Rowing across the Atlantic – first-hand experience

On October 20, 2022, a performance and lecture by Ciara Burns, Dipl.-Ing. Klaus Zeiner and Prof. Eugenijus Kaniusas will take place at 5:30 p.m. at EI 8, Gusshausstrasse 27, 1040 Vienna.

View of the route of the rowing boat from Tenerife to Antigua across the Atlantic Ocean

© Eugenijus Kaniusas

Itinerary across the Atlantic

Ciara Burns reports:

"I am thousands of miles from any country, isolated in the middle of the vast Atlantic Ocean, on a tiny 40 foot rowboat, with 11 other people. There is no privacy or personal space. My hands are calloused, my lips are cracked and sore, my body is full of saltwater sores. Huge waves are constantly crashing into our boat. I see this dark, menacing wall of water coming our way, and all I can do is take a breath and hold on, bracing myself for an ice-cold shower. I row as hard as I can, but the headwind and current push us backwards. We haven't seen another boat in over 3 weeks, haven't slept more than 2 hours straight in 42 days and we're slowly but surely running out of food.

The plan is to row from the Canary Islands 5000 kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean - no support boat, no stopover, completely self-sufficient, pure muscle power. Why am I doing this? Why do you pursue a goal so persistently, even though everyone advises against it.

The journey was not only captured by impressions and photos, but in a very special way: a waterproof, state-of-the-art long-term ECG accompanied me on my journey and generated unique data for 42 days. Adventure and science, the unknown ocean and a carefully planned research study, two worlds that couldn't be more different, have now been combined in one rowing boat.

Want to see what it's like to be on an ocean rowboat? Would you like to immerse yourself in the simple but incredibly liberated life of the Atlantic for a few minutes and find out how adventure and exploration interact and what surprising results emerge? Do you want to find out how the human heartbeat survives such a load and what happens to the sleep rhythm?"

About the lecture:

Ciara Burns, Biomedical Engineering Master's student, Dipl.-Ing. Klaus Zeiner, graduate of the master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering, and Prof. Eugenijus Kaniusas, Dean of Studies Biomedical Engineering are looking forward to welcoming you to their joint lecture on October 20 at 5:30 p.m in the EI 8, opens an external URL in a new window lecture hall.