Shrewsbury's Atlantic rowing record-breaker talks capsizes, missing family and making lifelong bonds
An ‘ordinary’ mum of three who learned to row on the River Severn in Shropshire has set a new Atlantic crossing world record despite a raft of health issues, writes Katy Rink.
Former Shrewsbury High School pupil Katherine Antrobus, 43, suffered from epilepsy and a hole in the heart during her teens and has and a ‘leg full of metal’ following an skateboarding accident.
She arrived in Antigua on Monday along with teammates Hatty Carder, 28 and skipper Bobbie Mellor, 34, having beaten the women’s trios record for the ‘World’s Toughest Row’ by almost two days - coming in after 40 days 10 hours and 51 minutes at sea. WaveBreakers is the 10th boat back out of 37 boats.
Katherine, a business marketing manager from Old Basing, took on the challenge to show her three young children that ‘ordinary people’ can do extraordinary things: “If you want to do something, put your mind to it - it’s about perseverance, passion and motivation - you can make it happen,” she said.
“We can’t believe we’ve done it. We never set out to break a world record! For now, it’s like childbirth, when you’re going through it you think 'never again'. I’m sure we’ll look back and think 'that was amazing'.”
The women held flaming torches aloft as their boat came into Nelson’s Dockyard, in the English Harbour, Antigua, just after 3.30pm local time, after 40 days at sea. They set off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands on December 12, crossing 3,000 of open ocean to reach the Caribbean island.
Overall winner was the five-man team HMS Oardacious which finished on January 17 (35 days, 4 hours and 30 minutes). The first women's team in was 'Salty Science' from the University of South Florida (38 days, 18 hours, 56 minutes).
The WaveBreakers all work for Vodafone and have already raised nearly £85,000 for Vodafone Foundation’s #YourPlanet fund, supporting climate crisis charities and humanitarian relief agencies.
The trio battled challenging weather from the get-go, enduring frightening capsizes, blisters and other sores and coping with a broken water maker. In the last week of the race, there were concerns about the Atlantic weed Sargassum slowing progress and fear of attack from a giant marlin.
But then, suddenly, it was all over. Wearing smart navy shorts and white long-sleeved tops, the girls looked fit, tanned and happy as they hugged one another and fell into loved ones' arms.
Former Shrewsbury High School pupil Katherine, 43, who learned to row on The River Severn at Pengwern Boat Club, was overjoyed to be reunited with her children, Dylan 11, Archie, nine, Esme, five, and sales engineer husband Graeme. She missed Christmas whilst at sea, along with her own birthday and Archie’s ninth birthday.
