Batten completes ocean row in the Maldives

Leaving at 2am to avoid the heat, Olympic medallist, Batten had to row predominantly in darkness, first crossing tricky surf breaks to get out into the sea. “It was really, really hard physically,” says Batten who holds the record for rowing across the English Channel. “It was almost like ploughing, ploughing and ploughing through the water.”
“Apart from the support boats engines there was no sound,” says Batten who used the support boats to steer off.
Batten, who rowed in a FISA standard coastal rowing single, said the journey got particularly difficult just before she got to the equator. “I hit some wind and had about one foot choppy waves and it was very hard to steer. I ended up with big blisters on my hands.”

The 60km crossing was completed by Batten in a time of 7 hours 16 minutes and in that time Batten stopped just six times for less than five minutes.

Batten talked to World Rowing about the crossing.

World Rowing: Did you ever feel like giving up?
Guin Batten: The crossing was far tougher than I imaged it would be, not for any one reason, but for multiple factors.  The heat was draining, especially when the breeze was coming from the stern. I was travelling fractionally faster than the speed I had trained at. Then just before the equator, for about 45 minutes there was a head wind which whipped up a nasty chop, giving my already soft hands (from being wet for 3 hours), a set of killer blisters which spent the next 4 hours growing and spreading across my palms.

The toughest time was between five and six hours, when the excitement of crossing the equator and seeing the dawn light creep across the sky had passed.  In my mind the bulk of the crossing had been achieved, I was feeling completely exhausted and I still had a good 20km to go. The carbohydrate gel I had eaten at my hourly break had made no difference to how I was feeling. All I could see ahead was a never ending expanse of one stroke after another, a war of attrition grinding down the metres, one by one. The team could see I wasn’t in a good way and at six hours a can of coke and a full bucket of fresh water over my head helped hugely.

At seven hours the patron of the event rang through to the boat and his words were relayed through a megaphone. There was only 2km left and the pain somehow didn’t feel too bad.

I never felt like giving up, but had I seen how bad I looked I would have certainly been concerned.

WR: What was the air temperature like?
GB: The temperature was about 30 degrees Celsius during the morning and 28 at night, with 80 per cent humidity. Had the sun come out the thermometer would have hit 40; we were so very lucky.

WR: Did you have to go through a reef to get to the shore?
GB: The north shore of Fuamalak is a hostile place to land. In the escort we had a Coast Guard vessel and they went ahead and found a way through the reef. Luckily, the sea wasn’t running a big swell and I came in over the coral, picked my way through the rocks to land on a small stretch of sandy white beach.

As I surfed in on a wave and my foot touched down onto the sand the official time was stopped. My boat was picked up and placed higher up on the beach, a fresh coconut was pushed into my hands by a young boy and very shakily I turned to meet the sea of smiling faces. The time was 7hours 16 minutes and 47 seconds.

WR: How did your boat handle the water conditions?
GB: The boat was able to handle the conditions without any problems; in truth it wasn’t really tested. The biggest swell was running at about 3m high but with such a long period it was barely noticeable, beyond a rise and fall. I had two stretches of choppy waves that made rowing and steering challenging as the bows were being knocked off and I had to work hard to keep my blades clean and the boat heading on the right bearing.

WR: Were you wet the whole way?
GB: I was wet from the moment I jumped into the boat at Vadhoo. Rather unpleasantly, it was my own sweat. I had worked with the team at Crewroom in the UK to make a special ultra thin white unisuit which worked well. The biggest impact of being wet all the time was the effect on my hands, the skin had gone white like it does when you spend too long in the bath and the rowing quickly stripped off what calluses I had.

WR: What was the reception like at the finish?
GB: On the beach about 200 people from the island came out including a number of school children, Fuamulak‘s Councillor and VIPs, all dressed up smart and delighted to greet me. It was quickly explained that the official reception was down on the southern part of the Island where the port was and where the support boats could come along side.

Rather stiffly I climbed back into the boat, not an easy thing with a 30cm fin, a shelving beach and breaking waves at the best of times. I rowed out beyond the reef and clambered into the support boat, had a quick shower, my hands were treated, and 20 minutes later the whole team was welcomed by 300 people including the whole of Fuamulak primary school. Decked in garlands of flowers and with another refreshing coconut in my hand I proceeded to shake the hands of most of the crowd.

Later that day after a few minutes of sleep, the team were rowed out by the local women to a platform in the middle of the only fresh water lake in the Maldives to be formally welcomed and to receive personalised coral mementos of the crossing from the people of the Island Atoll.

The next day we travelled back across the Channel and visited an Island called Gadhdhoo, which has some of the best rowers in the Maldives. On arriving we were met by a huge crowd, traditional dancing and a huge feast after which the best female rowers took me out in their boats. It has to have been the most fun I have ever had in a boat, despite not being able to speak Divehi, we compared technique, argued about rowing in-time, sang “row, row, row your boat” and had a few races. There is no doubt these women would have been able to jump into a British Pilot gig and hold their own, many used the reverse grip.

Rowing was a common site in the Maldives as livelihood and sport, but since the 1980s it has quickly disappeared. The rich heritage and water moving skills will be lost within the next decade if the local people can’t revive rowing as sport in it is own right.

WR: What was the local support like?
GB: The local support has been amazing. I was supported by over 40 people during the crossing, one boat being a huge fishing boat and purely full of local members of the Rowing Association of the Maldives. They had three musicians on board who entertained me the whole way across. It is pretty freaky to be rowing along to live music in the middle of the Indian Ocean with no sight of land, just a full moon, surrounded by electrical storms and being accompanied by rather curious dolphins and very shy whales.

Batten was supported by: British Airways, Kurumba Resort, Coco Palm Resorts and Crewroom.