North Yorkshire woman to make history sailing Atlantic as fearless all female crew “tackle waves up to thirty feet high”

Bobbie Mellor, 34, from Ripon Grammar, alongside her all female crew, is currently battling extreme mental and physical challenges that come with crossing the ferocious Atlantic Ocean, in a race aptly named ‘The World’s Toughest Row’.

Having set off from La Gomera in the Canaries in December with a fleet of 38 other crews from around the world, she and her team-mates are 2,000 miles into their unsupported journey as they make their way to Antigua, in the Caribbean.

Rowing two hours on two hours off for anything up to 50 days, they have been battling sleep deprivation, salt sores, physical extremes, and the psychological challenges of the open ocean.

The crew have fuelled a media storm to strike their campaign in raising awareness on climate change, whilst raising money for charities protecting those on the frontlines of the environmental crisis.

Miss Mellor, global head of sustainability for Vodafone, and her Wavebreakers teammates Hatty Carder, and Katherine Antrobus, have been training for more than two years to join the ranks of fewer than one hundred women in history to attempt the journey, which they hope to complete on January 27.

Miss Mellor said: “First and foremost, I’m rowing the Atlantic in support of charities tackling the climate crisis.

“What better way to raise money and awareness, than to go back to basics and cross an ocean powered just by our own oars?”