Meet The Women Aiming For Record-Breaking Row Across The Pacific

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When she's not training, Emma is campaigning against plastic in Wimbledon

Four brave women, including London-based Emma Rogers and Mariana Cadore, are training to row 2,400 miles across the Pacific in world record time.

The intrepid rowers will be taking on their challenge in June, when they will row from California to Hawaii. They are aiming to raise awareness of plastic pollution and climate change, as well as break the current world record for an all-women crew of four by completing the row in less than 50 days, 19 hours and 14 minutes.

They have all also been trying to have an impact on global issues in their own communities, with 28-year-old Emma aiming to reduce plastic use in Wimbledon.

Emma and Mariana, a personal trainer and former Brazilian team rower, will be joined in their challenge by American-based Eliza Dawson and Lindsay Gibson.

The four women will will eat, sleep and live together on the 24ft boat, rowing two hours on and two hours off - that's 12 hours of rowing each day per person, burning 6,000 calories. They plan to rotate in pairs so the boat is moving at all times, even when there are bad conditions.

Emma said: "I think our main challenges will be the weather; both the sheer size of the waves and the mental aspect when we're being pushed backwards by the wind. Fingers crossed there will be wind in our favour too!

"We're all very adventurous and part of that is being a 'go-getter' - being in control and making things happen. Moving a one-tonne boat against natural forces isn't easy and there will be a lot that's out of our control so that will be a good learning curve for all of us."

The women won't actually meet as a group until two weeks before they start the row, but Emma says they have been building a very "coherant" team across countries.

Emma's current training regime involes cycling 15 miles a day, a weights session at lunch and then a water session (rowing on the Thames, usually 20kms) in the evening.

She has been rowing in South West London for around seven years and is now a member of Fulham Reach Boat club, near Hammersmith Bridge. Until a recent move to Fulham she was living in Wimbledon, and Southfields before that.

Emma, a forensic accountant with Ernst & Young, is also a community champion for Sustainable Merton and is working with Surfers Against Sewage on a 'Plastic-Free Wimbledon' initiative. She said she has already had some "great" responses to her idea of a plastic-free supermarket in Wimbledon.

She said: "Wimbledon is a special place and the residents are generally very switched on and open to new ideas when it comes to environmental issues, so it's the ideal place to launch a plastic-free campaign.

"Our plan is to prove that the initiative works in Wimbledon then expand it to other areas; hopefully Wimbledon will be a bit of a trend-setter! It feels like there is a big appetite for change in the area, so we're trying to make it easy for people to know how to make those little changes that all add up."

December 17, 2017