Scottish brothers row from Peru to Australia, raise $700,000 for clean water

Three brothers from Edinburgh spent 140 days at sea as they travelled from Peru to Australia rowing not-stop and unsupported across the Pacific Ocean.

The adventure has been etched in history as Jamie, Ewan and Lachlan MacLean have claimed the world record of longest ever non-stop, unsupported row. They covered a distance of around 9,000 miles.

Though all of them have been reunited with their family, the journey was not without challenges. BBC reports that during one storm, Lachlan was swept overboard by a large wave but fortunately he was pulled back into the boat.

The Scottish adventurers have beaten the previous record of Russian solo rower Fyodor Konyukhov. He held the record for the longest solo non-stop unassisted row for 162 days.

Rowing to raise awareness and $1 million for clean water projects, the Scots’ completed their journey in 139 days, five hours and 52 minutes in their boat named Rose Emily. They have so far raised $700,000.

It has been revealed that the rowers wanted to complete their journey much quicker but bad weather and high winds got in their way.

Taking to Instagram, Ewan wrote, “We left with a dream to get across this ocean and raise as much as we can … and it’s just been absolutely insane, all of the support.”

For the context, unsupported rowing meant that they were unable to land on an island to restock or accept help from any passing boats. So, they brought with them 500kg of freeze-dried food and 75kg of oats.

The rowing for clean water drive comes amid oceans getting dirty due to plastic pollution, chemical runoffs and ocean acidification.

A 2021 Science and the Sea report warned that by 2050, the plastic in the ocean can outweigh fish.