Four Perth women take on 4800km World’s Toughest Row for the flying doctor and domestic violence victims

For 45 relentless days, four Perth women will eat, sleep and row in two-hour shifts across the Atlantic Ocean, pushing their bodies and minds across 4800km in The World’s Toughest Row.

They will be one of the first female Australian teams of four to complete the gruelling self-supported journey, which will set off in December from San Sebastian De La Gomera in Spain and end at Nelsons Dockyard, Antigua.

Chelsea Tanner, an occupational therapist, Micah Manger, a search and rescue crewperson, Cassie Gaff, a retrieval nurse, and Laura Lilly, a school teacher, originally signed up for an “ultimate girls trip”, but it soon turned into something far bigger.

Their lofty $250,000 fundraising goal will support Ruah Community Services, which helps West Aussies escape trauma and life crisis, and Royal Flying Doctors Service of Western Australia, which provides urgent and emergency medical transport for patients in rural and remote areas.

“Initially our fundraising goal was about just getting ourselves to the start line, but now it’s shifted a lot more into just wanting to be able to give our charities as much as possible,” Ms Tanner said.

The women admitted when they agreed to the challenge last year — an idea presented by Ms Manger — it seemed too far into the future to worry about, but reality had set in recently.

“Initially I just really badly wanted to make friends, because I just moved to WA, so I thought, I’ve got to seem cool and I said ‘yes’, and now I actually have to go through with it,” Ms Tanner said.

“But it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve got really good friends now.”

The women recently collected their boat, Saltie, and have started a training program with an ocean rowing coach.

They’ve each also undergone personality testing, which will help decide which pairs are best to be rostered on together, and who will make key decisions and be responsible for morale.

“As time goes on we’re really getting to understand each other and what makes people get a bit pissed off,” Ms Tanner, who planned to also conduct everyone’s sensory profile, said.

The women will undoubtedly be confronted with a raft of challenges rowing in 400m-deep water, 1000km from land.

“Working in search and rescue and knowing just how small things look in the water and how easily missed they are, I definitely want to avoid anyone going overboard,” Ms Manger said.

Marlin strikes were also a possible threat if they struck and punctured the boat, something previous teams had been confronted with.

“Bait fish will follow the boat, and Marlins can try and strike the bait fish off the boat,” Ms Gaff said. They will need to scrub the bottom of the boat every 11 days to avoid it becoming a target.

She was also worried about rogue waves knocking her teammates overboard while the others slept, or becoming injured or sick and not being able to pull her weight.

Having raised more than $171,000 so far and gained support from Big Yellow Mining and Australian Indigenous Group, the women were determined to make their efforts count.

“We still have 12 months worth of fundraising to go, so we’re looking for more businesses to get behind us,” Ms Gaff said.“At the moment we’re on track to hopefully have $90,000 to donate between our two charities and we’re hoping to at least double that before the end of the row.”

The women hope to sell Saltie to an Australian team afterwards and will pass on any profits to their charities. Donations and business sponsorship enquiries can be made via their website bladesofoary.com.