JML Joins the Ocean Challenge - Update

Last autumn we decided to get involved with PC Dawn Wood’s Atlantic Ocean rowing challenge.

You may have seen Dawn and her boat True Blue on various news channels, rowing single-handed and unsupported from Gran Canaria to Barbados; a distance of 3000 miles in 53 days.

She arrived in the Caribbean island on February 25th, only the seventh woman ever to manage this incredible challenge.

Dawn’s been with the Essex Police Marine Unit for years and has many seafaring strings to her bow including teaching others marine skills and being a marine mammal medic.

However nothing can prepare you for the rigours of such a unique challenge; one of the dangers she probably doesn’t face in her police work is being smacked in the face by a flying fish or making her own drinking water! On the way she recorded the amount of plastic pollution she saw in the seas and the money she continues to raise will go towards Marine Conservation Society campaigns.

Some of the highlights included amazing sunsets, a mid-Atlantic chocolate drop from a chance encounter with another small craft and talking to the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth as they passed within three miles of each other.

She got a rock star’s welcome in Barbados, with everyone from the customs officials to the sports minister waiting to meet her on the quayside at midnight.

As part of the extended police family, JML Software Solutions were delighted to be one of the sponsors of the Row Aurora project. “So much about Dawn and the challenge mirrored our own ideals – pioneering spirit, changing entrenched attitudes, using resources wisely and working in partnerships. We just had to support her,” said Russell Osborne, managing director of JML.

Read more about Dawn’s fascinating diary of the trip, and take the chance to donate to a great cause here: https://rowaurora.co.uk/