-mile row across the Pacific from Peru to Australia. They have endured searing heat, cold nights, debilitating blisters and salt sores, plus a series of equipment failures that required improvised repairs. They have feared damage from curious marlins near their 30ft boat, the Velocity. They follow a two-hours-on, two-off night shift and suffer severe sleep deprivation but remain committed and exhilarated. Both are Atlantic row veterans who met in La Gomera. They have been at sea more than 100 days and estimate about 60 days remain.
Speaking to the Guardian via satellite phone at a dawn shift change they do two hours on, two off during the night Rowe said: I'm very tired, I won't lie. It's just so hard to wake up for your shift. We're both not even hearing our alarms any more. They go off for 10 or 15 minutes and then whoever's rowing has to wake the other. It's pretty tough. Apart from the sleep deprivation, we're loving it.
Rowe said: We've reached the point where we've got a similar distance to an Atlantic to row. We've both rowed the Atlantic, so we're like: it's OK, we've just got an Atlantic left.' They have fallen in love with the Pacific. Rowe said: Everybody thinks that perhaps we're in massive storms every day and we're facing 30ft waves. It's not always like that. We've had so many days when it's been flat calm.
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