A 21-year-old Loughborough University student is believed to have become the youngest person and first woman to row solo and unsupported from mainland Europe to mainland South America. Zara Lachlan set off from Lagos on the Portuguese Algarve on October 27 last year and 97 days later reached French Guiana after a 3,600 nautical-mile journey.
Ms Lachlan, who will join the Army in September as a technical officer, having completed a physics degree at Loughborough University, overcame a cut leg, an injured arm and a broken finger, a capsized boat and broken equipment.
She told the PA news agency: "I found that last week actually really hard, because I knew I was close and it never actually felt close enough. But then it really snuck up on me, because French Guiana is actually very flat, and I didn't see it until I was about five miles offshore.
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"And then all of a sudden I was just here, and obviously it feels nice to be done. Nobody knew I was coming in, but I got clapped by lots of fishermen from Brazil. I think everybody was just a little bit more confused [about] what on Earth I was doing."
Ms Lachlan arrived in French Guiana on February 1, in a time of 97 days, nine hours and 20 minutes. She said she missed beating the solo row speed record for the journey by 19 hours.
She carried 800kg of supplies in her boat, including 5,500kcal of meals and snacks per day. After a difficult start in which she said she was "going around in circles", Ms Lachlan said she "enjoyed every single day, even the really tough ones". She said she smashed the screen of her primary phone on day 40, preventing her from listening to any music during her journey.
"I rowed for 16 hours a day with literally only the sound of the water, which most of the time is really nice, but sometimes I think my brain could really use some kind of stimulation," she said during her challenge. Meanwhile, she had a near miss with a ship which missed her by "0.1 of a mile", claiming the vessel failed to turn on its radio.
Ms Lachlan, from Cambridge, said: "I learned to be a lot easier on myself because I've always been somebody that, especially when it comes to myself, looks at the outcome and the results over the effort you put in. So if you want something, you work hard for it, and if you don't get it, it is because you didn't work hard enough for it.
"But then with this, having weather which you can't control and which a lot of the time you're not stronger than, I really had to change how I viewed progress each day."
Ms Lachlan will now head back to university in Leicestershire, where she said she will carry on her "normal rowing training" before graduating in the summer. During her challenge she has been raising money for the Team Forces Foundation, which supports the armed forces community through sport and adventure, and the charity Women in Sport.
"Thank you to Team Forces because they were one of the charities I was raising money for, but they were also my biggest sponsor and I wouldn't have been able to do any of it without them," she said.
Records broken, subject to Guiness World Record verification, include:
- youngest person to row solo & unsupported from mainland Europe to mainland south America
- first female to row mainland Europe to mainland south America solo
- youngest person to row from mainland Europe to mainland south America
Major General Lamont Kirkland, CEO Team Forces, said: “I am absolutely delighted to celebrate Zara Lachlan's monumental achievement. At just 21 years old, she has become the first woman to row solo and unsupported from mainland Europe to mainland South America – a feat of incredible strength, resilience, and determination.
“Zara's success is a testament to the power of human potential and the spirit of adventure we strive to foster at Team Forces. We are exceptionally proud to have enabled Zara's expedition with the support of our sponsors. Zara’s ground-breaking journey serves as an inspiration to us all, demonstrating that with passion and commitment, anything is possible.”
To find out more about Ms Lachlan's fundraising, visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk and search for 'zara lachlan atlantic solo-row'.
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