3000 miles. 43 days. Two rowers. One boat.
It was the challenge that Anna and Cameron McLean took on when they took part in the world's toughest ocean rowing competition. Crossing the finish line in Antigua, they set two Guinness World Records. This was the first time a brother and sister rowed together across the ocean, and it was the fastest mixed pair to paddle the Atlantic.
Their journey, which took place earlier this year, was full of ups and downs - literally. They fought twelve-meter waves in total darkness, with sharks, disease, exhaustion, blisters and discord that threatened to tear their family apart.
But there was one thing that kept their relationship (and their boat) off course, and that was technology.
In the middle of the Atlantic, only astronauts from the International Space Station orbiting just a few hundred miles above them were closest to them. The Microsoft Teams app allowed the couple to stay connected with their family in the UK and their team on land, who supported them at critical times and provided critical information.
During her isolation, which was also a challenge, Anna was once again convinced of the effectiveness of Teams.
While at sea, Anna used a portable broadband device to connect her mobile phone to a satellite and could use the Teams app. This made it possible to chat, make calls and even broadcast videos from the Atlantic.
“Microsoft Teams allowed us to be in touch with the ground, and this was extremely important because, despite the many dangers and difficulties we experienced, the biggest risk for us was to destroy our family and ruin our relationship with my brother,” says Anna, 25 ...
“Teams helped us talk to Mom and Dad when we really needed them. For a month and a half, we saw no one around us, and the voice on the other end of the phone, which sounded so close in Teams, calmed us. "
Information is power, and information from Teams has given us a competitive edge.
“The motivation we got from home made us move on,” Anna continues. - She helped us fight rivals, and not just survive. And the information received from Teams allowed us to navigate and understand where in the Atlantic Ocean we are and how many miles we still have to go. "
Cameron, now in pilot training, adds: "Information is power, and information from Teams has given us a competitive edge."
The journey that led Anna and Cameron to the Talisker Whiskey Challenge , an annual 3,000-mile rowing race from the Canary Islands to Antigua, has been a long one. It began many years before, along with 35 other teams, they lined up on the starting line in the Canary Islands.
Cameron, who is seven years older than Anna, did rowing at university while his sister watched him from the shore, eating bacon sandwiches. She always followed in her brother's footsteps and, having entered the university, she also began to play this sport. “I loved to row very much. I always wanted to be on the water and constantly strived to improve my results. It helped to keep a clear head, ”Anna recalls.
For Christmas 2012, she was given a book by Rose Savage , Rowing Across the Atlantic , and as she read it, she constantly made notes and underlines for herself.
"I remember how I thought then that this is the thing that I absolutely need to do in life."
After Cameron swam the English Channel in 2017, she invited him to become her teammate. "I thought, well, he must definitely love water!" Then began two years of grueling training regimes, courses and preparation.
However, no amount of training could fully prepare them for the brutal conditions of the race. I had to row and sleep in shifts, changing each other every two hours, and so all 24 hours a day, in any weather conditions. Brother and sister ate almost nothing but freeze-dried pasta and noodles, to which they added cold water and left on the deck, where the water was heated by the scorching sun. Boiling was too risky due to the movement of the boat, because any injury would limit their rowing ability and could seriously affect the result.
To imagine the scale and severity of this challenge, suffice it to say that more people climbed Mount Everest than crossed the ocean in a rowboat.
Anna and Cameron decided to swim across the ocean without support. This meant that they had to carry with them everything they needed to survive, including food (each burned 8,000 calories a day), water (the daily requirement was 500 milliliters), clothing, a first aid kit and flares. Everything on their 24-foot boat, Lily, had a good reason to be there, otherwise it stayed on the shore because the extra weight slowed the boat down. But swimming without support also meant that there was no one nearby to help them if they were in trouble.
“The first time we found ourselves in a difficult situation, as soon as we left the Canary Islands and began our journey of three thousand miles, - said Cameron. - We immediately got into a strong excitement in an unknown territory. During the first four hours, we were attacked by three-meter waves, and we held on with all our strength. When people think of waves, they most likely imagine how on a beach a wave rolls towards the shore in one motion. But this is not the case on the high seas. You have first and second waves, and they often come in different sizes. Then they connect and strengthen. And then there are disordered, huge, crushing waves with a crest bending downward. And they come at you from all sides. You feel like on a roller coaster, and this movement does not stop until you reach land. "
Anna McLean: before and after the race
At some stage, there were problems with mechanics and equipment. Shortly after they left the Canary Islands, the boat's automatic steering function failed, forcing them to try to steer their feet while rowing. Then the water pump broke, potentially leaving them without vital fluid. Fortunately, they managed to fix both systems.
But even in the harsh conditions of the Atlantic Ocean, Microsoft's technology did not fail. When something broke or an illness set in, it was the encouraging messages through Teams that helped the siblings to keep their spirits up. Anna got seasick, which "put her out of action" for three days, but her family convinced her that it would pass. “They traveled with us,” says Anna. "This is what has supported us all the way."
Andrew McLean, their father, believes that it was especially important at that moment to convey this sense of support to the children.
“It was amazing to be able to talk to them and send messages through Teams,” he says. - Anna and Cameron said that the calls home were very supportive, but they supported us too. We were worried about them, and Teams brought us closer to what they were going through. We tried to help them as best we could, and this calmed us down to some extent. "
Cameron McLean: before and after the race
Anna adds: “Sometimes the condition became very bad. We were emaciated, worn out by lack of sleep, and at times felt very, very bad, especially when conditions were difficult. Then we saw a message from our group in Teams, which included 70 of our colleagues, friends and family, and we thought: “We will succeed, we can do this. After all, we do this for those people who support us. "
Unfortunately, this is all that friends and your family thousands of miles away can do for you.
One day while rowing, Cameron injured himself, and this led to serious injury. A small scratch on his knee became infected and confined him to bed; now he was unable to row. While her brother remained in the cabin, taking antibiotics and trying to remove the infection from the body, Anna was forced to row for 36 hours without a break.
“Anna filled my bottle with water, fed me, she helped me cope with the infection and reminded me when to take antibiotics, because during the illness I was just trying to sleep off,” says Cameron. "I wanted to sit down at the oars to help her somehow, but physically I could not do it."
“When the antibiotics started to work and I felt a little better, we had an important conversation and we realized that there, at the end of the world, we need each other. We were a team again, and it was the teamwork that drove us to continue the race and struggle, making the boat go even faster. "
“Teamwork brings the dream closer” was the mantra of the partners. One of the tasks they both had to do was to clean the clinging shells from the bottom of the ship every three days, which increased the resistance of the boat. Despite the fact that they saw four-meter sharks nearby (“we saw a fin approaching us, disappearing under water and reappearing on the other side of our boat,” says Anna), they had to dive into the sea and manually scrape off the hull. Yes, the water was a pleasant relief from the blazing sun, but the salt hurt the skin, the blisters burned, and this work took even more precious energy from them.
Incredibly, once both had recovered a bit from illness, exhaustion, and bruises from the paddling to their feet, the couple set themselves an even bigger challenge. They decided to overtake the team, which Anna called "the group of guys from the North", going 108 nautical miles ahead of them. But catching up and bypassing another boat at sea is not easy, it is not at all like on the race track, where you can make up for lost time at the next turn. Winds and waves can help one ship but hinder another.
Only complete dedication and hard work could lead them to their goal. But what else could they do? They had already rowed all day in two-hour shifts.
We received a message from our group in Teams, which consisted of 70 of our colleagues, friends and family, and at such moments we thought: we have them, so we can do it.
Cameron continues: “Anna went into the cabin to think. After 15 minutes she came out and said: “Ok, I get it. To catch up with them, we need to paddle together as long as possible. ” So we did it. "
Ignoring the blisters, muscle aches and lack of sleep, Anna and Cameron now rowed together, determined to catch up with their new rival. Their land-based team used Teams to constantly communicate how far behind they were. The 108 mile gap turned into 100 miles, then 80, 40, 10. Finally, they caught up with the competition and took the lead.
Anna and Cameron hug at the finish line after rowing across the Atlantic
"This is the most amazing show!" - the couple sang loudly in honor of this event.
Songs from the movie The Greatest Showman, filming their own TV shows and acting out parodies all helped to lift the spirits and gather strength throughout the race.
They docked in Antigua a day and a half ahead of the Northern Boys and recorded a total time of 43 days, 15 hours and 22 minutes. This was enough to take 18th place overall. The winners, a British team of four, crossed the ocean in 32 days.
After returning home to the UK, Cameron was constantly asked why he went for it.
“At first I said that I love traveling,” he comments. - This is the ultimate challenge, this is Everest rowing. It is very difficult physically, psychologically and technically. But I think the real reason is that I wanted to understand why no other brother and sister couple had ever tried this before us. Now I realized that teams with diverse participants have their own absolute strength. We got to know each other's strengths, found a common language and created a fast boat. "
Susan, their mother, was filled with pride in her children. “People asked me how I could let both of my children go out into this big ocean,” she said. - But how could I not let them go?
“We are here for a very short time and we must appreciate moments like these. They had a dream, they worked so hard to get there, and we are incredibly proud that they achieved their goal. And the fact that they walked this path together makes this victory even more special for us as a family. "
Less than a month after Anna and Cameron returned to the UK due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government announced a self-isolation regime. Anna continues to work for AlfaPeople from home, using Teams for meetings (“in one day I can talk to people in six different countries”) and daily communication with colleagues.
Philip Rawlinson, managing director of AlfaPeople, agrees. “When I first met Anna, I was inspired by her passion and desire to go further and further, so it is not surprising that she had the desire to swim across the Atlantic. Naturally, I was worried about them, but I also knew that she could rely on Microsoft Teams even across the ocean, ”he says.
Anna and Cameron now spend more time in isolation at their family home in Gloucestershire than at sea. But in order not to lose a positive mood, Anna uses some of the techniques that she learned during the trip.
Anna and Cameron McLean celebrate the end of the rowing race across the Atlantic by lighting flares.
“When Cameron and I were at sea, we often thought about the future and what we would like to do when we get back to land. There we focused our energies on planning, and I do the same during self-isolation. I'm writing a book about our entire journey, from fundraising to the finish line, and how it taught me leadership. Leadership aims for you to row to compete, not just survive, and I think that can apply to anyone in the world at any time. ”
“As we prepared for the ocean swim, a mental health consultant gave us some tips. She said that our mind is like a search engine - you type in a word and it gives you other words associated with it. So if we think about positive things, then it leads to more positive things. Until now, every day I think: "What do I put in my search bar?"
Anna and Cameron beat the toughest rowing race in the world, broke world records and raised £ 32,000 (about $ 39,600) for UN Women . But what else will they want to do when the self-isolation regime ends?
“I would love to try another ocean now,” says Anna.
Cameron shivers restlessly in the chair. “I definitely enjoyed the experience and Anna is a wonderful teammate,” he said. "But I pass."