Her Spirit Podcast

Louise and Annie talk to Jasmine Harrison, the youngest solo female to row the Atlantic Ocean in only 70 days. She talks about taking on the challenge to understand how far she could be pushed having never rowed before the challenge.

Her Spirit Season 3 Episode 19

In the nineteenth episode of season three of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to adventurer Jasmine Harrison.

Jasmine is the youngest solo female to row the Atlantic Ocean, and the youngest woman to make the 3,000-mile journey alone. She relished the freedom of doing it all by herself. At just 21, she's the youngest female to have rowed solo across any ocean; she's a trailblazer, a pioneer, somebody that will inspire women and girls all over the world.

Harrison is a rare breed of solo adventurers, an ocean rower who'd never even picked up an oar until she decided to go for it at the end of 2019. Female solo rowers are even rarer. Fewer than 200 have successfully navigated an ocean and just 18 have made it across the Atlantic on their own.

It took her a year to convince herself to take on this challenge and in December 2020 Jasmine departed from La Gomera in the Canary Islands and landed in Antigua in the Caribbean 70 days, three hours and 48 minutes later.  Jasmine relished the time away from the stresses of life and Covid, and far from feeling isolated, she used her satellite phone to make plenty of calls back home, talking to more people than she would usually.

Along the 3,000 mile (4,828km) route she encountered a vast array of wildlife – a few whales, a striped marlin, triggerfish, a pod of dolphins, which followed her for days, and pilot fish that swam under her boat and would come to her hand every morning.

She was roughly halfway through a daring solo adventure -- rowing across the Atlantic -- when she realised that she was teetering on the brink of total calamity. Her tiny 550-pound (249 kilograms) rowing boat was on a collision course with a drilling ship, which could easily have swatted her asunder without ever knowing that she was there.

Jasmine talks to Annie and Louise about taking on the challenge and wanting to be truly pushed, and see how far she could be pushed. Her tips to have your #BestYearYet are: Don't be worried about being scared - Its not going to take longer that 70 days to do it.. Always think about WHY? you are you doing it? If you need to.. make it more enjoyable, do something that makes you laugh and link into Jasmine's mindset about knowing you will always finish stronger.

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