Everyone is scared of something. If they say that they aren’t then they’re lying. It could be something physical like an animal or object, or it could be a situation like falling or the dark. One of the most common questions people ask when I mention the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is “are you scared?” The simple answer is yes, I don’t think I know anyone that wouldn’t be scared about some part of the journey. As human beings, it's normally the things that are outside of our control that scare us the most. There's a lot about the Atlantic Ocean that we can't control...
There’s an array of words that are used: scared, fearful, terrified, worried, anxious, nervous. When I sit and think about those words and what each one means to me, I find myself asking “can you actually be scared of something you’ve never experienced?” I’ve spent a while thinking about this and maybe I should go back on my initial answer and say that I’m not scared, maybe I’m just a bit anxious and slightly worried about a few aspects of the journey.
But what?
Worried…
I think my biggest worry about the journey is the sleep deprivation. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a solid 8 hours a night person. They say there are three types of people when it comes to sleeping, “morning larks” who like to wake up early and go to sleep early, they make up roughly 40% of the population. “Night owls” who like to wake up late and stay up late, making up roughly 30% of the population and the remaining 30% of the population are somewhere in-between. I am firmly a “morning lark” I wake up early and if I have to stay up late, well I’m not much fun to be around. So how am I going to cope with only sleeping for 90 minutes at a time… They say that after the first week your body adapts to this more “nap” style way of sleeping but that’s still one long week of sleep deprivation.
Nervous..
This has to be the seasickness, it may or may not happen but there’s nothing we can do about it, it’s out of our control. Will I be affected by it? If I am then how badly? And then how long will it last? Looking at past teams’ experiences everyone seems to be different, there’s people who have never been sea-sick that get really bad symptoms and then people who are normally really bad that find they get nothing. They say facing the direction you’re travelling and focussing on a stationary object will help with the symptoms (well those won’t be happening) along with fresh air, fresh air is something that we will have plenty of. Let’s hope that the symptoms are mild and don’t last very long.
Scared.
There is one thing I’m scared about, getting in the water. I love swimming, I’m a strong swimmer so the thought of drowning doesn’t even cross my mind. What makes my heart race even thinking about it, are the creatures who call the ocean their home. This is one thing I know that scares me because I have experienced it before. I went snorkelling once, the small fish were fine, and I enjoyed it until I got to the coral reef. The fish became bigger and other sea creatures appeared; I swam back to shore as quickly as remotely possible. It’s a good thing I don’t have to get in the water, or do I…
One of the jobs onboard the boat is to clean the bottom of the boat. Over time barnacles form on the bottom of the boat which will slows us down. So someone needs to get into the water and scrub them off the bottom of the boat. I’m going to have get in the water at some stage so this is going to have to be a fear that I will have to overcome, and I know I can. It’s safe to say when I see the pod of dolphins swimming nearby, my heart will be racing, but I will be swimming amongst them as quickly as possible. If a shark makes an appearance, I will definitely be refraining from entering the water.
I’m sure if you asked me in six months’ time what I’m worried, nervous or scared about, it might have changed. What’s important is how I plan to overcome these feelings to make sure that they don’t become a hindrance to either myself or the team and the key to this is training. If we can put ourselves into these situations in a controlled environment, then we will be better prepared for when it happens out at sea.
Sleep Deprivation – The only way to know how you will cope with sleep deprivation is to encounter it. As a team we have decided to commit to a minimum of two, one week training rows. This will allow us to fully hit the sleep deprivation stage, the first day or two the body will be running on adrenaline. It’s after the initial 48-hour period that the routine gets tough, but hopefully after 5/6 days the routine will start to feel normal. Just in time for us to return to work and probably fall asleep at our desks…
Seasickness – Although we may experience seasickness during our training rows, we won’t be able to replicate the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. So, although we can see how our bodies are likely to cope being constantly moved around, this is one element that the only way we can really prepare for, is with supplies. We will make sure we have lots of motion sickness tablets, ginger biscuits and hydration tablets on board our boat ready for when the inevitable happens. Which lets be honest it probably will.
Getting into the water – Although this should be the hardest one to overcome, I think it will become the easiest. Fear triggers a natural fight or flight response in the body, we either run away or stand up and overcome the fear. I firmly believe that when the situation arises, I will stand up and overcome my fear, my love of animals and the once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the sea life in their natural habitat will be too hard to resist. I could also add some open water swimming into my training programme, I’m always looking for a training partner, any offers?
Although it’s hard, overcoming feelings and fears it’s what moulds us as people. It will improve our mental resilience and for me, I want to arrive in Antigua having grown as a person. As a team we will go through experiences that only a limited number of other people have been through. We can’t prepare for everything because no one really knows what is going to happen on our crossing, but we can certainly put ourselves in the best position possible to overcome anything the ocean throws at us.
After the Marlin spikes experiences on this year’s crossing, maybe I should be worried about a spike coming through my leg whilst sleeping.
I honestly can’t wait for this once in a lifetime experience and hopefully by the time we reach Antigua I will no longer be scared of what is lurking in the sea…