By Jonathan;
Visiting La Gomera was almost by accident in December 2018. I was in need of a vacation, having accumulated as much time off allowable, and was poking around trying to figure out where I should go. A family friend suggested the Canaries knowing my affection for road biking, and ocean rowing was definitely on my mind, as it has been since 2014.
Stars aligned: 4 connecting flights between Seattle and Gran Canaria brought me to a full week cycling holiday. I designated one day to island hop to Tenerife, then La Gomera to check out the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge 2018 - just to see how possible this wild dream really was.
Without any invitation or pre-consultation I strolled off the ferry to see an impressive building bannered with TWAC branding, and over 20 ocean rowing boats neatly lining the marina breakwater. The legitimacy of the sight was intense. It was validation in my mind that the race was far from niche.
While the sequence of events are somewhat convoluted, during the day I was able to meet extensively with Ian Couch (Head Safety Officer), Lee Fudge (Safety Officer), Nikki Holter (Event Manager), and Mette Fagerlind (Event Assistant). All were more than welcoming and provided first-hand exposure to the race’s inner workings.
What stood out: the organization is professional, well structured, hyper-focused on safety and race preparedness, and continually improving on key areas for future teams like equipment standards and marketing.
I got the chance to meet a number of teams - all fantastic individuals from across the world, and everyone had opinions they were more than happy to share about everything from boats to training.
Seeing what under prepared and well prepared looked like was important context. Those who were prepared were antsy. They were bored and had prepped for years to get to this point, and understandably desired to push off and see it done. Those less prepared on the other hand were making lots of adjustments and had equipment all over the place. I could see what Ian was talking about earlier about being race ready when you shipped your boat off to La Gomera.
For some interesting history, this same port is where Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic for the new world in 1492. Good to know the path is well trodden.
Departing La Gomera at sunset, I couldn’t help but feel empowered - this was something that could be done - and now I was dead set.
Thinking about it months later, as we begin to ramp up our campaign, its a bit surreal to imagine being there in ~450 days and being one of those rowers, waiting for the race to begin. Already a bit antsy.
