New sponsor Travel Up on board with Devon’s ‘Row For The Ocean’ as the team heads across the Atlantic

Exeter’s four-woman ‘Row For The Ocean’ team, who set off yesterday (Wednesday, December 12th) in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, is delighted to announce a new sponsor whose tagline is ‘Let’s discover the world’. Online travel agent Travel Up has become the team’s Platinum Partner for the race, pledging £10,000 in funding.

Row For The Ocean set off from La Gomera in the Canaries to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic with a mission to raise awareness of the ocean plastics crisis. Kirsty Barker, Rosalind Holsgrove-West, Kate Salmon, and Laura Try want to raise as much money as possible for South-West based charity Surfers Against Sewage to help fund SAS’s Ocean Schools programme, which teaches children about the effects of plastic pollution on ocean wildlife. Donations can be made through www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rowfortheocean

The women are also using the race as a platform for the Plastic Free Exeter campaign, which they set up alongside local volunteers to get the city’s population to reduce its reliance on single-use plastics.

Rower Kirsty Barker says, “We’re really grateful to Travel Up for agreeing to sponsor us at the last minute. Their support will make such a difference to us all during those long hours at sea and really help us raise awareness of our plastic-free aims. One day into our epic challenge, the enormity of what we’ve taken on is now hitting home!”

Backed by Title Partner P1 Investment and other sponsors, Row for the Ocean is attempting to cross the Atlantic unsupported in their boat Liberty, rowing in 2-hour on, 2-hour off shifts all the way to the West Indies.