Lara Vafiadis and a crew of three others are planning to row from Australia to Kenya [BBC]
A woman is aiming to achieve two world records by rowing 5,500 miles (8,851km) across the Indian Ocean.
Lara Vafiadis, from Malvern, Worcestershire, and her three crew mates will set off from Australia on Monday and row unsupported until they reach Kenya.
If they achieve their goal, the four-person British crew will become the first mixed crew and first women to make the continent-to-continent crossing.
Vafiadis, who previously rowed across the Atlantic solo, said: “The Indian Ocean is unpredictable and terrifying, but our team is ready.”
She added: “You can’t just do one big adventure, once you’ve done one ocean row it’s incredibly difficult to just stop because you have all this knowledge, all of this information that you can’t put into anything else.”
The crew, who expect to spend between 80-100 days at sea, will live on a cramped 28ft (8.5m) rowing boat with zero luxury, zero plumbing, and a relentless schedule of two hours of rowing followed by two hours of sleep.
They will navigate some of the world’s most hostile marine environments, battling 40ft (12m) swells, intense tropical heat, and absolute isolation.
The rowers will carry out onboard scientific data collection throughout the crossing, including sampling for microplastic pollution to map ocean health, alongside studies into the positive impacts of intense exercise on mental health, anxiety, and PTSD.
The row is raising funds and awareness for two charities at the forefront of brain health and recovery: Race Against Dementia and Rock2Recovery.
Vafiadis said: “Rowing an ocean changes your perspective on human capability entirely.
“This time, we aren’t just pushing our bodies to break world records, we are capturing data that could protect our oceans and change how we understand mental resilience.”
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