Student Rower Completes First Half of Atlantic Solo Expedition Amidst Challenges

A university student engaged in a rowing journey from Europe to South America has successfully concluded the initial half of her demanding adventure, despite encountering significant obstacles. Zara Lachlan, 21, from Cambridge, is spending the Christmas period at sea as she endeavors to become the youngest individual and the first woman to complete a solo row across the Atlantic. The Loughborough University physics student recently had an encounter with a shark and was compelled to deploy a flare when her small boat was nearly struck by a tanker. Ms. Lachlan, who plans to become a technical officer in the Army next year, is progressing well and has been rowing for over 16 hours daily as she advances towards her destination, the coast of French Guiana. Ms. Lachlan has already traversed more than 2,050 miles (3300km) of her ambitious 4000-mile (6400-km) solo and unsupported Atlantic crossing, which is set to be a record-breaking feat. So far, her voyage has been impeded by various setbacks, including injuries, a fractured oar, severe weather conditions that caused her boat to capsize, damage to parts of her communications gear, sightings of orcas and sharks, and a close call with another vessel. She recounted: “I had a small cut that just bled a lot. “I’m fine, but when I was washing it off in the sea a couple of minutes later a shark appeared, which was pretty cool. “It hung around for quite a while – about an hour. It was not a great white shark as it was brown, so you could call it a ‘great brown shark’!” Within the same 24-hour period, she experienced another alarming incident under the cover of darkness. She stated: “I had a very large ship not turning on its radio and heading straight towards me. “I could see on the AIS [automatic identification system] where they were going to go and it was directly towards me, so I got on the radio and I used a white flare, but they still didn’t reply.”They missed me by 0.1 of a mile (160m), which is nothing.”It’s ridiculous. I’m really angry at them because I can’t do anything about that. So I’m very grateful that I’m OK.” Information regarding Cambridgeshire news can be accessed via BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram, and X. This material is copyrighted by BBC in 2024, with all rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content of external websites and details its policy on external linking.