Standing just five feet tall, Millie Abrams of Fife Scotland came down with long Covid. After she finally started to get better a friend said you really need to increase your fitness to help your immune system make sure you don't get sick again. Milli really never had done much exercising but decided to follow her friends lead and join them rowing. After about a year it became apparent to her that she has a natural talent for rowing as she was already beating some experienced rowers. Then she decided to start extending the length of her rows, First an hour then up to 2. One of her new rowing pals did something that Milli thought was impossible. They rowed their boat all the way from the Canary islands to Antigua. That's 3000 miles in the open ocean!
No one smaller than 5'7" had ever completed this feat. Millie is barely 5', but thought I'm as strong as my friend who did it, so I'm going to do it. She also turned it into a fundraiser for the Children’s Hospices Across Scotland raising over $20-thousand dollars!
She left the Canary Islands on December 12th and after 46 days, 11 hours, and 44 grueling minutes at sea landed in Antigua on January 30th.
She shared updates from the journey on social media, including details from the final day of rowing.
Millie says changing winds and strong currents forced her to use a daggerboard, which made the boat heavier and harder to row. She describes allowing herself limited sleep, working through exhaustion, and spending the final hours pushing toward the finish, even as conditions worsened. She arrived just after dark and was greeted by family and friends at the shore.