Klaxons roared, red flares lit up the early morning sky, and the crowd erupted in cheers as Queen’s Supersonic added to the cacophony. After 53 days, 3 hours, and 56 minutes at sea, Pammie Tyson and her teammate from the United Kingdom, Nia Baylis, rowed into Nelson’s Dockyard. With their final strokes—among more than 1.5 million—they completed an extraordinary journey aboard Peanut Bubble.
Team Lightship has truly faced the gauntlet in this year’s race.
The World’s Toughest Row has lived up to its name: towering waves, unpredictable squalls, one boat speared by a marlin, requiring at-sea repairs, and sharks lurking uncomfortably close. Race Director Carsten Olsen described this year as exceptionally challenging. “It’s been a slow year, but the ladies made fast progress,” he noted, convinced that under normal conditions, teams would have finished 5-7 days earlier.
Despite the hardships, 31 of the 38 boats that started have now reached their perfect destination.
“It was mental out there!” the rowers exclaimed.
A team from Teesside summed up the experience as “amazing… a living hell!”
For Team Lightship, this journey was about more than endurance. They rowed to raise funds for those affected by kidney disease—a deeply personal cause for Nia, who became a living donor for her brother in 2023.
Reflecting on the adventure, Pammie Tyson shared: “I was completely humbled by the ocean, the experience on board… but also by the beautiful moments out there.”
As Team Lightship arrives in Antigua, Antiguans Ruby Coates and Steff Evans finally set off after many delays, to row from Lanzarote to Jolly Harbour in the Atlantic Dash. It seems everyone is rowing to Antigua nowadays!