Love Wrexham Magazine Issue 1 - July 2019

was a huge challenge, made even more
difficult by the cumbersome oars and
so many people rowing at the same
time.
Those oars took a heavy toll, especially
on people’s hands. Gloves, as Barry
informed us, are often not practical
on a long row as they are always wet
and stop blisters from turning into
callouses which are the best protection
against wear and tear from oars. These
callouses take a while to form, however,
and there is an intensely painful initial
period of open wounds and blisters. As
Barry points out, as his fellow rowers
were essentially ‘pen pushers’ (in the
nicest sense of the expression), they
lacked the ‘ocean-rowing skin’ that
Barry has and the palms of their hands
were left in absolute tatters and, in one
case, with the flesh actually starting to
putrefy.
Adventuring is a costly business: the
Pacific row was mostly self-funded and
cost an incredible £87,000 of which
sponsors paid only £14,000 and the
rest came from loans and credit cards.
It’s taken Barry five years to pay off the
loan from the credit card and he only
settled the final bill a few weeks ago.
The Indian Ocean row was fully
sponsored and had better technology.
This meant better communications and
their photographic equipment included
a drone although the cost of uploading
this video information
and using the satellite phone came to
£6,500!
While he was rowing across the Pacific,
he realised how lucky he was to have
his partner, Emma, who he calls ‘the
best thing in the world’ and that, after a
few years going out, he needed to ask
her to marry him. They’re both practical
about the idea, however, and as Barry
has had to spend so much money to
fund his trips, the wedding has been
put on hold. The money owed is starting
to dwindle now though so they can start
thinking about it more seriously.
The plastic pollution on the Pacific was
very noticeable even though curiously
a lot of it sits just below the surface
and this appeared to have a profound
effect on the wildlife. They only started
to see animals after 25 days in when
the plastic started to disappear and
they started to see creatures such as
pilot whales, swordfish and sea turtles.
There was plenty of fauna on the Indian
Ocean – almost too much! The flying
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