SUSO

‘The difficult is what takes a little time. The impossible is what takes a little longer.’ FRIDTJOT NANSEN

Olly Hicks is about to undertake the last great challenge in ocean rowing. Starting in January, he aims to row single handedly around the world. SUSO caught up with man at the helm of this, the most epic of adventures. Mad man? Pioneer? Fool? All of the above? You decide...

What were you like as a child? Was this something you felt you always wanted to do?

Yes. I have wanted to row the Atlantic since I was 14. My Dad cut something out of a newspaper about a guy who had died rowing across the Pacific. So then I found out more about it, about people who had rowed across the oceans. I read about Peter Bird who tried to row across the Pacific. He spent 937 days at sea. And they found his boat in the Pacific and he wasn't in it. They don't really know what happened to him. Still, from that moment on, it was what I wanted to do.

I tried to do it on my year off after school but obviously couldn't raise enough money because it's a pretty expensive thing to do. Then did a few things at Newcastle University to get some credibility for sponsors. I did a run across a desert and I also did the longest canoe race in the world. Then after University I thought, what am I going to do now? So I started raising the money and did some training and everything fell into place eventually. And once Virgin was confirmed as a sponsor we did all the preparation in 3 months.

Who do you aspire to?

There was an awesome Norwegian called Fridtjof Nansen who I admire. He never got to the North Pole but he got as far north as anyone ever had at that time. He had a lunatic plan so he never made it!

Can you tell me about the Charities you are doing it for?

We are doing it for Hope and Home for Children. They take conflict orphans and rehouse them, put them in a foster home and then follow them through their development of their young lives. They started in Bosnia but now they are quite big and work in 18 countries across Africa and eastern Europe. They came and gave an inspirational talk when I was at school. I did a bike ride for them and after that we had a very good relationship. I like them because they don't spend all their money on smart glitzy offices. They are based in falling down farm houses near Salisbury.

The whole project is scary, but there must be smaller details that worry you.

There was a shark last time. That wasn't so much scary but exciting as I hadn't seen anything else. You don't see anything. The shark just followed the boat for a bit, touching the back and sort of surfing down the waves behind the boat. After about 1/2 an hour, he left. It was a great white.

Do you have night and day?

It's sort of weather dependent. You row all day and sleep at night when it gets dark. It's miserable rowing in the dark because you cant see the waves. You cant see your progress. The racing people do 2 hours on 2 hours off. When you're on your own, though, the most important thing is to stay happy. If you're not happy, it's very bad.

Sometimes when you are asleep you make ground if the wind's blowing you the right way. Sometimes you lose it. You put out a sort of sea anchor which floats on the surface. It fills with water and the resistance of the wind pushing you backwards and the sea anchor holding you forwards stops you drifting backwards so much. So the worst it can do is pull you back about 30 miles; but that's a whole day rowing!

What do you think about out there on the ocean?

Everything. It would be really good if you could switch off but you can't really. I don't think about the final goal at the beginning as I think if I did I would go mental because it's so far away. Best to take it day by day.

How do you know its going to take you 2 years?

Well, because on average you can row a thousand miles a month and it's about 18 thousand miles, so that would make it about 18 months with 3-4 months stop. I think it might be a bit quicker. We have to verge on the slow side so anything faster is good - good for the sponsors.

What was your best moment when you rowed the Atlantic?

I remember one day in particular when it was just flat calm. I'd rowed a couple of hours after breakfast and I thought, hmm i might have a day off and just spend the day fishing. It was just the most beautiful day. At that point I was pretty sure I would get to the other side. It just felt totally relaxed: no responsibilities, nothing to do for a day, no telephones etc. It's just the most extraordinary feeling.

Do you wash your clothes?

Last time I took four or five pairs of clothes and changed them once a month. I didn't wash them. It's quite a clean environment. And you have all this wind blowing through you and you are getting washed all the time by the waves and the sea and the rain. So you probably smell quite fruity, but not too bad.

What do you eat?

Army rations. Dehydrated army rations. They're not too bad. For water you have a desalinator that sucks up sea water and spits out fresh water. But if that breaks, wow, big problems. You carry about 50 litres of emergency water and you could probably live on that for 50 days, give or take. So it would probably be enough time to get a rescue or to try and get to land somehow.

How do you mentally prepare?

I don't know how you do it, I just try and have a lot of fun before I go.

When are you leaving?

We are leaving quite late already. Hopefully it will be the first week of January, because the later I leave the more exposure to the winter I will get. It's much more dangerous in the winter because the temperature is so low and the ice comes north and there will be more ice to hit. It's a very strong boat but you still have to stay out of the ice.

What kind of communication do you have with the outside world?

A satellite phone, much like a mobile. You can speak to anyone you want, but it's quite expensive. There is also email and a radio so you can speak to ships going past. You are quite in touch if you want to be. It can be quite a double-edged sword because if you talk to people all the time you become reliant on it. I didn't actually use it very much the last time.

What are your moods like?

My moods are normally dictated by the weather and the progress you are making, but it's pretty level. its pretty good. most of the time. but then again its completely dependent on what’s going on I suppose. You've got no other people around, the only thing affecting you is the weather - that determines everything; your comfort levels, because of the violence of the motion of the boat, how wet you are, how well you sleep, everything like that. The weather rules your life.

What’s your next goal?

Wow, chill out! I haven't really got that far. I don't think I will want to do this anymore because getting to this point has been so stressful. I don't enjoy this side of it at all. I would quite like to go into the army... for a bit. Maybe I’ll come back to it. I would quite like to make enough money so I can go and do these trips and just pay for it myself, rather than go down the sponsorship route, which is now getting harder and harder. It sort of becomes more accessible to go and do these adventures because the technology and clothing and the transport all all so much better. So more and more people are looking for sponsorship for fewer and fewer things to do. And in terms of firsts, there are hardly any firsts left, which this is. This is one of the hardest things still left left to do. No one has done it, it’s been attempted three times.

Did the others who attempted this use the same route?

More or less. yeah the last two guys left from New Zealand. The guy before them left from the Falklands... but they all got smashed up.

Smashed up?

One guy got half way across the Pacific, Frenchman, and then he lost all his toes. He got gangrene on his feet from the cold. The second guy, he got into a massive storm about 12 days out of New Zealand and was in 120 knot winds so it was way over a hurricane. They think his boat cartwheeled end over end and he was thrown from one end to the other inside his cabin and he smashed his head on the wall. He was knocked out. when he woke up he was really hyperthermic but they rescued him. The other guy was a joker, within 36 hours he got washed up where he started.

Are you strapped in?

Yeah, if you are on the deck you should always be clipped on. if you are on your bed you are normally tied on, so you are not flopping around too much. Quite confined.

Are you aware of the first signs of Gangrene?

Yeah, you can try and stop it with antibiotics. if gangrene has set in there is not much you can do about it, you’d probably have to get pulled out, but that is very difficult in itself, so yeah, I’m pretty scared. You would be nuts if you weren't.

Do you think you are going to do it?

Yeah.

We still have a long way to go. In terms of preparation, we've got to get the boat into the country, the food cleared in to the country, get permission to leave. There are still a lot of hurdles that are stopping us going this year. That’s probably more stressful than the actual trip itself. Endless things keep cropping up to trip us up.

I've been so worn down at the moment - i don't want to get ill or anything before I get on the boat. its a really bad way to start, its inevitable in a way, you are working so hard to get everything ready and you just end up getting on the boat you just want to sleep for 4 days! But that’s fine, because you can sleep. In a way its quite a self indulgent thing to do because once you get out there there’s no commitment. George is going to have quite a hard job because he’s going to be monitoring me, and people are going to be hassling him saying what’s happening with Olly, where is he, what’s he doing, and he may not know - because we can only speak on the phone every so often and its expensive. It’s almost harder to be here than to be out there. When your out there, there is nothing, it’s just pretty chilled out, and yeah of course there are bad times and scary bits and times when its uncomfortable. But when its good, it’s really good, a bit lonely sometimes, but overall its just an incredible feeling of freedom. You don't have any bills, no restrictions except the 24 x 6 foot boat.