24. Transcending Limits: Theresa Patricios on Rowing Across the Pacific

Have you ever wondered about the grit and determination it takes to row across the Pacific Ocean? What about the resilience required to set a world record in the process? In this episode we journey with Theresa Patricios, a Greek-South African born actuary turned ocean-rowing enthusiast, in a thrilling conversation that highlights her extraordinary voyage across the Pacific. Theresa share about setting sail with her incredible dream team - the Pacific Discovery Team , Theresas's remarkable story of resilience, mental fortitude, and teamwork unfurls a compelling narrative of human spirit conquering the odds and the waves with her  team members Cameron Parker, Stuart Thompson, Celo Celovschi.

Our conversation navigates through the intricate details of life on the rowboat, from the rigorous shift structure to the importance of hygiene and rest, and the monumental challenge of sleep deprivation. Theresa lifts the veil on the mental toll and physical demands, recounting moments of self-doubt and the relentless resolve that led her team to set a new world record.

In the final leg of our chat, Theresa draws parallels between her ocean rowing journey and life's many triumphs and trials. She shares insights on overcoming exhaustion, maintaining focus, and harnessing distractions to forge ahead. Theresa also expresses her gratitude for the  support she received and talks about the personal growth she underwent during the journey.

 More than just an adventurer, but a beacon of inspiration, exemplifying how embracing life's challenges can lead to profound personal growth. This episode will leave you contemplating about the limits of human endurance and the power of dreams.

 It's an expedition you wouldn't want to miss.

To contribute and donate to the UK-based Charity-  MIND , please see the website below ⬇️
www.pacific-discovery.com

midweekinsights@gmail.com


Subscribe for all the new episodes!
https://www.instagram.com/midweekinsights/?


The information provided in Midweek Insights is for general informational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as professional advice. Listeners should seek professional advice relevant to their specific circumstances before making any decisions.

While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, the dynamic nature of certain topics may result in changes or updates. Midweek Insights does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of information discussed in the episodes.

Guests on Midweek Insights express their own opinions, which may not necessarily align with the views of the host. We encourage listeners to form their own opinions based on additional research and diverse perspectives.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to Midweek Insights. Thank you for being here. I have a special treat for you today. Midweek Insights is the pursuit of ideas that can and do help us make a difference in how we show up for ourselves and others, and I am excited to share one such individual with you today, who is an embodiment of strength, inner resilience and an example of the human spirit and determination. And when someone sets their goals and has the right team, they can accomplish the unaccomplishable. So my guest today is an example of someone who dared to dream, got the right team behind the dream and managed to conquer the unconquerable.

Speaker 1: 0:51

This is Teresa Patricios, a woman whose life took an unexpected turn which led her to the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean. She was born and raised in South Africa, attending a private Greek school where she not only discovered her Greek roots but also cultivated a deep love for her heritage. She excelled all the way through school and pursued an actuarial science degree at Wittes University, which marked the initial steps of her remarkable career. But fast forward to 2018, a friend's daring Atlantic crossing ignited a spark in tear. This was a spark that would lead her to the world of ocean rowing. Fast forward to 2020, working with Convex, tears seized a dream pitch granting her the opportunity and financial support to realize her dream of crossing an ocean. After which she joined forces with Cameron and her desire to conquer the Pacific Ocean took root the actual participation in the daring, world toughest row across the Pacific.

Speaker 1: 1:51

This is a grueling 2,800 mile challenge from Monterey Bay, california, ending in the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Picture this 34 days, 8 hours, 22 minutes of rowing, a team of four against the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, facing sleep, deprivation and many other challenges. And tear and her dream team, called the Pacific Discovery team, set out a new world record, accomplishing the unimaginable. What makes this even more awe inspiring is that tear, the sole female participant, proudly represented Greece in a mixed team which included participants from Switzerland, south Africa, the UK and Romania. Their journey was not just an adventure but also a mission to raise funds and awareness for the UK based mental health charity called mind. So get ready, as we get to be, fly on the wall and experience the adventure, the challenges, the power of the team through tears perspective of her world's toughest row in the middle of the Pacific. Yeah, thank you so much for being here. I've always admired you and researching. All of this just created even more awe and admiration for you and what you've accomplished.

Speaker 2: 3:08

Thank you so much for this incredible and inspiring introduction.

Speaker 1: 3:11

There's more, it's great to be here, Tim. I want to start with how it all started. I want to go back to the Dreampitch and what convinced your selectors to choose you as the undeniable winner. Take us back to that moment and what that entailed for you.

Speaker 2: 3:29

So that was back in 2020 during lockdown. So you can imagine the setting was quite unique and it was the first Dreampitch that convex initiators. Convex is actually only five years old. It was established in 2019 and the Dreampitch is one of quite a few initiatives that you can see. I think the company has rolled out to really inspire its people and bring people together.

Speaker 2: 3:55

I just thought, wow, this is just such a cool thing. You can pitch a dream and they choose a winner to enable their dream to come true. Interestingly, I didn't think long before I brought up the Ocean Row as my dream to pitch, primarily because I had it in the back of my mind from the time when a good friend, cameron, who was on the boat with us, crossed the Atlantic. That's when I discovered Ocean Row and Existus. I thought, wow, this is just so unique and a combination of incredible endurance and resilience on the one hand, but also this mix where you're in the middle of nature and get to discover yourself and the environment around you, which I thought is an incredible balance of the two. That's why I pitched the Dream. It's hard to say what exactly was in the minds of the panel that chose me as the winner, but I imagine it was a big one.

Speaker 2: 5:04

Right, it didn't go in lightly. I guess they realized well, at first and foremost, the main consideration or concern was it being safe, and after I could assuage them all of those fears or concerns, they selected me. What happened is you select a subset of people after effectively pitching your dream and paper, and then you get the subset to present in more detail, which I did. I inspired them too, but I'm happy to say that the inspiration that we gained through the journey and gave back to an incredible amount of very kind supporters along the way was 100 Faults.

Speaker 1: 5:52

What were those words you said to them? I need to win this, because was there anything specific there that impassioned the reason why what you said to them in that speech? Maybe you could just give us a little snippet of that if we ever need to convince someone to.

Speaker 2: 6:05

So, from recollection, the motivation was threefold. For me, definitely the nature aspect just being in the middle of the broad, vast ocean, disconnected from everything that's manmade, and just within the natural environment. I'm a fish by heart, even though I was born and raised in Johannesburg, as you mentioned. Somehow I've always had the salt in my blood, and probably from my heritage, so I just felt drawn to that experience. So that was number one.

Speaker 2: 6:38

Number two was the Kodalti Safdong, you know, know thyself, where I felt it's only well, not only, but it's especially through times which are grueling and challenging, where you stretch your boundaries and faced with challenges that you don't encounter day to day, where one can also grow and learn more about oneself. So that was very much a driver. And the third was, of course, the challenge to grab sees, the day, to take on something that is definitely huge and also to enjoy it with the team, whereby I would also learn things like compromise, the citizens, of communication, of growing, of how to be a high performing team together in an environment that is really challenging the individual and the collective whole.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Wow, so many reasons, so many amazing reasons. So I want to take you back to the preparation for something like this. So how does one get themselves ready, physically and mentally, for such a big challenge? What did you have to do before even starting the road?

Speaker 2: 7:47

So the projects and something I didn't appreciate in the beginning, but the project is massive. Even to get to the start line it was approximately two years in the making and we were very fortunate to also attract and have with us along the way Four special people who are effectively our land crew, so people that supported the project but obviously never landed up being on the boat. And we had four ladies, so one was our photographer and she's also the race photographer, really talented individual called Penny. We had Caroline, who is our coach and still continues to support us in our journey of consolidating the experience, especially mentally, and, as you can imagine, mental resilience is really key to such an event.

Speaker 2: 8:38

And we have also Joy, who was fantastic and remains fantastic in terms of the communication side of things and marketing and just giving us a voice to the public, especially through social media, and Mary, who helps us a lot with logistics and was really just filling in a lot of the gaps that we had along the way. She was also on the ground in the US, so it was helpful when it came to things like getting the boat there and organizing all the deliveries and so forth. So that's the land crew, but of course, also coming together as a team was a process, a very important one in the beginning, and we also, as mentioned it was still COVID at the time. So Cameron and I selected two people who from a sort of shortest of about six or seven and it was an interview process like it would be through to get a job.

Speaker 1: 9:37

So you selected the other two rowers.

Speaker 2: 9:39

Yes, together with the land crew, actually, and you know, it wasn't about selecting someone who's super fit or strong, and none of us are actually rows, believe it or not. Now there was a row, or a leg rowers. Cameron, of course, became one, but we all didn't have prior experience. The main, actually the main aspects of the main characteristic that was essential to have, both within ourselves and, of course, within the others, was the right motivation. You know, why do you want to do it, what's your purpose, what's your why? And feeling that that was cohesive for the team as a whole and, of course, authentic.

Speaker 1: 10:23

Yeah, I can imagine that that will connected you even more. You must have very similar wise, and we're going to go into the charity you supporting a little bit later as well. But what other life skills that you already had helped you with this, your transferable life skills. So when you got there, that you found were very useful.

Speaker 2: 10:42

That's a great question and so, thinking aloud, actually, as you put me on the spot, I think communication is absolutely key when it comes to working in the team, and it sounds obvious, but we all there's always ways to improve communication and there's always also, I believe, parts of one's journey in life or in a team or in work or whatever the situation is where it's easy to forget and to kind of go with them and shut down a little because of stress or anxiety or what have you, and kind of forget that we are human beings and that the essence is actually how we connect and work together, because we're not, like it's hardly ever the case where you just live alone, work alone, socialize. You can't socialize alone by definition. So you know that that awareness of communicating and just being open and honest and transparent is really so important, and especially on the boat small space, lots of space, lots of emotion. So we promise ourselves that we would bring up things that were either niggles or concerns or what have you, to address them and to work on solutions as a whole. And we really did that and we had check ins very regularly to make sure everyone was comfortable and aligned and ultimately having a good time as well. So I'd say communication was the foundation, and then resilience. Resilience comes in various shapes and forms and it's something that is, I think, what we learned throughout one's life the ability to stay positive, to have positive affirmations, to slow down, to breathe, to just have that the center, to be able to control and calm the center, the center of your being, in order to then be able to be effective and communicate and be happy at the end. So, so it's all about that positivity, mental resilience, positive mental outlook, attitude, etc. And what, of course, the belief as well, right. So the self, self confidence and self, that you also can do these things right. And that's a journey that I think you realize, because we were successful at the end. And it's like you just realize, like you have the power to really do a lot if you put your mind to it.

Speaker 2: 13:28

And I think probably the third one I would mention is gratitude. So, in gratitude really helps with the second point you can always look at something and point at what's going wrong, but there's always something that's great and going right. And so to choose to be grateful for the things that are in front of us and to be grateful for the experience that is unfolding right now. It's very powerful Because then it helps you tackle the other stuff that is hard and challenging and just really tough. And that happened a lot right, I mean, the beginning of the road was just incredibly difficult, but just being grateful for being out there and having the experience of like rowing this ocean, like how lucky are we? Yeah, doesn't happen every day.

Speaker 1: 14:18

No, and you said it was very difficult. I want to like zoom in a little bit on that, but especially I want to talk about the day-to-day reality of being on a boat, rowing like that, being out there and all these things that come up in terms of stress. So can you give me a little bit more of the day-to-day reality of it For someone who has no experience of being on a boat? What was that like? Highs and lows.

Speaker 2: 14:40

Absolutely so. The boat never stops unless you really want to take a break or there's a need to stop the boat for some reason, such as incredibly rough weather, and I'll circle back on that. But the journey apart from one and a half hours in the aggregates across 34 days, where we stopped to have a break intentionally, the boat never stopped. So that was really tough, and what I mean by that is so there are four people. There's two cabins, so to speak, so small enclosures which are sheltered, where you can escape the elements and sleep. So it's always the case where two people are rowing and two people have their break. Now, when you're rowing, it's quite clear you want to just put in power and stay consistent and keep the boat moving on the course that it should be going. The good news is, when you're rowing, you don't also have to manually steer. We had really good technical equipment on board, powered by the sun, and the power retained in with him are in batteries, so also Helm was responsible for keeping us on our course and we would row.

Speaker 2: 15:55

Now that's the two hour shifts. When you have two hours off, you of course need to sleep, because you're doing this 24 hours a day, every single day, so you don't have the night to sleep, right. So every session is it's important to get some sleep, but you also need to get off your shifts. Remove your clothes, especially during the wet times it was quite wet in the beginning Dry your body. Clean your body with wet wipes to make sure that you stay clean. You know we don't have we did but primarily to drink, but I find a way to clean your body effectively and then eat really important because you're burning calories all the time. Do your necessary things, like go to the toilets and clean your utensils, because you want to also stay. Make sure everything stays hygienic and then finally, sleep before two hours already, before you've even slept.

Speaker 2: 16:52

Right. So the key is to find a way to be very efficient and you really pull it down to the minimum. You do what's necessary, you mindful of every single movie taken on the boat, not only because it's hard to move around in the boats the boats rocking, you know but that you don't want to waste time on unnecessary stuff. And eventually you learn to be efficient. So let's say that takes you half an hour to do the necessary essentials. You've got one and a half hours left, generally waking up 15 minutes before the next shift to get ready because you want to be on time for then your partner to come off and have their two hours. So you get about an hour of 15 maximum procession to sleep and that cycle repeats. Well, 24, seven. The night was really harder.

Speaker 1: 17:40

OK, sorry for 34 days. Like two hours at a time For 34, we actually were targeting 40 days.

Speaker 2: 17:47

Well, we came in fast because we decided to race, and we can talk about that. But the last thing I wanted to say is that the that routine is also so much harder at night because the body naturally wants to sleep. You know your circadian rhythms, body's like wait, it's a bit of a sleep time, you know, and it was often the case where we would feel confused or almost delirious at night, Is you just? Your body is just exhausted and you're forcing it to wake up when it just wants to sleep.

Speaker 1: 18:18

At what point did that become the new norm? So obviously there was a transition period going from a sleep at night to now my body's adjusted to this new way of existing. At what point, if you can recall, was there an obvious point when you noticed Ah, I've got this down now.

Speaker 2: 18:35

It's a great question. I think I had a paradigm shift on about day eight because I at that point started to become more efficient in the routine, especially around. You know the dynamic of switched what do I need on board, what is where's my equipment? What's the first thing I'm going to do when I get off shift? And then having that kind of order in my mind which helps to speed it up, and also having things in their place right, because you don't want to just look for stuff when you don't have time. So but also that the paradigm shift happened because on around day eight it suddenly got a bit warmer and stopped being so sort of wet at night. The first week it was just wet from the waves being incredibly large and then swell was always pushing the slope, making the boat slide from the starboard side that left down the wave because the elements were pushing us back to the coast. So it's wet from that rough condition and and it's cold and suddenly then you wake up and it's warm and slightly longer days.

Speaker 1: 19:42

As you go.

Speaker 2: 19:45

Well, not longer days, but, but I think we felt the sun more, so it made for me to feel like of this, longer, longer days, and so that efficiency in combination with the warmth and the sun, just. I had a sudden revelation that I can do this, you know, whereas the first week was just, you just button down and survive. So eight days, you just not in the rhythm. Everything is just, it's like some everything's attacking you at once. Wow, that counts.

Speaker 1: 20:17

So was there a distinguishable hardest day in all this that really stood out, Several I would say.

Speaker 2: 20:27

But the One of the hardest days was around night three or four. Actually, night three was pivotal in the team's journey. The day three and night three is we had two auto helms fail. As I mentioned, the auto helm is responsible for keeping the boats on course and thankfully we had four spare. Now, four spare is something unusual I think most teams maybe take one or two where two spare new ones and two spare used ones and the two new ones fails over 24 hours and we were like what's going on? And I think it was because we were fighting so hard to break away from the coast and gain distance and get away from that rough patch that the auto helm overworked it was incredible.

Speaker 1: 21:27

It was really hard. What happened was we called the safety officer to say, look, we have this issue.

Speaker 2: 21:33

The safety officer is there to support in case of emergencies. So we said, look, if we need another auto helm, could you deliver it? And they're like look, we can. But bear in mind, if we do that you don't qualify for the safety officer and it just becomes an informal like crossing as a person, which meant that we were actually doing really well in third position and if we continue with that pace.

Speaker 2: 22:02

We really had had good chances of coming first in the mix and break in the world record. And then we're like, okay, we're going to go. Something else kicked in, we'll figure out solutions for the auto helm and thankfully the two old ones behaved and actually Cameron made a plan to put together a new auto helm from the two broken ones. So he's like he's an engineer.

Speaker 1: 22:36

Wow, very helpful. We had another ship, it was amazing.

Speaker 2: 22:40

So we raised from day three days and that was hard. It was hard because it meant being a lot more focused and just not being able to take breaks, and it became serious. Thankfully, we still had release valves through a few events where we celebrated our being together and our success, and those those events were. We went into the water once, which was an amazing experience, we caught a fish and we celebrate halfway to Christmas, which I now learned is called Leon Day, the reverse of an oil.

Speaker 1: 23:19

Oh, I didn't know that. That's awesome.

Speaker 2: 23:21

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:23

How did you celebrate?

Speaker 2: 23:26

So we had Christmas presents, the secret Santa gifts we had on board and yeah, it's more little Christmas hamper for each team, each cabin, so like nice Christmas food, non perishable.

Speaker 1: 23:43

But again two were rowing while you were having this fun, or did it stop there?

Speaker 2: 23:48

We stopped for a whole half an hour.

Speaker 1: 23:49

Okay, wow, all four at once for half an hour.

Speaker 2: 23:53

Amazing. It was a huge celebration to be able to stop yeah. So those and we also signed a contract in the middle of the ocean. Cameron and I because Cameron and team are there work at Swiss Rea and Cameron's client facing a worker, convex, and convex as a client with Swiss Rees. So we, like we, get to sign a ceremonial contract in the middle of the Pacific to celebrate the suspicious Amazing, amazing.

Speaker 1: 24:21

I also want to ask you about the team dynamics, because it sounded like you were very close, but were there also moments of being irritated and annoyed and feeling claustrophobic within that small space with the team?

Speaker 2: 24:33

Yeah, certainly certainly, I think, annoyed was was probably everyone felt that. But we, as mentioned, we committed to ourselves and to the team to talk through when we were annoyed and we really did Like, sometimes also realize I'm sorry. Like you know, probably shouldn't have done that, because when you're tired and edgy it's easy to just make mistakes as well. So an element of apologizing when one realizes okay, yeah, I was on, or addressing the situation when you feel it's just needs to be talked about and communicated, so that helped.

Speaker 2: 25:18

There were definitely moments of feeling very at odds. On one hand, we wanted to race to achieve these amazing opportunities and accolades and break the record at the end. On the other hand, it's like this one day can we actually keep it up for 35, whatever, 34, 38, 40 days? We weren't sure at that point. So it's a bit of a fight within your mind to try and stack those two up. It's the body is saying this is tough, I want to break, and then. So it's really about the mind and the perspective and reminding yourself on why, on the purpose, why are we doing this? And I think that was helpful to then recalibrate and then the niggles kind of go away because you just off above it and you think, actually we all want to achieve the same thing. We all want to have fun. And one of the goals we set ourselves and committed to prior to the race. But there were actually two, but the first one was primary to finish the journey and be good friends. So that helped us.

Speaker 1: 26:26

I think you've got friends for life there. I don't think you can share such an experience with it. I mean, there's only three other people in your circle that understand what you went through to that extent I mean. So that definitely bonds people and creates this forever bond, I think.

Speaker 2: 26:40

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 26:41

Yeah, so were there any other twists and big surprises on the journey that you might not have mentioned?

Speaker 2: 26:47

So definitely the twist was the technical challenge I mentioned, beginning with Auto Helm, and just prior to the race we had another technical challenge with our water maker Actually not working and was very stressful because it's absolutely essential. You have to have all your stuff on board and the water maker, as you can imagine, is number one. Yes, you're drinking water every day and you need the water to reconstitute the dried food. That's essential, and we made about 50 to 60 liters, maybe 70, a day, and the water maker is just so efficient and you don't want to do this manually, which would be the backup solution, right? And so that was stressful, to just make sure we were that it was actually in good order prior to the race start.

Speaker 2: 27:35

I think during the journey, there was one incident which comes to mind where in retrospect it wasn't such a close shave, but at the time it seemed a little bit more where there was a fishing vessel and was at night. Stuart was actually sick, so he was sleeping through the night, and that was very stressful for the team originally, or initially at outset anyway, because we had to pick up his shifts and row more and sleep less, the three of us, and then we had to all share one cabin because Stuart was in the other but the. So we didn't see this vessel. It was out of the right and it didn't have an AAAS on you. Most vessels it should be mandatory to have your satellite transmission on, which then means you pick it up on the chartplatter and this check didn't have his own. So, and it's a small vessel and we you know, when you're running you really have to look behind you all the time to see where you're going, and at night everything's dark and you think, okay, we're alone in the middle of the ocean, which nine times out of 10 was okay and we were nearing Hawaii and this vessel just appeared and we saw it really at the last minute.

Speaker 2: 28:52

Now the collision risk, what was? I don't think significant, but I just come on to shifts where they saw the vessel and he was getting off shift. So this all happened really quickly and I panicked because I was firstly half asleep and then kind of thrown into the shift and just suddenly seeing this vessel very, very close to us. And that was very hard because so thankfully, cameron had been able to process what had gone on and had calibrated like, okay, they kind of moving away and we're sort of heading on the right path. We're not going to collide, but to be able to firstly, process this is a feat on it of its own in the middle of the dark right and second, to just to just to understand what, what this vessel is.

Speaker 2: 29:42

So I couldn't. I was still half sort of delirious. What is this thing? You know, you can't even see it properly. So this was, all you know, matter of probably five minutes, but it really elevated my stress level to a significant degree where I think I had that kind of traumatic stress system and it took me a good two days to kind of get through it. It was, I was very emotional after that. What?

Speaker 1: 30:12

did you do to help yourself out of that tear? Because I know you speak a lot about mental resilience and I think some of these skills are really important, not just for your experience but how others could also use what you've learned to to navigate stress and kind of difficult moments.

Speaker 2: 30:28

It's a great question, I think. Coming back to to one's breath, to calm down and it's easier said than done, done because I had actually my nose had had filled up and I couldn't actually breathe properly, breathe through my, through my mouth, and I just it was very, you know, the body was just like a, like a very tight, yeah, it was just incredibly tight. So just to try and relax and calm down, this absolutely number one, and the breath is fundamental to that. And then I talked through the events and what happened with Cameron, and who was was calm, very calm, which helped a lot and I hope he helped me understand how he had seen it and why he didn't panic, which helped me then reassess it in retrospect in a more rational manner. And that helped me kind of.

Speaker 2: 31:19

Then, you know, rationally I thought, okay, we were safe at the end, but it's still, of course, traumatic for the body and the body still goes through that stress. So it's a physiological thing that they have to kind of then work through, but at the mind helps the body then to let go of us. So, actually then understanding, I think for me it depends on the individual, but I'm quite an analytical person and my mind works that way. So to understand the what went on and to kind of replay it in your mind helps them to let it go to replay it from a place of calm and now rational, rather than that panic that initially happened right.

Speaker 2: 32:01

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 32:02

Yeah, good. So also, I want to ask you, now that you've had this experience and if you had the chance to go back to tear before this experience, what advice would you give her before starting up? She would really need to know and what would help her experience.

Speaker 2: 32:19

Yeah, I think some of it still remains a bit surreal and I don't know if you can change that because in the you know, we're, especially in the beginning, you just in survival mode. But I think, realizing that this opportunity is unique and it's going to go fast right, you're going to be you think it's a drag and you slugging away two hours on two hours or for like infinite amount of time, but actually it goes fast and to save at the moment, to enjoy it's about that gratitude again to enjoy the experience, even through the difficulty, because it's going to end. Everything ends, everything is transient and just trying to be in that moment is incredibly helpful. And now, it's a philosophy I've always tried to have and follow in my life, but it's really a case, in points, through the row of trying to grasp, that, I think, disappears very quickly.

Speaker 1: 33:19

It's amazing. You've led me to the next part that I want to ask you about. How is this ocean rowing experience a metaphor for life's challenges and triumphs?

Speaker 2: 33:30

So what's? The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, the, the poem that Homer wrote about if I can, which is a very good, because my roots are from the beautiful island of Africa and it's about the journey and not the destination. The journey where you realize that's actually the destination just gives you that goal, the priorities, more right to set on on a path to go through adventures, difficulties, challenges, but it's actually the journey that is the central part of one's life, where you grow and learn. And if you were just were to arrive at your destination without going through those journeys, it wouldn't have the same meaning. And that really is an amazing metaphor. And the row is very much encapsulating that, because, yes, arriving in Hawaii was fantastic, but it gave us, you know, that journey was where we grew and learn and learn so much. So it really is powerful that and the essence really of life, to be to enjoy them, the journey of one's life, because at the end we do arrive at our destination.

Speaker 1: 34:50

I can only compare it to actually flying to Hawaii. What you went through some shows experiences very different. At the end, right, you lived world experience and I just been on a plane, right.

Speaker 2: 35:02

So that's really that we move back and forth, and then you can sort of grasp it as well that the massive experience of ocean that we crossed is a five hour flight from Kuwait to San Francisco.

Speaker 1: 35:19

So I also want to ask you about how you handle the physical exhaustion, because I mean I know you had. How do you handle it when you're out there really tired and how do you stop yourself from falling asleep and keep going? Because I mean I know you have your little rest and sleep and what you do, but then, other than that, what did you do?

Speaker 2: 35:36

Yeah, there were definitely some sessions at night where body, my eyes just wanted to close and my body was exhausted Again. Breath, breath is helpful, but we also talked. We also talked, sometimes the two on deck on the shifts, and that helps to stay engaged. And we would sometimes think about interesting topics to just or random topics to talk about, which not only helps you just get the mind off the difficult physical exhaustion, but it was a way to like I don't know learn something about the other person. So it was truly distracting, which was good. And then audiobooks if I was engaged in audiobook, that helped me take my mind off the math and music. Sometimes that's inspiring or energetic. So it's really dependent on what that mood was and then finding the right solution for that mental state.

Speaker 1: 36:33

So if you could choose one theme song that that reminds you of this experience, what would that one song be? When you hear it, it's like you're right back there again.

Speaker 2: 36:41

Wow, yeah, there were quite a few, but the one that comes to mind is from Journey Don't stop believing on the journey. Fantastic lyrics, that's perfect. It's always very interesting, absolutely yeah, that was our theme song. I think that's going to remind me of you now.

Speaker 1: 37:01

Brilliant, and a few more, timo, I want to touch on. So. You said this is also a journey of growth. How did this contribute to your personal growth? What would you say was the biggest takeaway for you that changed you, maybe, or grew you?

Speaker 2: 37:19

I think the appreciation for others and how we so everyone in the team just came together. So the reason why I mentioned that as a growth is because it's easy to kind of take it for granted and also everyone really gave up their time and efforts. Just free time, really, that you give away, right. So there's an element of commitment. That's really self, it's altruistic and I found that really inspiring. And also the way we connected with corporate sponsors or personal sponsors, so people that actually helped us along the way in any shape and form right. So it was certainly on the financial side, but also through support in keeping the morale up, support through providing solutions to like, I don't know, storing our boats, you name it like. The amounts of support that we had was really overwhelming and it grew.

Speaker 2: 38:25

It started the journey. It was obviously an emergency but it grew and grew and grew and especially also during the race, the amounts of following and support we had. From the morale perspective. It was just like friends and family squared because we had friends or friends going and family and like the kids of the friends and the kids at school. Basically the kids went to school and then the whole class was like supporting us and it was just like wow, it was super cool. So just that appreciation for how we are, can be as human beings and interact and really ultimately it's about people and how we love as human beings and I kind of realized that. But it became much more apparent during the row and especially prior to the row, but also not during and after. We're having these post-road talks now to give back and describe our journey and it's just a great way to then help inspire others and I was inspired in the beginning through Cameron's journey. So it is very it's such a positive, self affirming thing that actually is can grow. It's a very positive, virtuous cycle.

Speaker 1: 39:42

Yeah, and I'm glad you said about the inspiring people, because I know you're very proud to have been the first female from Greece to complete such a feat, and that you also want to inspire other women. Can you tell me a little bit about this side of you that feels that very strongly in what you accomplished and how you would like to inspire other women too? Very much.

Speaker 2: 40:00

So I must say, being the only female in the boats wasn't? It didn't really become, it was never an issue, and I think also because, firstly, the guys treated me equally, but also I never really saw it as like I'm not disadvantaged in any way, anyway. But I realized it's easy to. That's not always the case, right? I don't know, and I know it's been certainly along. If you look at across the world, depending on the culture, also across different parts of the industry, some sectors are more progressive than others, like it's been, it still is a journey to equality and the whole diversity and inclusion thing is certainly a helpful initiative to get to that point where the world is equanimous. But it's only.

Speaker 2: 40:49

It really needs to happen, I think, endemically and from the ground up, through how we live individually, as individuals, and it's about respect, right, and it's about recognizing human beings as individuals and not as a white or black or female or male, right as an example.

Speaker 2: 41:08

But we're getting there and so I'm setting that out in context to the fact that I think I've been lucky not to see that female, male, male divide, also implied due to my upbringing, like I grew up interacting a lot with my male cousins and with my brother because he was closer in age than my sister, and when you're younger, of course, that the age gap makes a bigger difference.

Speaker 2: 41:31

So I really didn't. It wasn't an issue for me. But, coming back to your question, the realization that females and males, we have so much to add, and also when it comes to mental resilience, there's this strengths that are individual. You can't say like men are better than women and, on the contrary, I think females but due to our physical constitution, like you, have to have an incredible amount of resilience to give birth, to cope with the motherhood in combination with so many other things. So it's ultimately about individuals and it don't like the classifications, but I'm not answering this question very well, but what I want to Well, you are very well what I want to try and bring out is the realizing that and having self-belief is actually the foundation.

Speaker 2: 42:30

So, if I can give back to an inspire woman to realize that they have anything that it takes to achieve what they want, they have it within themselves that we are as equal as men and in some facets, even have advantages that men don't have it, and vice versa, right, obviously, men are obviously allegedly stronger physically. It's an obvious fact. The strutter owner makes them stronger, they have more muscle constitution, but that's not necessarily always an advantage. And the mind, ultimately the mind is absolutely the driver to being successful. You can believe you can do it, you can do it. And getting to that point where you inspire yourself and have confidence in yourself is the starting point. And we need to do that as females, because it's easy to feel like an imposter. We're not.

Speaker 1: 43:31

Yes, 100%, and I'm glad you mentioned mind, because we're going to move to the charity mind as well that you've decided to represent through this. Could you just tell me a little bit as well about why you chose the charity mind, just before we end off with the final wrap up question?

Speaker 2: 43:47

So we're toying between a mental health charity or a charity focused on conservation, specifically cleaning the oceans, which obviously has a good link to rowing ocean rowing. At the end, we chose mind, which is a UK based charity organization focused on mental health, and we felt that that connection was. We resonated more with mind for various reasons. I think the one was the absolute need to be mentally resilient to be successful, but the realization that mental health is firstly, I think that it's still shunned upon to some extent. So we wanted to bring it out and shine more light on mental health, to say it's so essential to be conscious of the essence and the importance of having a good mental health.

Speaker 2: 44:38

It's even it's more important than physical health to some degree and to encourage people to speak out and not to be ashamed if they're struggling and depressed or what have you, because by reaching out and going to a doctor, like you would if you're physically sick, is the way to do it. Why should we be ashamed? And also through the COVID lockdowns and this was also in part, like we were still under lockdown when we were working on the project and it was even higher. It was much harder. I think that just that lockdown experience caused a lot of depression, so that's how we came to that decision and I'm proud to say we're doing really well. Our target is to raise 100,000 pounds and we're at 80 or so, so confident we can pull the gap hopefully.

Speaker 1: 45:29

We're gonna add the link as well, for the charity as well, to the show notes. So, tim, as we wrap up our conversation, I wanna ask you what your key message or parting thoughts you would like to leave the listeners with and what you hope that will take away from this conversation today.

Speaker 2: 45:43

Great question, desi Moore. I would love to. I mean, it's just great for people to be curious and the fact that they for those listening and have listened to the entire podcast, and thank you for the curiosity. I'd be happy just knowing that I've inspired someone to say why wait a minute? This is cool. I'd love to experience something like this, this huge challenge, but it doesn't have to be ocean-roaring. It needs something else like go and grab those challenges and aspirations you have in your mind, at the back of your mind, on your bucket list. Go and make a plan to do them, because life is short.

Speaker 1: 46:25

I love that and I'm gonna keep that at the back of my mind. Absolutely love that.

Speaker 2: 46:32

And the second of our main is believing yourself.

Speaker 1: 46:36

Yes, believing yourself, and I'm guessing you didn't always have that, or did you?

Speaker 2: 46:41

No, what happened? It comes and goes. It's a dream.

Speaker 1: 46:44

Yeah, yeah, and I think for a lot. I also think, when you said before about confidence in the conversation, we sometimes think we this is me, or what I've believed before that we need the confidence first before we start something. But as I'm learning about things, and from what I'm hearing from you as well, and what you said is, the confidence comes after the act.

Speaker 2: 47:05

Or during the act.

Speaker 1: 47:06

exactly yeah during and after. So you have to go through the motions to then become confident in that thing that happened. Now you can confidently say I can row the ocean, but before that it was just maybe a thought and an idea. You need to build that and I think that's what we forget about in life.

Speaker 2: 47:21

Exactly, it's a journey.

Speaker 1: 47:23

Yeah, yeah. So, tia, thank you so much for giving up your time I know you're so busy and for sharing yourself your amazing adventure and just your beautiful presence, and it's so nice to be here in the space with you online as it is, but still, hopefully we can reconnect in person when you come to Cyprus or when I see you somewhere between your three places of living.

Speaker 2: 47:47

I would love that Reunion is over. G.

Speaker 1: 47:50

So, to wrap up the episode, I'd love to share three takeaways that I've had from talking to Tia and learning about her story, and the one is to carry on pushing ourselves beyond perceived limits.

Speaker 1: 48:02

It doesn't have to be a Pacific Ocean, but it can be the small little limits that we put on ourselves.

Speaker 1: 48:08

Second is remembering the team, the power of teamwork. Time and time again, tia kept referring back to how the team helped and the team having a common goal and a purpose, and so finding our team and creating environments where we have this accountability and we want to show up for the person in our team as a whole, I think is a very powerful way moving forward. So finding that team, your people, your circle that can make you accountable but can also push you forward and when you are down, to have your back. I absolutely love that from what Tia said and also the importance the challenge does face in our lives. Our lives do not come without challenge, and embracing these and taking these on, finding ways to become more resilient, is the way forward. So until next time, I hope you stay inspired, I hope you stay curious and let's remember to take those very little steps or, in Tia's case, larger steps to go after what truly makes us come alive. See you soon.