Claire Mills, Sally Kettle, Ali Boreham and Nicola Pashley watch Diane Park


31 January 2005
Would-be Atlantic rowers in the pink
BEING locked in a tiny room with four other women for 48 hours, eating curried freeze-dried rice and listening to The Darkness should be enough to test anybody's patience. Kate O'Hara But for the five women hoping to row the Atlantic in a bright pink boat later this year, this weekend's self-imposed "mental stress" was perfect preparation for their record-breaking attempt in November. To break the 36-day record four of them will need to row a marathon a day each, and spend 24 hours a day with only each other for company for more than a month.
		Testing time: Rowing hopefuls from left Claire Mills, Sally Kettle, Ali Boreham and Nicola Pashley watch Diane Park train for the event. Picture: Simon Hulme.
So this weekend, the five women – Sally Kettle, Ali Boreham, Claire Mills, Diane Park and reserve rower Nicola Pashley – shut themselves up in a 6ft by 8ft gym at the back of Mrs Park's home in Elland, and began planning the massive fundraising effort which they hope will get them to the starting line. Skipper Ms Kettle, 27, who made the same crossing last year with her mother, Sarah, admitted yesterday that there had been some heated moments during the two-day stint, but said they had all been healthy arguments about the best way to raise cash for the venture. "We've really enjoyed it – it was a fantastic opportunity to get to know each other better, and being uncomfortable has given us a small taster of how things will be when we're out on the boat," she said. The TV producer said the women had also rowed 100,000 metres in 36 hours to train during the weekend, each doing two stints on the rowing machine in the corner of the cramped room. They also decided on some of the thousands of tracks which will be taken on an MP3 player to get them through the journey – including Frank Sinatra and The Darkness. When Ms Kettle and her mother became only the 16th and 17th women to row across the Atlantic last year, they were raising money for Halifax-based charity Fund for Epilepsy. For this year's attempt the five women want raise as much money as possible for the Rotary Aqua Boxes, which are packed with supplies to help people affected by disasters, and were recently sent to survivors of the Asian tsunami. The Boxing Day disaster had a profound effect on the group – Ms Kettle's friend Jez Stephens, 29, was killed on the Thai island of Phi Phi when the earthquake struck. Sports graduate Miss Mills, 22, who was cheered on by her team mates as she completed the final stretch on the rowing machine, narrowly missed the tsunami herself. She had been booked on a bus to visit an area hit by the tidal waves, but changed her mind at the last minute and travelled to the north of Thailand instead. Mrs Park, 44, said: "We want to raise as much money as we can for charity and we think that local businesses will want to support us in our attempt." Ms Kettle added: "It's not often you get the chance to do something which will go down in history." Visit rowgirls.com for more details or to make a donation, or call Sally Kettle on 07786 805461 or Diane Park on 01422 370975. kate.o'hara@ypn.co.uk 31 January 2005