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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Ammar Kalia

A new start after 60: I had to make my life count before it was too late – so I rowed across the Atlantic

Rower Sian Davies posing by the sea with an oar held over her shoulder
Sian Davies … ‘It was empowering to push the limits at my age.’ Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian

When she was 61, Sian Davies decided to row across the Atlantic Ocean. In March 2021, the retired sports and leisure manager was one of 12 crew members who set out on the 3,000-mile journey from Tenerife to battle sun, salt and fierce currents. “We would row in three-hour shifts and only sleep for an hour or so every six hours,” she says. “For the first 15 days I was seasick, so I didn’t eat a thing – I was just rowing and collapsing. I went through some pretty dark times.”

But she didn’t give up, and after 42 days on the water, she reached Antigua to become one of only six women in the world over the age of 60 to have rowed across an ocean. “I was exhausted and I was also so proud of myself,” she says. “It was empowering to push the limits at my age and find out just how much I could do.”

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