In the summer of 2026, Team Brainwaves set out from Western Australia to row 5,500 miles across the Indian Ocean to Kenya. Our goal was to become the first mixed crew and first women to complete the mainland-to-mainland crossing, all while raising vital funds for Race Against Dementia and Rock2Recovery.

 

For 65 days, we lived in a 28-foot pressure cooker, rowing two hours on and two hours off. We battled brutal seas, extreme sleep deprivation, and relentless physical exhaustion, successfully rowing over 3,520 nautical miles

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But the ocean always has the final say. After surviving a devastating capsize that stripped us of our daggerboard and critical power systems, a catastrophic rudder failure in 40-foot waves left our boat, Monkey Fist, completely unsteerable.

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Facing days of incoming storms and unacceptable risk to life we had tp make the worst kind of desicion. We aborted the world record attempt, leaving our boat behind to drift as we were rescued by a 220-metre oil tanker. The expedition ended prematurely, but the crew came home safely, and our mission to support our charities continues.