(Image: Worlds Toughest Row, Syvret Media / SWNS) 

Old Millfieldian, Jessica Oliver, along with best friend of over 12 years, Charlotte Harris, became Team Wild Waves in early 2020 when they signed up for the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge (TWAC). Little did they know how much the adventure would change their lives. The friends explained that their friendship has always been dotted with incredible challenges; Marathons, Triathlons, and an unbelievable ‘Fight Night’ with the White-Collar Fight Club, however, TWAC 21 took them to a whole new level.

In October 2019 Jessica and Charlotte entered the White-Collar flight club boxing event. Learnt to box over a 3-month period and then fought in the White-Collar flight club fight night. They both won their fights and raised £5,000 for Mind. They trained for the flight night in Victoria London where there is a large homeless population. They agreed that they would find another challenge and raise money for homelessness.

Charlotte worked for Diageo who owns Talisker Whisky and heard out about the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge, a 3000-mile rowing race across the Atlantic Ocean from La Gomera to Antigua. So, with no Ocean or Rowing experience they signed up to the World's Toughest Row as Team Wild Waves. Within this challenge, the pair broke the record of "Fastest Women's Pair to row the Atlantic Ocean". Then, in 2023 the pair made the decision to sign up for the World's Toughest Row Pacific, where they trumped several world records.  We caught up with Jessica to learn all about their experiences leading up to and during the challenges. 

(Image: Worlds Toughest Row, Syvret Media / SWNS)

THE ROWS

Ahead of the Atlantic, we spent 2 gruelling years of learning to row, training, campaigning and fundraising later we set off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands. 45 Days later we arrived in Antigua with the world record for the fastest female pair. We rowed on average between 12 - 16 hours a day faced sleep deprivation, capsized in a storm, our water maker and electrics broke, and we crashed into a fishing boat just outside of Antigua. 

After vowing to never do another row again, in May 2023 we signed up to the World's Toughest Row Pacific, a 2800-mile row form Monterey Bay California to Kauai, Hawaii... why not!! WELL, what we faced on the Atlantic was nothing compared to what we would experience on the Pacific. 

The Pacific Ocean was a completely different game - the challenge was so much harder than we could have anticipated. The conditions during the first 10 days were so intense. Huge winds and 4m waves coming directly across us meant we were being blown about and knocked down. We were constantly wet and exhausted as we battled through the first 500 miles. I will never forget peeling off our soaking wet weather gear only to have to put it back on an hour later to go back into the storm!

Then came the near collision of a cargo ship who did not have their Identification System on. This huge vessel was coming directly for us, we just about managed to communicate with them to turn narrowly missing us mid ocean by no more than 10 metres. We were thrown up and down out of the water by their wake as they passed by us.  We had plenty of medical issues on board. Very bad blisters, sores, infected teeth and hands, burns from the jet boil, sleep deprivation and every stomach issue you can think of!

The most challenging part of this adventure was the race aspect! We were neck and neck with our female pair competition the whole way. Where they were and how fast they were going was all we could think about.  We looked at each other about half way across and made the decision that we would do whatever it took to win. Every decision we made was to push ourselves even harder. In the end we were rowing between 16 and 20 hours a day, together as much as possible to seal the win. It was relentless with no time for rest! Any issues or setbacks caused additional stress on board. Our biggest technical failure was our steering, meaning we had to manually steer for the majority of the crossing, just managing to fix the issue with about 7 days to go.  

After 2 years of campaigning and training (4 years if you take the Atlantic Ocean into consideration) and then 37 intense days of racing across that Ocean, we knew we had done it when we crossed that finish line. Truly the best feeling ever.  

We set out to break the female pairs World Record. Our success criteria changed across the Pacific. When we got to Hawaii we had:

⭐ Broken the Female Pairs record by 9 days
⭐ Broken the overall pairs record (Men's and Mixed) by 2 days
⭐ Won the Female class and came second overall ahead of trios and fours
⭐ Become the first team to row both the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean

⭐ On top of that we are on track to raise £35,000 for Shelter upon sale of our boat!

We left everything on the ocean and the outcome is a testament to the power teamwork. I could not ask for a better teammate than Charlotte. We both left everything on the ocean and never gave up.

CHARITY

These challenges are not just about adventure for us. During the Atlantic and Pacific campaigns, we have raised over £130,000 for Shelter and Women’s Aid. A feat that was as rewarding as the row itself, especially when seeing first-hand the people that money has helped.

WHATS NEXT

Back on land we look to the next adventure. Jess is setting up her Salesforce consultancy business Cosimo Consulting (named after both our ocean rowing boats Cosimo and Cosimo 2.0) and Charlotte returns to work as an engaged woman having proposed to her girlfriend, who also completed the challenge as part of Team Pacific Triow! 

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CONTENT

To find out more, keep up to date with what Jessica and Charlotte get up to next, or get in contact, follow the link to their website: https://www.teamwildwaves.com/.

(Image: Worlds Toughest Row, Syvret Media / SWNS)