Rowing The Atlantic Solo | Stu Morton

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (wind blowing) Um, so Mr.…

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      (wind blowing) Um, so Mr. Stuart Morton? Welcome.

   2. SMStu Morton0:08

      Yeah. You all right? How you doing?

   3. CWChris Williamson0:09

      Very good, thank you. How are you?

   4. SMStu Morton0:10

      Good.

   5. CWChris Williamson0:10

      Fantastic.

   6. SMStu Morton0:11

      Yeah.

   7. CWChris Williamson0:11

      So we've known each other for nearly a year now-

   8. SMStu Morton0:13

      Mm-hmm.

   9. CWChris Williamson0:14

      ... um, through Reebok Tyneside and a few other bits and pieces as well.

   10. SMStu Morton0:17

       Yeah.

   11. CWChris Williamson0:17

       And since I met you, you've had a- an idea that I think is probably one of the- the maddest things that I've ever heard. It's the sort of- the sort of story that you hear about in the news, but you never actually know anyone who's going to go ahead and do it. So I guess, in short, what- what's your next three months gonna look like? What are you doing?

   12. SMStu Morton0:36

       Um, I'm gonna row a wooden rowing boat from Portugal to Venezuela, um, which has actually never been done before by anybody solo.

   13. CWChris Williamson0:45

       Wow.

   14. SMStu Morton0:45

       It's been done by a team of five guys before, um, but never done by someone on their own. So it'll be like a world's first and all that sort of stuff.

   15. CWChris Williamson0:52

       So you're rowing across the Atlantic Ocean-

   16. SMStu Morton0:54

       Yeah.

   17. CWChris Williamson0:54

       ... on your own?

   18. SMStu Morton0:55

       Yeah. From Mainland Europe to Mainland South America, which is important 'cause there's a race that exists where people go from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean, so it takes in sort of 80% of the Atlantic Ocean.

   19. CWChris Williamson1:08

       Uh-huh.

   20. SMStu Morton1:08

       Um, and it's- long story short, it's 20 grand to enter, um-

   21. CWChris Williamson1:13

       Wow.

   22. SMStu Morton1:13

       ... and there's more kudos attached to going from Mainland Europe to Mainland South America.

   23. CWChris Williamson1:17

       Right.

   24. SMStu Morton1:17

       'Cause it's about 1,000 miles longer-

   25. CWChris Williamson1:20

       Uh-huh.

   26. SMStu Morton1:20

       ... than the- the race. Um, so that's the reason for- for choosing that.

   27. CWChris Williamson1:25

       Mm-hmm.

   28. SMStu Morton1:25

       And then also the fact that no one's ever done it before, so-

   29. CWChris Williamson1:28

       Wow.

   30. SMStu Morton1:28

       ... there's not many things left that no one's ever done before-
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Absolutely, yeah. …

   1. SMStu Morton15:00

      you're, like, it's January, Stu Morton's gonna be going off on his rowing bike.

   2. CWChris Williamson15:03

      Absolutely, yeah.

   3. SMStu Morton15:04

      So-

   4. CWChris Williamson15:04

      It's Parkinson's Law, the work expands to fill the time that's given for it, and if you just, at some point in the future, it would be five years, 10 years, and then before you know it-

   5. SMStu Morton15:13

      Yeah.

   6. CWChris Williamson15:13

      ... you can't do it anymore.

   7. SMStu Morton15:14

      Exactly.

   8. CWChris Williamson15:14

      So, no, that's, I mean... So moving on to the actual row itself, am I right in thinking, I read that it's 1.5 million oar strokes?

   9. SMStu Morton15:23

      Around that, yeah. I mean, it all depends on, like, the distance it takes me, but-

   10. CWChris Williamson15:28

       Yeah.

   11. SMStu Morton15:28

       ... as a rule, it's gonna be about one and a half million oar strokes, yeah.

   12. CWChris Williamson15:32

       Which just sounds like-

   13. SMStu Morton15:33

       Yeah.

   14. CWChris Williamson15:34

       ... the sort of thing that would take you to space, or do you know what I mean?

   15. SMStu Morton15:36

       Yeah.

   16. CWChris Williamson15:36

       Like, million, millions of anything.

   17. SMStu Morton15:38

       Yeah.

   18. CWChris Williamson15:38

       Millions of repetitions of anything just sounds absolutely insane.

   19. SMStu Morton15:42

       Yeah.

   20. CWChris Williamson15:42

       (laughs)

   21. SMStu Morton15:43

       It's nuts. There's-

   22. CWChris Williamson15:43

       (laughs)

   23. SMStu Morton15:44

       It's one of those weird things. Like, the closer you get to it, and the more people I know that have actually done the row, the more you realize that it's, it's everything you think it's gonna be. It's, like, incredibly monotonous and boring-

   24. CWChris Williamson15:55

       (laughs)

   25. SMStu Morton15:55

       ... and testing, and all this. And you can have music and sort of films to keep you company and everything-

   26. CWChris Williamson16:00

       Yeah.

   27. SMStu Morton16:00

       ... but at the end of the day, there's, there's no getting away from the fact that you've just got, got to get on the oars and pull.

   28. CWChris Williamson16:06

       Mm-hmm.

   29. SMStu Morton16:07

       And also, it's so much more different to anything I've done before, where on the run that Josh and I did-

   30. CWChris Williamson16:14

       Yeah.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   But then when I…

   1. CWChris Williamson30:00

      my God. (laughs)

   2. SMStu Morton30:00

      But then when I first got my boat, I rowed it from the Tyne Bridge to the Royal Quays, which is eight miles-

   3. CWChris Williamson30:05

      Yeah.

   4. SMStu Morton30:05

      ... and it took me two hours.

   5. CWChris Williamson30:06

      Oh, wow.

   6. SMStu Morton30:07

      So the weight of the boat, how slow she goes in the water and all that sort of stuff-

   7. CWChris Williamson30:11

      Mm-hmm.

   8. SMStu Morton30:11

      ... like, it makes it so much different to the Concept Two. But you're not gonna do any damage being on a Concept Two.

   9. CWChris Williamson30:17

      Yeah.

   10. SMStu Morton30:17

       So it's the nearest you can get to it without-

   11. CWChris Williamson30:19

       Yep.

   12. SMStu Morton30:19

       ... getting on the boat. So, um, a lot of two-hour sets, one-hour sets.

   13. CWChris Williamson30:24

       Mm-hmm.

   14. SMStu Morton30:24

       Uh, rowed through the night one time, did like 70K in one sitting.

   15. CWChris Williamson30:27

       Wow.

   16. SMStu Morton30:28

       Um, that was at, at the gym, at CrossFit Tyneside.

   17. CWChris Williamson30:31

       Yeah.

   18. SMStu Morton30:32

       Uh, and then most of the time it's just sort of general prepared fitness with, uh, Lauren, so training most days together in the mornings, um, we're just doing like crossfit-y sort of stuff, so-

   19. CWChris Williamson30:41

       Uh-huh.

   20. SMStu Morton30:42

       ... a lot of functional movements and sort of, like-

   21. CWChris Williamson30:44

       I thought... I, I hones- I honestly thought there'd be a lot more row-specific stuff. I genuinely thought it would just be, "Yeah, I've just spent the last six months sat on a Concept2-"

   22. SMStu Morton30:53

       Mm-hmm.

   23. CWChris Williamson30:53

       "... and I've done some accessories work." But it would appear that-

   24. SMStu Morton30:55

       Yeah.

   25. CWChris Williamson30:56

       ... the crossover from doing more functional stuff actually appears to be more beneficial in progression.

   26. SMStu Morton31:00

       Yeah, I think so. And looking at, like, that Talisker race that I keep, like, going back to, people take that pretty seriously.

   27. CWChris Williamson31:06

       Mm-hmm.

   28. SMStu Morton31:06

       And people train for it, or have trained for it, um, with this, like, the l- thing you've just said there, like sat on a Concept2-

   29. CWChris Williamson31:14

       Yeah.

   30. SMStu Morton31:14

       ... most of the time.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   But your friend's proven…

   1. SMStu Morton45:00

      um, eliminate the possibility of capsize, but it doesn't.

   2. CWChris Williamson45:03

      But your friend's proven in-

   3. SMStu Morton45:04

      Yeah.

   4. CWChris Williamson45:04

      ... twice in 24 hours

   5. NANarrator45:05

      that maybe that's-

   6. SMStu Morton45:05

      Yeah, so the general rule of thumb is if you've got a boat that's, say, three meters wide-

   7. CWChris Williamson45:09

      Yeah.

   8. SMStu Morton45:09

      ... if you get hit side-on by a wave more than three meters, you're gonna-

   9. CWChris Williamson45:13

      You're going over.

   10. SMStu Morton45:14

       ... turn over. Yeah.

   11. CWChris Williamson45:14

       Yeah.

   12. SMStu Morton45:15

       And it's the At- Atlantic Ocean, so most of the waves are sort of eight or nine meters.

   13. CWChris Williamson45:19

       Right. Okay.

   14. SMStu Morton45:20

       So if you- if you hit one side-on, you're going over.

   15. CWChris Williamson45:22

       Wow.

   16. SMStu Morton45:23

       So I think it's important as well for, uh, if anyone's thinking of doing it is to understand it's how many times you're gonna capsize rather than if you're gonna capsize.

   17. CWChris Williamson45:31

       (laughs)

   18. SMStu Morton45:31

       And being comfortable with the fact that it's gonna happen.

   19. CWChris Williamson45:34

       Wow.

   20. SMStu Morton45:35

       So, yeah.

   21. CWChris Williamson45:35

       So in terms of the route that you're taking, and you've, you've spoken about the, the streams and the, um, the wind-

   22. SMStu Morton45:42

       Mm-hmm.

   23. CWChris Williamson45:42

       ... that you're going to catch, am I right in saying what you said to me, that there's gonna be some times where you may be on the crest of a, a wave going in the right direction, so to speak, and you can kind of almost surf that a little bit?

   24. SMStu Morton45:51

       Yeah, definitely, yeah.

   25. CWChris Williamson45:52

       You can pull at the right pace to ride that down.

   26. SMStu Morton45:55

       Yeah. So in what normal people would consider bad weather, um, in certain situations for ocean rowing it's, it's really good for you, because you'll get picked up by a wave as you're rowing.

   27. CWChris Williamson46:03

       Yeah.

   28. SMStu Morton46:04

       And then the c- the common thread is to ditch the oars, just let go of them, and they'll sit in the gates and they're not gonna go anywhere. And then you grab your hand steering, uh, ropes-

   29. CWChris Williamson46:13

       Yeah.

   30. SMStu Morton46:13

       ... and you basically steer yourself down the wave. And you'll pick up maybe, like, between sort of 6 and 10 knots.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:03:31

   Mm-hmm. …

   1. SMStu Morton1:00:00

   2. CWChris Williamson1:00:00

      Mm-hmm.

   3. SMStu Morton1:00:00

      And that like thing makes people think, "Jesus, he's actually gonna go through with this. He bought a boat."

   4. CWChris Williamson1:00:04

      Yeah. That's actually, yeah.

   5. SMStu Morton1:00:04

      Um, and then all the training and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. Um, so I think as soon as I set off then that'll be a big thing.

   6. CWChris Williamson1:00:11

      Yeah.

   7. SMStu Morton1:00:12

      Um, and then also, one of the founders of the, the charity, uh, Foxy, um, he's on TV quite a bit with the SAS program.

   8. CWChris Williamson1:00:19

      Uh-huh.

   9. SMStu Morton1:00:19

      On Channel 4. Um, and then he's got another program coming out about, uh, drug cartels and stuff like that in Venezuela. So-

   10. CWChris Williamson1:00:26

       No way.

   11. SMStu Morton1:00:27

       ... he's obviously gonna use his-

   12. CWChris Williamson1:00:28

       You're not gonna, you're not, you're not gonna meet him at, at one of them, are you, when you're over there? (laughs)

   13. SMStu Morton1:00:31

       No. Yeah, yeah.

   14. CWChris Williamson1:00:31

       (laughs)

   15. SMStu Morton1:00:31

       Well, he gave me a load of, uh, heads up about what Venezuela's like at the moment 'cause it's basically a failed state. So-

   16. CWChris Williamson1:00:36

       Pretty lawless. Yeah.

   17. SMStu Morton1:00:37

       Yeah. So getting there is gonna be interesting to see if they've got a-

   18. CWChris Williamson1:00:39

       Yeah. You might just jump back in the boat and turn around. "Right. Give me some, give me some more food and I'm going back."

   19. SMStu Morton1:00:43

       Mm-hmm. Yeah. But he's, he's basically gonna help sort of, um, you know, spread the message and all that sort of stuff. And-

   20. CWChris Williamson1:00:49

       Yeah.

   21. SMStu Morton1:00:50

       ... I think, like I said, when I'm actually out on the row, that's when the sort of, the money will come trickling in then.

   22. CWChris Williamson1:00:55

       For sure.

   23. SMStu Morton1:00:55

       Um, the BBC are gonna do an interview on the 5th of January.... um, and then one of the main sponsors is making a, a documentary. So-

   24. CWChris Williamson1:01:02

       No way.

   25. SMStu Morton1:01:03

       ... I think in terms of raising money, there's about sort of the next six months is gonna be the big-

   26. CWChris Williamson1:01:08

       Big deal.

   27. SMStu Morton1:01:08

       ... the big, the big push, yeah.

   28. CWChris Williamson1:01:10

       Yeah. So in terms of, you've got Rock2Recovery on there, I know that you've got MyProtein as well. Who else have you got on there that are this sort of

   29. SMStu Morton1:01:20

       Yeah. ... thing? Yeah. So the, the two main sponsors are True Potential.

   30. CWChris Williamson1:01:23

       Yeah.

Episode duration: 1:07:07