Menu Close

Target £20,000 - Current Total £19,457

Can DELL help raise the final £543?

DONATION PAGE - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ocean-revival-20202

In just over 1 month, the Ocean Revival 2020 team will be departing on a 70 day, 4000 mile Ocean row from Brooklyn Bridge, New York to Tower Bridge, London. A year late out of the starting blocks due to that little glitch in the anthropogenic timeline called Covid 19; the team of four, totalling three Royal Marines and one civilian (who just so happens to be one of the most experienced Ocean rowers on earth) will depart New York and head East South East to join the Gulf stream and begin an epic crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean.

The North Atlantic rowing route is revered as one of the toughest an ocean rower can attempt and holds a huge amount of respect in the Ocean Rowing community. The harsh weather, cold water, unpredictable wind and challenging currents somewhat differ to the preferred route of the Canary Islands to the Caribbean; offering often warmer and sunnier conditions, much more pleasant to operate in, but conditions that hold other challenges non the less. 

WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANYONE WANT TO DO THIS??? 70 days of rowing 2 hours on, 2 hours off, sleep deprivation, rapid weight loss (perhaps a positive after a year of lockdown), chronic sea sickness, constantly cold and wet, horrific chaffing and salt sores…I could go on – all amount to what sounds like a pretty horrific experience…but measure that against 70 incredible sunrises and sunsets, no noise but the ocean, clear skies with zero light pollution showcasing the milky-way in all its splendour, pure simplicity and clarity and a chance to experience something so different! I hope that helps, but if it doesn’t, it is also an amazing opportunity to raise awareness and funds for a cause that we want to do our bit to help change, ocean plastic pollution.

If our name (Ocean Revival) didn’t give it away, we are a team that is focussed on helping and reviving our marine environment. Our current focus for our ocean row is creating and implementing an education programme, visiting schools all around the UK and delivering presentations and workshops; inspiring the next generation to do things differently. To date we have visited over 15,000 school children before Covid 19 put school visits to a stop, discussing issues that have arisen due to the enormous plastic pollution in our oceans. With over 8 million tonnes (and rising) of plastic being dumped into our oceans every single year, we are trying, in our own small way, to inspire a next generation to try and do things differently. We have also aiming to raise over £20,000 for Plastic Oceans UK, with our current total at £19,457…not far to go!! I hope the amazing people at DELL can help us reach our target?!

Having spoken at a DELL RUGGED conference last year, it was amazing to hear and see the things that DELL are changing around the way they do business. A company that is taking this issue seriously, trying to make real waves in the business world with projects like the NEXT WAVE INIATIVE, bringing the business community together to try and help tackle this enormous problem. We need buy in from everyone and every business, a real shift in mindset, helped along by a changing of government legislation to help nudge industries into conserving the lungs and epicentre of our planet; our Oceans.

Luck for us, DELL have also supplied us with one of their RUGGED tablets, the 7220 to be precise. The tablet is pretty much bomb proof, water proof, all weather proof and most importantly, Royal Marine proof (it seems that we as Royal Marines are very good at taking kit and equipment to some pretty remote and inhospitable places and breaking it!). This will allow us to communicate quickly and effectively with our shore side team in the UK, manage our media and look at the weather…probably the most important.

We hope to continue our partnership with DELL on completion of our expedition. As Ocean Revival grows and evolves as a small organisation focussed on conservation and education, we will hope to lead future expeditions in all environments monitoring the effects of HUMAN influence as well as building real relationships with schools, colleges and Universities across the UK and world.  

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *