Atlantic Rocks

Yesterday the Crew visited one of their gold sponsors, Generation Media to give them a brief about their challenge, as part of the company's Wellbeing Week.

The crew said "it was fantastic to visit Generation Media and show them our gratitude for their support and ultimately, enabling this challenge to happen! We thoroughly enjoyed meeting the whole team, delivering our brief and letting you sample some of the rations we ate during the crossing (after some persuasion 🤣). From the entire crew, we can't thank you enough."

Royal Air Force RAF Regiment Royal Air Force Police RAF High Wycombe Royal Air Force Halton RAF Odiham Royal Air Force Honington Mental Health Research UK SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity Tough Enough To Care The Veterans Charity Centurion Fund Team Forces RAF Central Fund Monkey Fist Adventures Atlantic Dash Marina Rubicón Forces News Giraffes On Tour

Last week, Gus and Binnsy travelled to Royal Air Force Honington and said one final goodbye to Sentinel as they handed it over to the Centurion Fund and next Crew, who will be looking to use her in 2025 when they conduct their crossing!

She may not have been the fastest, or had all the latest and greatest technology on board, but she was solid as a rock and the crew had full confidence in the stability and structure of her throughout their Crossing.

The whole Crew are looking forward to working with the next team to give them every chance of success during their crossing and wish them nothing but the best of luck!

Royal Air Force Halton RAF Odiham RAF High Wycombe RAF Regiment Royal Air Force Police Royal Air Force Tough Enough To Care Mental Health Research UK SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity The Veterans Charity Atlantic Dash Monkey Fist Adventures Marina Rubicón Team Forces RAF Central Fund Giraffes On Tour Generation Media Forces News

SENTINEL IS BACK, SAFE AND SOUND ON UK SOIL!

Gus and Binnsy went to collect the boat today and managed to spend some time, catching up and reminiscing, with Rod from The Brightsides Atlantic Row, who the whole crew built a fantastic friendship with, throughout the event. A true gentleman!

We also want to apologise for the lack of updates since our last video. Unfortunately our account was hacked and it took some time to get the account back under our control. Plenty of videos of 'names on the boat' to come over the next week or 2.

If you would like to donate, our Just Giving link is below ⬇️

https://justgiving.com/crowdfunding/atlantic-rocks-1

RAF Odiham Royal Air Force Halton Royal Air Force Honington Royal Air Force Police RAF High Wycombe RAF Regiment RAF Central Fund Team Forces Atlantic Dash Monkey Fist Adventures Marina Rubicón Giraffes On Tour Generation Media Royal Air Force Forces News Centurion Fund Mental Health Research UK Tough Enough To Care SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity The Veterans Charity

Last week our Skipper Gus & Binnsy attended Halton Community Combined School to speak with the students about their Atlantic Crossing, highlighting the importance of teamwork, in a mass assembly 🚣 🌊

The children posed some good/funny questions - including 'how did you loose BOTH of the toilets?' which were lost forever at sea… 😬 and 'how did you go to the toilet?' 🚽 💩…

Overall a very interactive audience. ☺️

Thankyou for having us 😊

There’s still time to donate via this link ⬇️

https://justgiving.com/crowdfunding/atlantic-rocks-1

Centurion Fund RAF Odiham Tough Enough To Care Mental Health Research UK SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity Royal Air Force Halton The Veterans Charity Royal Air Force Honington Atlantic Dash RAF Regiment Royal Air Force Police Team Forces RAF High Wycombe RAF Central Fund Monkey Fist Adventures Marina Rubicón Giraffes On Tour Generation Media Royal Air Force

In 61 days, 19 hours and 14 minutes a team of RAF Regiment Gunners rowed across the Atlantic, from Lanzarote to Antigua, covering 3200 nautical miles.

Last week the team attended the PMRAFNS symposium at the Defence Academy. 😊

Here they shared the story of their 3200 mile row across the Atlantic Ocean and talked about the mental and physical challenges they encountered.

There’s still time to donate via this link ⬇️ to support the 5 chosen charities!

https://justgiving.com/crowdfunding/atlantic-rocks-1

Centurion Fund Mental Health Research UK Tough Enough To Care SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity The Veterans Charity RAF Central Fund Team Forces RAF Regiment Royal Air Force Police RAF High Wycombe Royal Air Force Honington Royal Air Force Halton RAF Odiham Giraffes On Tour Generation Media Atlantic Dash Monkey Fist Adventures

Atlantic Rocks A team of 4x Regiment Gunners Rowing 3200 miles from Lanzarote to Antigua in January 2024

Officer Cadets from C Squadron, Modularised Initial Officer Training Course No 26, recently hosted members of the RAF Regiment charity rowing team ‘Atlantic Rocks’ who have just completed their crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. The Squadron presented a cheque to the team following a number of fundraising events held over the duration of the course which aimed to increase their awareness of the importance of community support and the impact charities have on service life.

Following the presentation, the ‘Atlantic Rocks’ team delivered a brief to the cadets on their incredible endeavour in which the 4 person team had rowed over 3200 miles. The brief gave the Officer Cadets a unique opportunity to understand how the leadership training they have completed applied in such extraordinary circumstances.

THANK YOU 2024!

Billy and Alex’s return to England has drawn a close to the wonderful 2024 Atlantic Dash season ✌🏼

Setting off from Marina Rubicon in Lanzarote on January 3rd, a brave fleet of 10 individuals across 3 boats embarked on a journey of a lifetime.

They had a fast start and were immediately visited by whales 🐳 and dolphins, but the Atlantic proved to be a cruel mistress this year, throwing the worst weather at our crews ⛈️

Sadly, one boat – Destiny’s Tide – was damaged in a storm, eventually leading to Neil and Jason’s safe rescue and repatriation by merchant shipping vessel Lagoa.

Our 2 remaining crews, The Brightsides and Atlantic Rocks, arrived at the tropical shores of Antigua to a heroes welcome where friends, family, food and (terra) firma were waiting for them at Jolly Harbour 🥳

It has been a pleasure to work with every single one of our crew members. They always remained positive in the face of adversity and showed true grit and determination as they battled their way across the Atlantic. Every inch of those hard-fought 3200 miles was a testament to their resilience 💪🏼

We would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us: our event sponsors and partners, the friends, families and dot watchers, and most of all to our crews – thank you for basically trusting us with your lives 🤙🏼

So what’s next? Well, planning for the 2025 season starts now! !

—
Partners:
C-MAP
Simrad Yachting
Marina Rubicón
TWG International
Jolly Harbour Marina & Boatyard
Kinder By Nature
Elliot Brown Watches
MailASail Satellite Communications
Sheer Rocks
Adventure Nutrition
Canary Yacht Brokers

Atlantic Rocks
The Brightsides Atlantic Row

Throughout the crossing, the team supported University of Michigan in their battle to tackle plastic pollution in our oceans 🌎

Where possible, the team collected water samples and recorded the latitude and longitude to aid analysis.

These samples will now be sent to the university, helping them to measure plastic pollution across the South Atlantic. 👊

A reminder the team continue to raise money for Centurion Fund Tough Enough To Care Mental Health Research UK SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity The Veterans Charity

https://justgiving.com/crowdfunding/atlantic-rocks-1



RAF High Wycombe RAF Odiham Royal Air Force Honington Royal Air Force Halton Royal Air Force RAF Regiment Royal Air Force Police Atlantic Dash Monkey Fist Adventures RAF Central Fund Team Forces Giraffes On Tour Generation Media

OUR POWERHOUSE 💪

Wally was voted by the team as ‘strongest on the oars’ throughout the crossing. Very useful especially during all those treacly conditions requiring sheer strength and determination. 💪

He also had the perfect tactic for ‘catching a wave’ (when possible) making sure the timing was perfect 👌

Wally was also responsible for catching footage on his GoPro throughout 🎥

A reminder that each member of a team brings different attributes 😊

The team continue to raise money for their 5 chosen charities Centurion Fund Mental Health Research UK Tough Enough To Care SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity The Veterans Charity Any donations can be made via this link ⬇️

https://justgiving.com/crowdfunding/atlantic-rocks-1

RAF Odiham Royal Air Force Halton Royal Air Force Honington Royal Air Force Police RAF High Wycombe RAF Regiment Royal Air Force Atlantic Dash Monkey Fist Adventures Team Forces RAF Central Fund Marina Rubicón Giraffes On Tour Jolly Harbour Marina & Boatyard Generation Media

FLYING FISH STRIKES🐟 🤭

Throughout the crossing, the team encountered several flying fish strikes to their face and body… not to mention the ones ‘creaming in’ on the boat… 🚣 🌊

The following was reported 😱

Skipper Gus: 1x head strike, 1x chest strike, 1x arm strike and 1 maybe 2x leg strikes 😦

Dan: 1x head strike and 1x back strike 😩

Binnsy: 1x knock-out to the side of the head and 1x strike to the back. Additionally Binnsy suffered 1x bird strike to the head 😣

Wally came out on top with a solid zero 🧐

As you can judge by Gus’ face in the photo… this is not a pleasant experience as not only do they smell HORRENDOUS… but they create quite the impact 🤢

We all saw the hair and beards the team landed ashore with… so ridding them of the stench took some time out of their ‘rest’ periods.

Any donations are greatly appreciated via the JustGiving link below ⬇️

https://justgiving.com/crowdfunding/atlantic-rocks-1

Centurion Fund RAF Odiham Tough Enough To Care Mental Health Research UK SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity Royal Air Force Halton The Veterans Charity Royal Air Force Honington Atlantic Dash RAF Regiment Royal Air Force Police Team Forces RAF High Wycombe RAF Central Fund Monkey Fist Adventures Marina Rubicón Giraffes On Tour Jolly Harbour Marina & Boatyard Generation Media Royal Air Force

Skipper Gus working on the electrics … in the dark 😱🔌

The early hours of Day 06 saw the team incur electrical issues with the EFOY used as a back-up generator to their primary source the solar system.

Throughout the night, they found they were unable to power the electrical elements of Sentinel, including navigation aids, auto-helm and other important elements.

To avoid any collisions with other sea traffic, the team enacted a quick thinking action plan which included a crew member on deck at all times, armed with a flare to warn off other vessels and deploying their para anchor to avoid unwanted drift⚓️ 🧭

As always, Just Giving link below ⬇️

https://justgiving.com/crowdfunding/atlantic-rocks-1

Centurion Fund RAF Odiham Tough Enough To Care Mental Health Research UK SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity Royal Air Force Halton The Veterans Charity Royal Air Force Honington Atlantic Dash RAF Regiment Royal Air Force Police Team Forces RAF High Wycombe RAF Central Fund Monkey Fist Adventures Marina Rubicón Giraffes On Tour Jolly Harbour Marina & Boatyard Generation Media Royal Air Force

ATLANTIC ROCKS - Team Forces Team Forces is proud to have supported ATLANTIC ROCKS on their monstrous 3,200 mile row across the Atlantic - from Lanzarote to Antigua.