Hello, young explorers, and welcome to HMS Oardacious! My name is Lieutenant Commander Tom, and I'm the Team Manager for an incredible group of four Royal Navy Submariners who are about to row some 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands in Spain to the Caribbean island of Antigua!
When they are not rowing across oceans, these four rowers serve on and around British submarines, and they are taking on this enormous challenge in order to raise awareness around the mental health challenges faced by both serving and retired submariners and their families. Submariners (those who work aboard submarines) are often away from home for several months at a time and can’t talk to their families during this time. This can be a very difficult thing. In fact, many of the people on the HMS Oardacious team have children the same age as some of you who are reading this article and following us on this race.
As Team Manager, I will not be doing any rowing. It's my job to stay on dry land and coordinate all the daily communications with the team at sea. I'm going to work hard to keep you connected to team throughout this journey.
