Here they will spend the next 35 days, while only using four veins must travel to 4800 kilometres from the canary island of La Gomera’s coast to the island of Antigua in the caribbean archipelago.
A trip, not exactly can be called healthy.
“We see some hallucinations. When they sleep, so they may well have black holes,” says Thor Munch-Andersen, who is a doctor on the trip.
namely, It can be hard to get sleep.
The four men Mikkel Schmidt, Lasse Hansen, Michael Heather and Anders Nørregaard must not leave the boat during the roturen.
Every two hours they must be on the team of two men ro in two hours.
Including, you can meet the four men, who right now is sitting in a rowboat in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.
It will say, then, that the 24 hours in a day for about 35 days ror two hours and sleeping two hours. Absolutely non-stop.
“We see them sometimes fall asleep, but they sit and rudder,” says Thor Munch-Andersen, who has been on this trip five times before.
“But in theory, one can get used to it, as long as you get the amount of sleep you need over 24 hours,” he elaborates.
And then there søsygen. In a rowboat on a sea that can produce waves that will be entirely up to 10 metres high, it is inevitable.
“In some cases they become so sick that they can not get fluid on board,” says Thor Munch-Andersen.
unlike us on the ground, it’s recommended to drink a maximum of three litres of fluid a day, the men on the robåden consume up to 12 gallons of daily.
to Get through the first week, you start to get used to it. It will be everyday for the body.
“most will be better within three to seven days – so begins søsygen to be to tolerate,” he explains.
Thor Munch-Andersen has, however, experienced the event, where you have been forced to evacuate a person. It happens about three times each year, where the tour ‘Atlantic Challenge’, praise.
“They have sat and been totally apathetic and would like home,” says Thor Munch-Andersen.
You lose simply the courage. The energy is running out, and our ability to act decisively disappear.
When you are being pushed to the limit physically, so is the psyche even more challenged.
“Many of them have climbed mountains and run a marathon, but here they should be able to it all,” says Thor Munch-Andersen and describes the experience as a shock for the body.
Is it healthy?
“Not, it would be a shame to say – but there is no doubt that the body is pressed into the bottom.”
The psychological impact brands, especially when the trip is over, and you need to get back to reality. A reality that is very far from a small boat with very little space.
“It may well take some time to regenerate when you come home. This applies both to the circadian rhythms, but also to reinvent themselves in a modern world,” he says.
It takes about half a year before you feel comfortable in working life, private life and in relationship to its surroundings.
“It is for many, a life-changing trip,” says Thor Munch-Andersen.
