Lurgan’s Linda Blakely aims to cross the treacherous 3,000-mile Atlantic Ocean in a 12-foot boat aptly named Ulster Warrior, reports the Sunday Life.
She will start 2024 attempting to break a world record for a female solo rower, which is 40 days and 19 hours, set by 35-year-old Englishwoman Victoria Evans in 2022. Linda, who will be 50 about halfway through the challenge aims to raise £100,000 for the charity Action Medical Research.
She plans to set off from Gran Canaria to St Lucia in the Caribbean on January 7, weather-permitting, and hopes to arrive in St Lucia 40 days later, where her brother Peter and his family will be there to welcome her ashore.
Linda lives in London, where she runs three homes for young people with special needs. In 2018, she became the first woman in the UK to summit both Everest and Lhotse within a day.
Other accolades are competition in Iron Man challenges and winning a silver medal in European championships in long-distance triathlons with Team GB.
She tells the Belfast Telegraph that her mission is to become the fastest woman in the world to cross the Atlantic alone. She explains: “When I first thought about doing it, the record was 49 days, which seemed to be there for the taking, but then Victoria (Evans) did it in 40 days. She set a tough benchmark. Until this year, I had never rowed before, but I have a great club in London, the Sons of the Thames, who have taken me under their wing and taught me how to row, and I’ve been doing some racing with them.”
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