Charlotte Harris and Jessica Oliver managed to cross half the Pacific Ocean in a small rowboat, setting a new record for both male and female teams. If you ask them how they did it, they’ll likely give you a simple answer: “Pure friendship.”
Last week, the European duo finished the World’s Toughest Row, an annual competition with separate events in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 2021, Harris and Oliver shocked the rowing community by not only winning the Atlantic race but setting a new record for women.
This year, they tackled the Pacific version, another grueling race requiring weeks of rowing to travel 2,800 miles from California to Hawaii. And they did it again. By completing the journey in 37 days, 11 hours, and 43 minutes, they broke the record for any two-person team, male or female.
Despite their previous win, Harris and Oliver (known as Team Wild Waves) knew they would face stiff competition in the 2024 World’s Toughest Row. They raced against eight other teams, including Liz Wardley — one of the most experienced sailors in the world.
But when Harris and Oliver finally arrived in Hawaii on July 15, they once again shattered expectations. The two best friends, with their huge personalities and constant laughter, are no longer underdogs.
They’ve now proven themselves one of the strongest rowing teams in the world.
“You see these two girls who love to party and laugh, but when they sit down in that boat, they turn it on,” said race director Carsten Heron Olsen. “You don’t have to look or act like a super athlete. If you have the right mindset, you can do something that seems completely impossible. They show everyone who has doubts about them.”
The Secret to Success: On Water and Off
If Harris and Oliver decided to compete in a personality contest, they might win that, too.
In an interview with GearJunkie this week, the pair were affable and hilarious, excitedly talking over one another with an infectious energy. Even while telling stories of their toughest, scariest moments on the water, they speak with breathless enthusiasm. Perhaps that’s no surprise, given that Harris, a 33-year-old from England, and Oliver, a 32-year-old from Ireland, met in university and maintained a strong bond ever since.
They jokingly referred to years of drinking together in college as “endurance training” for their athletic exploits. Which isn’t to say that they don’t prepare for these races. Getting ready for the Pacific race involved so much physical training it amounted to a second full-time job. Some rowers even give up alcohol as part of their preparation — a step that Harris and Oliver deemed a tad too far.
“I mean, we tried to give up drinking for this, but we are who we are,” Oliver said.
When the time comes to compete, however, their “secret weapon” isn’t training, experience or grit, they said. It’s their dedication to each other. Successfully rowing across an ocean requires constant forward motion, meaning that team members spend most of the journey in rotating shifts.
Whenever Harris or Oliver finished a shift, the other would ask how they could help. Exhaustion was so severe that they often made food for each other.
“Every time we get off oars, we ask each other: ‘How can I make it better for you?’” Harris said. “We laugh through everything. It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. But just because Jess was there, it was bearable.”
Coming Back to Land
The scariest moment of the journey wasn’t caused by foul weather or technical problems (though they had plenty of both). It was an oil tanker that failed to spot the duo’s small rowboat amid the vast ocean.
Initially, the pair thought they didn’t have to worry. But after a few hours, they realized that the massive ship was headed straight at them. They managed to use the radio to contact the crew and request the ship make a sudden turn. They escaped collision by about 30 feet, with the tanker’s massive wake literally throwing their rowboat out of the water with each swell.
“We’re looking at the wake of the boat thinking we’re going to die,” Oliver said. “It was a close call, but afterward, we just kept rowing again.”
Like so many other endurance sports, the race forces participants to confront their physical and psychological limits. At the worst moments, it was so intense that Oliver vowed never to return — a feeling that often fades with recovery and reflection.
It’s too soon to say if the pair will find another rowing challenge (race director Heron wants them to try for the Olympics). But it’s more than likely these two friends will find another way to keep moving forward.
“It’s almost traumatic and you go ‘Never again!” Oliver said. “But then you get to land, and you start to wonder.”
‘Anybody Can Do It’
While Harris and Oliver have more than proven themselves as rowers, their impact on the broader community may be even more significant. They’ve begun giving presentations about their experiences on the water, encouraging all kinds of people to pursue an endurance sport for the first time.
Events like the World’s Toughest Row don’t require a lifetime of training to complete, the race director said. You don’t have to begin from childhood like a gymnast or give up your job for sufficient training. In fact, 31 teams of rowers have successfully completed the Pacific crossing since the first event last year.
All the rowing spots for the Atlantic race, which began in 2015, are sold out for the next 3 years. And this year’s race saw more women teams than male teams for the first time.
“With sailing, I’ve never seen so many people out of the water,” Heron said. “There are so many sports now that you can become good at.”
The race director also believes that Harris and Oliver have a special ability to galvanize first-timers to try something out of their comfort zone. They started as “complete novices,” Harris said. But now the duo’s social media accounts are filled with inspired followers curious about taking on a new challenge for fun — just like they did.
“Anybody who wants to do it can,” Harris said. “We are a testament to the fact that you can start from zero and succeed in this sport. You’ve got so many people who just need to take the first step.”
