26 January Reading Time: 4 minutes

Team Wild Waves: Journey’s end…

Jo Bradbury
Head of Marketing

It’s difficult to believe that Team Wild Waves are nearing the end of their Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge adventure.

The numbers speak for themselves. Throughout the challenge, Jessica and Charlotte will have travelled over 3,000 miles – which will have taken them a total of 1.5 million strokes to complete! And all this on just 4 hours of sleep every 24 hours.

So, how are they feeling about their monumental achievement? We were lucky enough to speak to the team to find out:

My Pension Expert (MPE): first things first, what specifically drew you to participate in this challenge?

Charlotte Harris (CH): We had gone through another smaller challenge called White Collar Fight Club where you learn to box over 3 months and then enter the boxing ring in front of 1,500 people whilst also raising money for the charity Mind. We loved the element of raising money, and whilst training for the boxing, we walked through a homeless park to get to the gym so were super keen to do something big to raise money for homelessness through Shelter.

Jessica Oliver (JO): We realised when researching homelessness that 32% of women end up homeless through domestic abuse and decided we had to raise money for Women’s Aid as well. What we loved about the boxing was learning something completely new to us so when Charlotte heard of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge through her work at Diageo, it was put on the table as a real option, and after the come down of the boxing, I immediately agreed.

MPE: Has the challenge prompted a long-term “love” of ocean rowing?

JO: It’s definitely prompted a long-term love of the ocean rowing community – the amount of unbelievable people we’ve met has been overwhelming. Everyone is so open, eager to help and share experiences and it’s incredibly refreshing. I’m not sure we’ll be rowing an ocean again, but we certainly will be joining new adventures with the girls from the communities we’ve met!

MPE: What do you think will be the most challenging aspect of the race?

CH: There’s a few aspects to this, I think rowing at night for the first few nights will be incredibly challenging, but we plan on rowing as much as possible together to help our nerves! I think it will be difficult to deal with the monotony as well as the pain from rowing, 60 days is a LONG time. And finally, I think one of the most challenging things will be settling back into normal life having just had a life changing experience, how do you return to an office once you’ve rowed the Atlantic Ocean??

MPE: What do you think the first thing you’ll do/eat/drink when you get off the boat?

CH: We are both in full agreement that we’ll probably want loads of fresh fruit and vegetables but in reality, we’ll probably have one giant burger washed down with a strawberry daiquiri!

MPE: What are you most looking forward to doing after you finish the challenge?

JO: Being able to say we’ve smashed it and done our families, friends and sponsors proud! Plus being able to enjoy some well-deserved rest and relaxation!

You can still donate to their brilliant charitable causes via the Wild Waves website, here.

Image Credit: Atlantic Campaigns.


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