Food for Rowing the Atlantic Ocean

Ever fantasized about what it’d be like to spend more than a month rowing a boat? Across the Atlantic Ocean? With a bunch of dudes!? Well you don’t need to anymore, because apparently, this is a thing. The Talisker Whiskey Atlantic challenge is a 4800 km long rowing competition that people voluntarily participate in. We from Jimmy Joy think this is both badass as well as terrifying, so we supported a couple of teams from the comfort of our office.

Turns out our sponsored teams kicked some serious buttocks, as they all completed the contest with 1.5 million strokes per rower. The Dutch Atlantic Four team finished 1st overall and Atlantic Discovery finished 6th overall while 5th in fives. But the Nauti Buoys avoided some spanking with the oar by finishing 1st in fives and BREAKING THE FREAKING WORLD RECORD. Feeling like proud parents at our kids’ graduation ceremony, we asked the Nauti Buoys some questions about their journey and how they managed to become so cool.

Credit Ben Duffy

First off, why the hell did you guys go on this suicide mission?

Each team member had a different reason to participate in the race. But, the encompassing theme was stepping out of our comfort zones, make lasting memories and trying to get the 5 men world record.

And so they did. They broke the World record in 36 days, 19 hours and 9 minutes. The only record anybody of our team ever broke was balancing the most filled Plenny Shakers on his head, and that ended… messy.

So what did you eat during that time?

We consumed a whole bag of Plenny shake every day as well as 3-5 rehydrated meals. The shakes turned out to be crucial to our performance. Paul got seasick for the first few days and was not able to keep rehydrated food down. He doubled up on Plenny Shake for the first few weeks, getting all of his nutritional needs from the shakes and chocolate bars. We also used the shake as a form of desserts during the day (vanilla was favorite) to boost our energy intake. The shakes were our main source of nutrition at night: we were able to save time and minimalize sleep by making a quick shake just before heading to bed. This was so much faster than eating a meal with the same nutritional content!

On average, rowers lose 12 kg each while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. How was this in your team?

Our team had the lowest weight loss of all teams, Matt only lost 2kg!

That’s mind blowing (or should I say mind rowing). Especially when you consider that they burned up 5000 (!) calories per day.

Did you experience some grand realization or epiphany moment during the trip?

During our crossing, we saw the effect of plastic pollution on a daily basis. There was not a day where we did not see a floating bottle or piece of plastic. The team was very careful to keep all rubbish on board and dispose of it appropriately upon arrival. We are very happy to have been supported by Jimmy Joy, as they go to great lengths to reduce packaging waste and their impact on the environment.

Aw stahp, you’re making us blush. Is it true that each rower is expected to use only 800 sheets of toilet paper during the entire period of the crossing?

Yep.