Zara Lachlan has become the first woman and the youngest person to row solo, unassisted, and non-stop from mainland Europe to mainland South America.
The 21-year-old left from Lagos, Portugal on October 27, 2024 and rowed 6,670km to French Guiana in under three months — 97 days, 9 hours, and 20 minutes, to be precise.
During the challenging voyage, Lachlan broke a finger, injured her arm, had a near-collision with another vessel, and dealt with brutal weather that snapped an oar, capsized her craft, and caused many equipment malfunctions.
“It was tough,” she told Women in Sport. “At some points, really tough. But it’s in those moments you find out what you’re really made of. In many ways, I didn’t really have a choice. I just had to grit my teeth and row.”
Photo: Zara Lachlan/Team Forces
The hardest part
The start of her row was by far the hardest section. Getting away from the coast and the Canary Islands was much harder than she expected. For weeks, the weather flitted between winds so strong she had to deploy her para-anchor, and waters so calm that it felt like rowing through treacle.
At some points, she rowed for 21 hours a day into headwinds but barely moved forward. It was as if she was on a treadmill. Once, she drifted so far on her para-anchor that it took nine hours of rowing to make up the lost distance.
She described that phase as “soul-crushing.”
“Every day for the first month, I wanted to go home, and I thought this was a silly idea, but it was so hard,” Lachlan told the BBC. “But if someone came up to me on a boat and said they would tow me in and I could fly home, I would [have told] them to go away. I wanted to give up, but I never actually wanted to stop.”
Photo: Zara Lachlan/Team Forces
‘By the end, I loved it’
Cleaning the hull of her boat was a particularly anxious task at first since she doesn’t swim well.
“Jumping out of the boat and diving underneath it to clean it was something I dreaded,” she recalled. “But by the end of the row, I loved it. In fact, I looked forward to a dip in the sea and was in the water every day.”
As with many ocean rowers, the wildlife and scenery around her was a highlight.
“From orcas and dolphins to the breathtaking sunrises and crystal-clear night sky –- there were moments when I just had to pinch myself.”
Arriving in French Guiana, Lachlan was met by her family and locals intrigued by her challenge. “It was so nice to see people and hug them, and I will remember that feeling for a really long time,” she said.
Lachlan lights a celebratory flare at the end of her journey. Photo: Zara Lachlan/Team Forces
Lachlan will now join the British Army as a technical officer. Major General Lamont Kirkland, CEO of Team Forces, said: “It’s been incredibly impressive to see that her focus has never wavered…It’s doubly astounding when you recall that this 21-year-old had never rowed a boat on the sea in her life until this year.”
