A team of rowers will on Sunday start their bid to become the first all-female crew to cross the Bass Strait in an effort to raise money towards curing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Eight-women from the Red Nose MusselRowers team are departing Port Welshpool in southern Victoria at 4am for their 320-kilometre journey to Tasmania.
Four team members will row for two hours, with a one-minute drink break every half-hour, before swapping with the other four women following closely on a support boat.
The team is expected to arrive in Musselroe Bay in six days, rowing between 40 and 70km per day and making six stops on several islands throughout their journey.
The women will camp overnight on Refuge Bay, Hogan Island, Deal Island, Roydon Island, Trousers Point and Preservation Island.
Rower Ashley Bujeya said it would be the longest distance they had ever rowed and the team, which was from New South Wales, was looking forward to rough conditions.
"We're expecting big seas, we're expecting exciting, tumultuous days … we're expecting it to be very different to what we're used to up the coast [in NSW]," she said.
The group is raising money for Red Nose, a charity that offers support to people affected by the death of a baby or child and funds research into SIDS.
Nationally, 3,000 babies die each year from SIDS and a quarter of pregnancies result in miscarriages, although the number of SIDS deaths has fallen since public education campaigns were launched more than 30 years ago.
"Everyone knows someone who's been affected by it," Ms Bujeya said.
SIDS test five years away
A study released last year and led by Dr Carmel Harrington at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, NSW, linked low levels of a biochemical marker to infants with a predisposition for SIDS.
But Dr Harrington said more research needed to be undertaken before developing a screening test, which could be available within five years.
Rower Shanon Small said the team's shared goal of raising money to reach that five-year goal had helped to build camaraderie and community support.
She said they took inspiration from "knowing that [the community is] behind us, and this cause is behind us too, and what we're doing, the importance really, in every single stroke".
Training twice a week
The team has been training bi-weekly, rowing for about two hours at at time as well as using rowing machines.
In January last year a group of male rowers completed a similar route from Port Albert to Musselroe Bay, raising money for the Humour Foundation Charity.
Rower Michelle Cottington said their biggest challenge would be traversing what is known to be rough seas.
"We've prepared as much as we can but it's the Bass Strait and we don't know what we're in for. Things could change any second," she said.
Red Nose chief executive Keren Ludski said she was grateful for the challenge the MusselRowers were taking on.
"Every dollar raised helps to save little lives by funding research, providing education to new and expectant parents, and supporting Red Nose's 24/7 counselling and support services for bereaved families," she said.
