King’s student becomes youngest person ever to row across the Atlantic

A King’s student and his Bristol Uni sailing partner have become the youngest rowers ever to cross the Atlantic.

Guy’s Campus biomedical scientist Jack Galsworthy and Bristol mechanical engineer Freddie Wright set off from the La Gomera in the Canary Islands on December 15th – and arrived in the English Harbour in Antigua in the early hours of yesterday morning, just 47 days later.

The rowers, who go by the team name “Atlantic Castaways”, beat 16 other teams to finish 10th in the “world’s toughest row” – the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge.

To break the record, the pair rowed a punishing schedule of two hours on, two hours off  – surviving on four rehydrated meals a day plus snacks.

Two days from the nearest support team, they faced terrifying 40-foot waves, sharks and howling winds, as well as a number of physical obstacles including blisters, salt-rashes, sunstroke and sleep deprivation.

During the journey they also lost 20 per cent of their body weight as they burned 10,000 calories a day.

Incredibly, they also swam with whales, found themselves led out of storms by dolphins and were followed faithfully by a bird called Simon from day one.

Jack, from Cornwall, and Freddie, from Gloucestershire, used their brave adventure to raise over £40,000 for the Brain Research Trust.

You can see our original interview with the pair here.