A route is considered a circumnavigation of the globe as long as it starts and ends at the same location, and crosses all lines of longitude as well as the equator. Ellen's route, roughly outlined here, meets those criteria. The proposed route starts and ends in her home state of Texas. It is about 40,000 miles and all of it will be human-powered in a rowboat.
Read her story here: https://ellenmagellanexpeditions.com
@ellenmagellanexpeditions
In a sleepy little town off the east coast of England, ocean rowboats are born.
I didn’t know what to expect when I first came to Rannoch Adventure. All I saw on the map was what looked like an unassuming cluster of warehouses on the outskirts of a small town midway up a tidal river. So I made my way halfway across the world - by plane, train, foot - and walked up to this spot on the map. It’s January 2020, and I had just decided I wanted to row around the world.
I crested the small bridge over a creek and saw my first ocean rowboat, sitting inconspicuously in a lot. My feet kept walking but it wasn’t me moving them; I felt then I was ushered along by something greater than me.
Somehow I had gotten here. I had moved my body through space and made this reality. I didn’t know what I was doing; all I knew was that it felt right.
That was my first trip to Rannoch. I left England then completely broke but with a down payment on a boat. I still had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I was walking down the right path. I’ve been going ever since.
I met a future ocean rower in my second and most recent trip to England. An independent rower not involved in any race. It was refreshing to meet him; everyone else I had met had a team and a group of people working with them, a network of help. This independent rower was like me. Doing everything alone, all the paperwork and logistics, planning and training - just him and a dream. We commiserated on our journeys to get here, finding that over the last two years, both of us had been doing the same research, encountering the same problems - planning alone on other sides of the world.
We talked about Rannoch, how to get to this place is like a pilgrimage. A long journey to a faraway place, somewhat reverent, a place dreamers have come from everywhere to begin a journey of a lifetime.
This unassuming warehouse, with its boats in various states of construction, its office up a set of wooden stairs, its bathroom with coffee mugs set out to dry, and its friendly employees and grinning founder - this place is a pilgrimage in all rights, where so many ocean rowing journeys have begun.
This is Rannoch Adventure.
In both her personal and professional encounters with sport, Victoria has witnessed the multitude of barriers that exist for women entering the field. True to her legal background she’s a firm advocate of fairness and equal treatment, and passionately believes that sport at every level should be accessible to all, regardless of gender. She’s now using the benefit of her experience to ensure girls and women have clear pathways to both play and govern sport.
Read her story here: https://www.seachangesport.com/
@seachangesport
There will be very few people in ocean rowing who don’t cross paths with @rannochadventure. Established over ten years ago by @charliepitchergbr, who himself has rowed the Atlantic three times, their world is everything to do with ocean and offshore rowing - from boats to training, shipping, servicing - the list goes on.
When I depart on my crossing it will be 3.5 years since my first emails with Rannoch seeking out advice. A much longer campaign than first anticipated given COVID. During those years I’ve had the pleasure of being supported by the whole team - whether it’s training with Charlie, lessons from Lizzie, electrical advice from Gary, work on the boat by Tom and Mike, navigating restrictions with Nicola, or my countless calls to Rach! They’ve all been there for every question and query, on the good days and the bad.
What they perhaps don’t realise is that by coaching you through a new set of skills and their constant belief in you to undertake something as big as an ocean row, they help you grow and achieve, I’m a very different person to the one who arrived in Burnham on Crouch in 2018!
If you’re considering a rowing expedition - look them up!
Thank you, Ellen & Tori, for your very kind words of endorsement.
