Antonio de la Rosa you are already at work. The Spanish adventurer started on January 7 the challenge that consists of single-handedly rowing across the Southern Ocean. of the rose departed from Cape Horn (the southernmost point of Chile) to Isla Elefante (245 km from the extreme north of the Antarctic Peninsula) with the aim of covering this journey of almost 3,000 km in the shortest possible time. These first days have not been easy at all, although the adventurer he is paddling between 20 and 22 hours each day. It feeds on pistachios and rests for an average of four hours.
The first days of the voyage are not making things easy for Antonio de la Rosa, who has seen how the weather worsened, with winds of more than 100 km/h and waves that, just to start, tried to capsize his boat in different occasions. According to de la Rosa, “On the third day, with those 40-knot winds, everything moved. What will it be with 80 knots? But the truth is that the boat behaves wonderfully, it is very well prepared. I came to land twice without turning, but I did a 90 degree lie from the force of the wave’s blow. The good thing is that the boat steers itself in just 2 or 3 seconds and it doesn’t give you time except to get a big scare”.
De la Rosa rows against the current and alone in a broken sea, in a southeasterly direction and at a speed of between 1 and 2 knots. These first days he had to row against the current of more than two knots (3 km/hour) and, worst of all, they are going in the opposite direction of the winds, which pushes you in a northwesterly direction. This meant up to four hours of going backwards, which the adventurer had to recover by rowing. “I thought the currents would be more favourable, but no,” explains de la Rosa. Fortunately, he is managing to overcome the first stage, although he comments that “I have slept very little. The day that more, about four hours in intervals of one hour. My body is like a clock and every hour I wake up to check the address. I feel like always, with energy, physically well, although Everything hurts, especially my hands. In the end there are many hours of rowing, between 20 and 22 hours the first days and, now, 15 a day. And, although I wear gloves, it takes many hours pulling the oars”.
Regarding food, Antonio de la Rosa acknowledges that he is eating little. The first two days he ate one hot meal a day out of the three he has and American pistachios, as it is the only complete protein of plant origin that can be eaten raw, with high antioxidant value and which facilitates recovery after physical exertion. “I’m eating half the servings, about 2,000 calories a day instead of 4,000, but I don’t feel like I need more. It will be because my metabolism is slowing down every year ”, he adds.