Episode 11 - Lachlan Maclean

In this episode of Oceans Unplugged, Lee Gallacher is joined by adventurer and ocean rower Lachlan Maclean, who, alongside his brothers, completed a record-breaking row across the Pacific Ocean from South America to Australia.

Lachlan shares the incredible story behind one of the longest and fastest ocean rows ever completed, the physical and mental challenges of spending 139 days at sea, and the motivation that drove the team to raise over £1 million for clean water projects in Madagascar.

Together, they discuss life on board an ocean rowing boat, nutrition, sleep deprivation, surviving severe storms, the importance of teamwork, and the reality of pushing human endurance to its limits. They also explore the campaign that captured global attention, celebrity support from figures including Ewan McGregor and Mark Wahlberg, and the upcoming release of the Maclean brothers' book.

An inspiring conversation about resilience, adventure, purpose, and what it truly takes to cross an ocean under human power.

A huge thank you to our core sponsor YB Tracking. None of this would be possible without your help and the service you provide to thousands of people every day.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Ocean Dumplow. I'm Lee Gallagher, former professional sailor, mariner, harbour authority, patrol officer, postcard officer, and lifeboat. In each episode I'll be sitting down one-to-one with the people who touch beyond the horizon. Ocean racers, explorers, throwers, and the leaders behind the world's most demanding expeditions. We'll expand on the guest as we get into it. Oceans Unplugged is proudly supported by Wi-Fi Tracking, the global leader in race and expedition tracking technology, helping bring the world's toughest adventures to life in real time. This is our story, unfiltered and in-depth. Well, welcome back to another episode of Oceans Unplugged from the Sauner that is my office at home. As many of you may be aware, in the south of the UK, whilst we're filming at the moment, it's 35-36 degrees centigrade, and in his office at the moment, it's currently 42 degrees. With me today, I've got Lachlan McLean, who together with his brothers rode an amazing passage from South America across to Australia and set an amazing record, but also blew up globally with some Hollywood superstars and raised an incredible amount for water projects in Madagascar. Laughlin, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Lee, thanks so much for having me. As we were just discussing, it's I'm in quite a different climate. I'm up in the northwest of Scotland and it's it's about 14 degrees, so I think I could we could do with some of your heat up here.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

And I could do with some of your cold. I'm literally I'm glad the camera's up this height and that you can't see the bottom half. When you came on, I literally had an ice pack on my head and sucking a load of uh liquids, but um, I mean that's nothing compared to some of the hardships that you had crossing uh the Pacific. So it wasn't exactly a breeze, was it?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

No, I mean there's it was like I mean, as you well know, you know, these these trips you have so many highs and so many lows. Um do they balance out? I'm not sure. There's I think I think there are more highs than there are lows. I'd like to think. At least you you know that you get these rose tinted glasses, and then that's kind of why you sign up for another one because you just you distort all the memories um to shine it with it with a good light. But yeah, there's some tough bits, I suppose. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Yeah. I mean, as you say, those rose tinted glasses after you come back, it's the the the real sort of low lows. There's gonna be one or two periods where you kind of go, Oh my god, and those are the stories that we can tell. But there's quite a few other periods of lows where you kind of go, ah, um, I mean, you guys probably suffered quite terribly with gunnel bum. Um, and that low sort of sits with you after the event for a bit. Um, but uh yeah, I think the rose-tinted glasses we we kind of look back and then go, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

I know, yeah. It's funny, so we've we've since we got back, we've we've spent quite a lot of time trying to write a book. So we had like uh uh yeah, so we've kind of been reliving it, which is it's almost done now, actually. It comes out in September. Um, but it's actually so so to kind of the the kind of main the crux of the book was built around we did a daily log when we were at sea, and so we each day we took it in turns, like one day I did it, the next day Jamie did it, the next day Ewan did it. It was, you know, it was uh it obviously had the kind of fundamentals like the weather, the our position, and all that, but we also did kind of go off on these big you know philosophical tangents, and yeah, I suppose like try to tell the story, but going back through the logs in in the writing process, it's funny because it's sort of like our memory of the trip. Like, as you well know, you know, when you're sleep deprived, you you don't really retain the information and the experiences you're having, and so there were there were like weeks, you know, periods of like 10-15 days where none of us could really remember it, and going through the logs again, it was like reliving this experience. And I don't know, it's funny, like I think the memory, our human memory has an amazing ability to erase bits that you you maybe don't want to remember, and you kind of forget about it, and yeah, back to the Rosden glasses. So, no, so that's been an interesting process in itself.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

I mean, throughout this journey, obviously you had uh crossed oceans before. Yourself and your two brothers were the youngest uh trio, was that right, to cross the Atlantic at first? Or was it just that you were the youngest trio of brothers?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Oh, there's I think we had I think we had three, oh you know, we we live in a world where people people pull world records out of thin air. Um I think that we were told we were told that we'd broken three world records. One was we were the youngest trio to row the Atlantic. We were also apparently the first three brothers to row any ocean, which I mean to be honest, I think the Vikings probably broke both of those ages ago. Um, but that I mean the one the only performance-based record was the it was the speed record that we got the speed record for for uh for the Atlantic, which was yeah, which was to be honest, a bit of a surprise. That was back in 2020. Um, so there was we sometimes joke, there is a fourth record which it hasn't been recognized by Guinness yet, but um one of my brothers, Ewan, he's he's quite he's quite small. He's about I think he's maybe five foot eight on a good day, and uh and we reckon he could be the shortest man to have rode the Atlantic. Um not confirmed yet. So, Guinness, Guinness, if you're listening to this, then come back to us on that.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

You've got to have the banter. Uh so staying off to the record, you obviously smashed the Pacific record as well. So uh did he also get the record for the shortest man doing the quickest on the uh Pacific?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

I I reckon he's the shortest man to have rode the Pacific. I think we could I think we could say that with with more confidence, I reckon.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

So I mean because I'm not an ocean rower, and I I've spoken to a few people. Obviously, um I've worked with Mac Mason when he done his row from Australia across to Africa. I've spoken to Glenn Sadler and Liz Wardley and people like that. Obviously, we work with quite a lot of people doing the ocean rows, but it's it's a bit new to me. I've not been on one of these ocean rows. What's the food like? Is it the same as what we have on yachts? Is it a combination of wet food, dry food, desalinated water, and a heck of a lot of haribo, or I mean that's that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

I mean uh when you were when you were racing, we was it freeze-dried meals most of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, we had that that the kind of bulk of our you know fueling um during the crossing was freeze-dried meals. So we had um we for the Pacific, we had four freeze-dried meals a day, and then in the morning we would wake up and we had uh like either oats, oats, and water with we had like freeze-dried berries um on top, and then if you're lucky, we would have some peanut butter on that. Um so that would be our breakfast. Uh, and then as I say, we'd have four freeze-dried meals dotted through the day, and then we had snack packs, which we um it was kind of like yeah, we had some sweets, we had some chocolate, lots of kind of trail mix, nuts, fruit and nut. Um, and then sometimes you you know, like little treats like uh salt and vinegar peanuts or um oat cakes quite often. So uh the snack packs alone was about 2,000 calories. And then um we were trying to we're probably eating between five and six thousand calories a day in total.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Um yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

We we uh it's funny, like we could we could sense the days that we were having to output more, so we were, you know, like our sort of bread and butter was probably during the day, we ugh it kind of went between one on, one off, and two on one off um during the day, and then when the weather was really good, we'd be like one on the oars, two off the oars, and then overnight you're rowing kind of like continuously through the day and through the night. So overnight we'd be one person on the oars, and we we basically divided the nights up into thirds and did them on our own, and then you'd get a window of kip. Um well, it was actually it was slightly more complicated than that, but that's for for yeah, for our sakes and purposes, it's that that's enough. Simplicity. Um but yeah, so like the days when we were rowing two on, one off. Uh, we we had other days that we if the weather was really crap, we would be rowing pretty much just three up. So we just like kind of just row continuously, and you'd snatch little windows here and there um to go for a pee or have a meal, and we we like pre-make all of our meals at the beginning of the day. But yeah, on those days you could you could really feel like the calorie deficit setting in, and you'd you just needed a little bit more fuel, and so those are probably the days we were like 6,000 calories plus, and then on the easier days we'd maybe come down to you know 5,000 calories maybe. Um, but we actually so interestingly, um for the Pacific, so the Atlantic, we we we bought our freeze-dried meals. Um, so so it was we had two brands we got most of them from Lyo Foods and Real Termat. They were sort of our favorites, um, and it was fine, um, but we did get quite sick of them by the end of it. And so we sort of, when we were talking about doing a Pacific crossing, we decided we're all quite foody, um, and we we decided we would look into freeze-drying our own food.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Oh, right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Um so yeah, we we took uh about six sixty percent of the meals we took, we had actually freeze-dried ourselves. Um, we we were we were allowed access into our our old school's kitchen, and then we um we took it up in a in a freezer van up to a farm near Dundee in Scotland, like a berry farm, uh called our our buckles. And uh yeah, we we kind of freeze-dried them ourselves and we absolutely loved them actually. We we really enjoyed them.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah, I must admit, um the the freeze-dried, all the dehydrated foods that I've had on courses have never been um, I mean, the the dehydrated stuff with desalinated water rehydrating it. I mean, on uh one leg I think we went through seven litres of Tabasco sauce just to give it flavour. It it everything just tasted like wet cardboard, yeah. Um and and then we were squabbling over the the fun-size Snickers bar just to kind of add a bit nicer. But um that was 25 years ago, so a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

But like food is the currency of morale in these environments, as you well know. So it's like if you can if just having a meal that you really look forward to, it goes or you know, a third of a Snickers bar to look forward to at the end of the day, it like it keeps you going, it really does. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Um, I'm working with uh Ella Hibbert at the moment, who's doing a solo round uh the Arctic, yeah, and she's taken a load of food up there, and we were talking about food and sort of how um, as you say, it is that morale when you're feeling low, just to have something nice, tasty, sweet, it does lift you rather than sort of spitting seawater. Um which obviously you've done. Uh you you went overboard as well, went for a little paddle in uh one of those heavy weather bits.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

A little surprise dip, yeah. Yeah, it was yeah, so that was about that was on, I think it was on day 83. Um we we had kind of so we set off from as as you mentioned, we set off from Peru, South America. Uh a place, so it's a little a place called La Punta, which is slightly west of uh Lima. And we actually set off from you remember the Kantiki expedition? Have you heard of that? Yeah, yeah. So we set off without even knowing it, we set off from the yacht club where the Kentiki expedition set off from, and they were going to the Tuamotu Islands. Um, but then the the first half was sort of like we knew that we were so like the game, the sort of broad plan was we'd set off from from Lima, we'd then Humboldt current, we'd get pushed a bit north, and then we kind of expected that once we got maybe five days to a week out, we then like the wind should shift into the sort of into the east, uh, and then we would be like downwind sailing, downwind rowing, should I say, uh, all the way to the yeah, kind of, you know, to the first islands we got to. But it was it was um it was a little bit more challenging the first half, but we we broadly speaking, we were on track, there was quite a lot of like beam-on conditions. Um just like the wind didn't quite, we got lots of southeast, kind of southeasterlies, um, and so it like didn't quite clock round so that it was downwind rowing, it was always a little bit, you know, off our off our kind of port side. Um but yeah, I mean the event that you were talking about was day 83. That was sort of we got to the Marquesas uh at day 60. So that was that was the the ambition was to try and do the crossing in 120 days. So we got to Marquesas, day 60. So we were it'd been tough and you know, lots of salt on us, and you know, salt sores, and it we we d we'd clocked about an extra. I think we got we got pushed, I think we were trying to go due west, and we were doing 277 for the first 30 days. We were doing 277, so we'd we'd gone about you know seven degrees further north than we meant to, and that was 325 miles um added on to our journey.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Um but as you all know an average speed of what was it?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

We were probably for the first half, we were probably doing an average of 2.5, 2. Yeah, between 2.5 and yeah, maybe 2.7 knots. Um so that 370 is a big hit. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and then and then you know, as you know, as you know, it's not just 325 off course, it's then you have to make that ground back up, so it's 650 miles sort of added on to your journey. Um but we we still made we made it below the Marquesas, um, and it was all kind of going on track, and then we had a little bit of good weather after the Marquesas. We kind of had we had a honeymoon period of probably about 20 days where it was light, but generally speaking, downwind rowing, uh, and like beautiful skies, and it was like a really uh beautiful moment of the kind of window of the crossing, very some very tranquil moments in that in that window. Um, but then we got hit by this big system, so we we were in the we were sort of just it was it was gonna be a big um it was kind of a southerly uh so we were gonna get pushed north and the the issue when you've not got a a sail is that you can't really get out of the you can't really get out of the way of a system. Um like you're doing doing two and a half knots, you're a bit limited, and so we kind of just had to had to prepare for it, tie everything down, um and it was sort of yeah, two days, two nights of bigger conditions than we'd been in before, like 35 knots of wind. Um probably I I hate when you listen to people and they you you hear it a lot, I think, in ocean rowing that people completely dramatize how big the sea state was. Um and but yeah, it was probably you know seven or eight meters um swell kind of max. Um so yeah, just pretty pretty hairy. And then it was on the on the second night of of kind of riding out these this this system. We we were just rowing downwind, and it was on the second night, I just changed over, so I was rowing at the bow. Ewan had just come in, he'd sort of taken the bow position, and then I'd made my way back to the stern cabin. Um, and I was just getting ready to open, swing open the door and get into the cabin for three hours of s of sleep, and just I think it was just two converging waves. Um you know, it's probably like the wave was probably cresting, I don't know, 12-15 feet above my head. And so I just I just knew I didn't stand a chance. Um grabbed onto what was uh it was kind of a camera pole, but like a carbon camera pole that we had on the stone cabin. Um, and then just got like overwhelmed by this wave. It just like took me, took me off the boat. Um it was like getting kind of spear tackled. Um but yeah, I mean uh yeah, fortunately Ewan was there and you and Ewan kind of saw this unfold. Um we we it was kind of a we'd had two of these knockdowns um during the day. Uh and yeah, the boat kind of went over and then came back up, and you know, I was nowhere to be seen. So I think that was a pretty, pretty horrendous moment for him because you know he doesn't know if I've unclipped or if I'm still clipped to the boat or you know what what's happened. But he he kind of reacted super fast, came to the stern. I had my red head torch on, luckily. Um, so I kind of managed to get to the grab line, pull myself alongside, and then after a couple of failed failed attempts, um he managed to to kind of uh to to pull me back on board. Um yeah. Yeah. Well the freeboard on those isn't very much though, is it? No, I mean it's yeah, it's it's they're they're they're not the not the easiest to get back into um from the water, but yeah, you can kind of uh you can do it with a yeah, if you if you get it at the right time with a wave, it's you you can get you can get in. Um but it's uh it's not the easiest.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

But still, it I mean pulling uh probably tired because you've just done your three-hour uh stint rowing and you're fully dressed, and you've got the pressure of the water, so climbing back on board, it's um probably a bit difficult. Oh, your brother brought you coffee then. He did, yeah, yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Um yeah, I mean it is. I I we we had our so we had two sets of oars which were like basically our spare oars. We we stowed them. Um it was basically, yeah, there's like a the so our boat, it's um there's kind of two main types of ocean rowing boat, um, like the kind of the best ones. Uh one is made by a company called Ranek, one's made by this guy called Mark Slats in in the Netherlands, um called the Ocean Roan Company. And we we've we had one of Mark's boats, but in his one of the unique features of his boats, they have these like wave-deflecting, they're like wings that come up, which are they're great for little rug waves, they kind of keep you dry. Um, but they do make it probably a little bit more difficult to get inboard. Um, and then to make things more complicated, we had two sets of oars stowed. So we had two oars stowed on those wings, kind of poking down lash to a cleat beside the kind of stern cabin. Um, so it was a bit, it wasn't just the you know, getting up onto the wing, it was then getting up over those two stowed oars. Which I mean, you know, in hindsight, maybe the issue is you just couldn't you couldn't store them anywhere else. Um ideally you wouldn't have any oars there because if you go overboard, the reality is you're gonna be dragging behind the boat, so you're gonna be getting in from there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

I mean, for the for the listeners or the viewers if they're watching it on YouTube and that, these ocean rowing boats, they're not much bigger than a family car, really, are they?

SPEAKER_00 21:40

No, they yeah, so our boat's 30 feet, so she's 30 feet by about six feet. Um, so the row deck, the both the cabins are I mean, they're about six and a half feet long, both the cabins.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

But you can lie out flat in full stretch in one of them.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

You can yeah, you can. lie so yeah I mean I think you can I think you can lie flat if you're at six seven I think that's the max. Oh yeah um so I'm six three I've got I've got four inches of wiggle room um but yeah the in the stern cabin your feet kind of go underneath the road deck so the cabin looks is quite a bit smaller and then you know your feet go under the under the road deck um but the deck space I mean it's probably like uh we always say it's kind of it's almost like the size of a large kitchen table um and that's that's where you you know we were we were we were there for 18 hours a day that was kind of and it's all it's open there's no kind of shelter from the sun or um so that's where you're existing. So yeah it's funny I mean you you know from you know the years of sailing you're it's amazing how this like tiny confined space becomes your particularly our our stern so most of the time we weren't rowing in the stern position so it was just like we we had a it's actually like a an office chair um against the stern cabin where you could you know just like lean back rest your back um we had a little seat set up but that was like that was everything that was our kitchens where we prepared our meals that was where we washed our socks that was where we you know whatever um it kind of becomes this like microcosm of yeah where you do everything uh but you'll you'll be very familiar with that from that um from yeah spending many months on sailboats I must admit yeah yeah the sort of little pipe cot it does become your home um you said about sort of uh washing your socks and everything so I'm fascinated with ocean rowing you obviously carry some fresh water but do you have to like desalinate your own or is it catching rainwater? I mean because what was the actual journey time overall to set your record because I think it was 20 days that you smashed off the record for the Pacific yeah yeah it was yeah I think it was 20 days yeah because I think uh the last record was set at 159 um 159 days and we were 139 so yeah it was the overall journey was so it's 139 days was nine 9750 miles and actually um I believe well actually I I I I know um it's the longest so it's the longest uh continuous ocean row um kind of in distance uh so it's so yeah that we didn't we didn't know that but that's uh there you go it's about to be beaten though there's a guy out there this guy ding a bell you must be you guys you can follow him on YB races unbelievable anyone listening needs to check this guy out he is he's so he's not he's setting off from the same place as we did he is then doing the entire Pacific ocean and just just to make us look silly you know there's only one of him just to make us look silly he's continuing and doing the whole of the Indian so he's no stops he's doing the Pacific and the Indian it's gonna be the yeah 13000 probably more by the time he finishes thousand nautical miles just an absolute lunatic um but yeah so yeah that record was about to be broken uh all the records are gonna be broken before before long but yeah yeah yeah so uh the question before I sort of mentioned the the the record of the time yeah your water how how do you carry reproduce yeah desalinate so we had yeah we had like solar cells we had about 550 watts of power across the boat so we had we had a lot of power and then we had three lithium ion batteries so 208 100 um and then that we had a desalinator so we had a um we were producing we had we had a kind of a storage tank uh and we would produce water you know at what in the hottest hours of the day um when we had good good solar and probably produce around 30 litres a day um and store it in the tank and then that would that would get us through all of our meals um drinking probably five liters maybe a little bit more and then um and then yeah if we needed to wash socks or whatever and then we had as a backup in our grab bag we had a like um a catadin you know the catadin survivor uh hand pump hand pressure one yeah yeah so that was that was like our backup we we had to use it um once or twice but it was yeah it was kind of like a an emergency backup how how big was the tank on the boat then that you could fill uh so supposedly seven 70 litres um but it was we actually had a lot a few issues with it um in that I think that just because of the the kind of it was right up in the bow and I think that the bag was 70 litres but the capacity of the cavity was more like 30 uh or maybe a little bit more um so yeah we actually had some some issues with it in that we had loads of loads of holes in it and we had to do terrible repairs with ct one and all the all sorts um but yeah we we yeah thirty 30 to 40 at a push we we could and then we had we had like jerry uh and a backup jerry can uh oh no I think we had two backup jerry cans and then we had a bucket as well um just like lots of yeah layers of kind of redundancy uh what's the word layers of redundancy yeah and and support yeah yeah they yeah I do know those bag systems um and actually on one of my races which was only a 600 mile race it was um Rolex Model C race and uh during that race one of the the bladder um unfortunately someone had put a bracket on top of the tank and one of the screws had gone through the top and when we filled up the tank of course we didn't know it at the time but once they filled up the bag of course it pressured onto the back end of this screw and eventually it just worked away and yeah we lost that tank so hey ho yeah challenge but um so yeah dingers obviously setting a a new record yeah going across the Indian Ocean does that kind of like set a new challenge for you and your brothers to go actually we're gonna do one better or like Liz Wardley who just kind of randomly goes oh between sort of this ocean row I'm going to join an ocean racing boat and then I'm gonna come back and do a the world's toughest row Pacific yeah yeah anything else challenge I don't know I I I think it's funny I I think it's you know it's always it's yeah no I I mean in terms of Dinger's role I'm just I think we we're just cheering him on he's just ugh it's phenomenal what what he's doing and I think like how to put this into words I think like we it's it's it's easy to get sucked into this kind of like always trying to do the next thing that's bigger and better and faster and like to be honest our in terms of doing the Pacific um you know we were we were trying to get across as fast as we could but we were also trying to like primarily it was kind of a fundraising exercise for us um and you know hence why there was loads of you know we were we were doing all kind we were doing like media interviews we were doing we were sending loads of media back um to kind of be shared on social media and stuff like that and it was kind of trying to use our experience tell I suppose like tell the story of Rowing Across the Pacific in a way that is going to fundraise. So that was that was sort of the challenge we set ourselves and um we were raising money for clean water projects in Madagascar so that's yeah that's something we're hugely passionate about and it was sort of the it was the north star of the whole campaign. So in terms of physical challenge I think we're not we're yeah we're not ready to you know announce anything but I think that instead of just trying to row around the world um it's kind of I suppose it's like using whatever we're doing because we we love doing these things we like as you know you know you you get kind of tranquility and clarity and just you've just got a daily purpose of trying to get from A to B and there's something so simple and just beautiful about that. So we would never I'd never pretend that we're you know we're doing it completely selflessly we we enjoy these experiences but I think it's the combination of doing something we really enjoy makes us feel you know alive and and all of that but also and kind of feeding that adventurous spirit but it's also doing something that's gonna generate some impact that's sort of that that's gonna be the the formula I think we will take into the the next thing whatever that may be um we've actually got we've uh so in when we were preparing for the Pacific we we try you know you all know obviously the minch so the the body of water between mainland scotland and the outer Hebrides is called the Minch and as a training row before setting off from the like where I am now I'm I'm in Ascent Jamie and I live in uh kind of the far northwest um and we we set off on this training row from here and it's about it's probably about 25 miles maybe slightly less 20 20 miles to get to Stornoway um and we got halfway there and we had to turn back because the the the the wind was against us and it was yeah it got got pretty pretty wild uh we started getting all these kind of concerned loved ones friends and family messaging us like if you can't cross the minch are you sure you're ready for the Pacific um so yeah we've actually very recently got the boat back from Australia um so Rose Emily's back she's just up the hill from where I am now and uh finally we're gonna do a minch row so in a cut in a in a couple weeks we're gonna try and you know we've done the Atlantic we've done the Pacific we're finally ready to get across the Minch the Minch is quite a dangerous direction water because like the tidal flow through there obviously where it really funnels between the islands and the mainland you obviously get some rip roaring winds up there as well so yeah I mean there's been some quite massive um or well known ship disasters up there as well isn't there through the shipping lane oh yeah I've I I mean I'm I'm quite um ashamed to say that I don't I don't know many of them maybe that's for the maybe that's for the best I don't really know many of them look into the MAID yeah maybe the maybe the mince rows are going to be cancelled I'm gonna I'm gonna be scared away from it well when I went off to do my round the world race literally the day before I flew out a mate of mine Ian cook cookie he was like come on we'll we'll stay in we'll have a pizza night and watch a film I was like yeah okay cool that that's nice and relaxing what we watching and he was literally like the what was it the film the deadliest storm or something like that and then storm that's it yeah and it was like oh brilliant yeah we'll watch that just before I go off to do the Southern Ocean cheers really but yeah the Minch is definitely a challenge it's not an easy stretch of the water by any stretch of the main to a nation it's not it's not have you have you been out to St Kilda have you sailed no no that was because that would be I've I've been out there once on a sailboat um and like just mind blowing but getting out there on a roamboat would be you'd need you need a you need a very good window to to get out there but oh that would be amazing yeah yeah but you also said you've just got Rose Emily back um obviously shit back I didn't realise until I was doing a bit of research for this that the boat's actually named after a family member is that right yeah I mean it's yeah so it's um so we we yeah we we kind of as I said we we kind of work we were very involved in the build of the boat so we worked with this guy Mark Slats in the Netherlands and and yeah I mean it came to naming the boat and we we wanted to call it something that it kind of meant something to us meant something to our family and initially we were putting out stuff on social media like we we did kind of like a poll to see you know the see what the public came out with and the the forerunners I think were Usain Boat and uh of course Boatamut Boatface Boat Boatface yeah that that's always at the front um and then it was my my godmum kind of put forward the suggestion which was Rose Emily and it was so between Jamie and I so I'm the youngest I'm 28 Jamie's uh 32 I think and then Ewan's 33 um but between Jamie and I um basically our mum and dad had a well they had a baby girl um who mum mum was pregnant and tragically she was stillborn um sort of six and a half months into the into pregnancy and that they'd already picked a name and that was Rose Emily so we yeah we called it called Rose Emily for it was really for mum and dad and I suppose to to recognise this this life that was never lived and you know the the trauma that that sort of left behind and I think it was really nice because you again you know you know as as well as as well as I do that doing these big trips it's it's very stressful for for loved ones um in our in our case it's for um for our mom in particular it's her her three sons in what it's three eggs in one basket sort of thing but it was very it was very nice when we when we got to Australia I remember mum saying she it felt she felt like you know we were almost like the the sister we never had was kind of looking after us um so in a on a kind of I don't know slightly woo-woo spiritual level she kind of felt confident that it was going to be fine because of that um which was yeah which was very very nice yeah but sailors or mariners or rotion rowers I think we're all fairly superstitious in one way or the other yeah you gotta be my colleagues at YB when I I pass them on the stairs I won't cross them on the stairs and they're like why and I said ah you just don't cross on the stairs and they're like weird I said we've got some weird superstitions you know sailors and mariners so but yeah it's it's out there so yeah um another little question so you raised a lot of money um well over a million pounds for water projects in Madagascar and you had some celebrity help now I know that um Mark Wahlberg was doing a load of promo about you and you'd done a chat with him and the legend I still want to meet is Ewan McGregor not because I'm a Star Wars fan or anything like that it's I'm a biker as well and the fact that he done the long way down all the way down to Cape Town and he went and had a drink in my mate's pub uh Den Anchor in Cape Town it's like I still want to meet Ewan and I believe he's just been sailing as well on the uh Sale GP in uh New York or something so um yeah you've obviously had some celebrity push uh was that just like blown up on on social media and yeah whoa that's good to yeah I mean it it kind of it was you know it was like it's we our the whole campaign it was like try to raise as much awareness as we can to trying to get trying to you know build a following and get loads of media interviews and all of that and one of the strategies for that was kind of influencer like trying to get people you know these people with huge followings to to share it and and this I remember we we did we we came up on on a rowing boat you've you know we we had a huge amount of time to to s to think about stuff so we were constantly jabbering away like oh we should try this we should try this and our cousin guy he was he was sort of like I suppose like campaign manager um you you met Guy um or you spoke to him didn't you spoke to Guy a couple of times yeah uh and yeah so we come to Guy and share these ideas but what one of the ideas was actually good about 90% of them were terrible but um we we had one out there though yeah one one good idea which was to do like it was like dinner with the McLean's so we sort of started a podcast uh and we were using you know Riverside and we would send a meal a freeze dry meal that we had cooked uh to this celebrity wherever whoever it was and and then we would the idea was that we would share them we would have the same meal and have a chat uh we were on a little boat in the Pacific they're on land and it was it was good we we didn't manage to get one to Mark Wahlberg but we did get a um we got a lamb sag to to Ewan McGregor um so he was he was down in London for like a theatre production um and we had oh it was one of the it was a very the Ewan McGregor chat was great we had we had some other like lovely lovely people join us like Lorraine Kelly and Sam Hewitt yeah I remember seeing that on TV I've I've missed you know I've missed a lot but the one with you and McGregor was very very sorry uh I just remember seeing the one with Lorraine Kelly on TV yeah yeah yeah that that was we had we had a meal with her and then we also we we were on her show as well uh we did like I think we did a couple of live live conversations with with Lorraine um but Ewan is yeah Lorraine is uh delightful as well but youan as well he's just oh he's such a nice guy um we're actually hoping to try and do some stuff with him this this summer potentially um uh he's got a project coming up which will will excite you um I I already know about it I already know about it okay let's try and not leak it yeah no no no no no I'm sure he's actually mentioned it but I am aware of it and yeah I do know it and yes if there was a glitch in the recording there I think my computer system has just completely overheated and melted down um so it's alright it still seems to be recording oh no yeah we'll we'll wrap it up anyway just so that the whole computer system doesn't melt down um and obviously we're about to turn everything down it's now 44 degrees in here so I will wrap it up I know I'm I'm absolutely melting under unfortunately I've had a quick dry top on you can't see it but it's absolutely soaked it almost takes me back of trying to cross the equator and just melting so we will wrap it up thank you very much Lochlin for for coming on and spending the time uh can't wait to do the next project with you and um yeah just well done on all of the water projects that you've done for Madagascar the amount of uh money that you've raised and I believe on your website you can pre-order the book is that right you can yeah yeah the book the book is the pre-orders are out the it comes out on the 24th of September uh and we're doing we're doing talks actually kind of all over the country so um we'll there'll be there'll be the dates all yeah we're we're kind of doing a a few weeks of of talks kind of between you know the north of Scotland and the south of England so um yeah so if you want to come and hear more come along then yeah oh well when you're down here give us a shout and that would be nice that would be very nice Lee and I the issue with these conversations I can't ask you any questions so I want to I think we need to yeah I want I want to hear about I want to hear about your I'm sure you've got many many tales to tell there are some little ditties and uh Rick um Nick from six point media who I'm doing a lot of work with he's doing a couple of recording episodes with me um to find out more about who I am but um yeah it I hopefully we'll chat again on uh another project and uh yeah maybe you can ask the other way around yeah well I know maybe maybe we'll we'll get a freeze dry meal to you and we can we can do one of those it's right I've got my Tabasco sauce yeah right well thank you very much Lochlin and uh thank you very much to everyone for following so far and if you want to know more then do all the normal thing of like follow subscribe share buy freeze dried meal go to the McLean brothers look them up on the internet you can pre-order their book and see you for the next episode legend thanks so much Lee cheers