<div><strong>I’m joining three friends on a 3000 mile epic across the Atlantic ocean in a boat no bigger than a Nissan Micra. Why?! I’m raising money for fishing mental health charity </strong><a href="https://www.tacklingminds.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Tackling Minds</strong></a><strong>, in remembrance of my fishing-obsessed Dad who took his own life in 2022.</strong>
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/82531693_1725360185416673_r." width="100%" />
<div><strong>(My fishing obsessed Dad)</strong>
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<div>Dad was an addict. His vices came bubbling to the surface in a variety of different ways. Some totally brilliant, original and creative. Others destructive and devastating. His eventual suicide from a prescription opioid overdose little under two years ago was testament to that.
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<div><strong>Of all the demons that plagued him, one that he could not hide and could not beat was his addiction to boats.</strong>
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/82531693_1729094861606721_r.jpeg" width="100%" />
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<div><strong>(The family on one of many boating holidays)</strong>
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<div>Every family holiday I can remember somehow involved a boat. Be it a pedalo in the Red Sea, a scabies-infested tub in Florida, or a pump-up boat in North Norfolk. Growing up in the Fisher household meant not being allowed to get seasick, and learning to love boats.
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<div>When he took his own life in November 2022, Dad did not leave his family a collection of antiquities he’d collected over many years, there was no gold watch or undrunk cellar of red burgundy. Nope. His unexpected demise meant we five suddenly became the owners of a rusty trawler in Brixham harbour, a leaky charter boat in West Bay, a dinghy with a seized engine, a half-built 35ft ‘Vigilante’ in Weston Super Mare, 3 double-hulled plastic tenders, a tin boat, a kayak and the pump-up boat from Norfolk (now complete with mouse nibblings!)
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<div>So, when my friend Sam told me last month that he was a crew member short for the four-man rowing boat he’d been planning to take across the Atlantic in December, a little light bulb flickered within my cranium: what more fitting way is there to commemorate my boat loving Dad than rowing a boat no bigger than a small Japanese hatchback across the world’s second-largest ocean?
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<div><strong>Tackling Minds</strong>
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/82531693_1725358781953500_r." width="100%" />
<div><strong>(David Lyons from Tackling Minds, talks to Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse about fishing and mental health)</strong>
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<div>The charity I’ve chosen, of course, is <a href="https://www.tacklingminds.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tackling Minds</a> . A wonderful organisation that offers those struggling with mental health, addiction, and disabilities, the opportunity to escape to a riverbank, or out on a boat, and go fishing.
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<div>Fishing to Dad was peace. An escape from the real world and a way to let go of any troubles, just for a few hours. This wonderful little charity is run by a fantastic guy called David Lyons, who himself found peace through fishing.
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<div><strong>The Journey</strong>
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<div>My Atlantic Crossing is being undertaken from December to January as part of <a href="https://www.worldstoughestrow.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The World’s Toughest Row</a> race.
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<div>My team are the Atlantic ExplOARers.
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<li>The average length is a gruelling 42 days to complete the 3000-mile crossing (if you're interested that's approximately 1.5 million oar strokes!)
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<li>The race starts in La Gomera in the Canary Islands, and ends in Antigua in the Caribbean. There are no stops on route.
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<li>While we are tracked, we are unassisted. From start to finish we will have no outside support. Just us on an ocean over 5 miles deep!
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<li>Comforts are limited: dried food, some flapjacks and a shared bucket for a toilet. We'll be consuming 6,500 calories each per day, and even then we're each expected to lose approx 8kg over the course of the crossing.
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<li>Our team of four will be rowing in three-hour shift cycles (three hours sleeping, and three hours rowing) non stop, relentlessly for 24 hours per day all the way until reaching Antigua on the other side.
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<li>Likely risks: 20ft high waves, tropical storms, sirens, and a marlin spike through the hull of the boat and up your sheriff's badge.
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/82531693_1729094923258873_r.jpeg" width="100%" />
<div><strong>(The tiny boat - photo credit Atlantic Campaigns)</strong>
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<div>I’ll be updating David and his media team regularly throughout the voyage with pictures. I’ll also be bringing my fishing rod, so do give them a follow (@<a href="https://www.instagram.com/tackling.minds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tacklingminds</a> ) even just to get a look at any whoppers I hook!
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/82531693_1729094972837917_r.jpeg" width="100%" />
<div><strong>(Finnish line - photo credit Atlantic Campaigns)</strong>
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<div><strong>Suicide</strong>
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<div>Suicide and poor mental health are more common than we admit. Shockingly suicide is the biggest cause of death in men and women under the age of 35, and the biggest killer of men under 50. These figures have remained unchanged for over 20 years.
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<div>More than anything else I wanted to do this row to help show those suffering from the aftermath of suicide, that there is a life after. Not the same life, not necessarily a brighter one, but a stronger more resilient one.
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<div>Any help you can give to this cause is received with bundles of gratitude and thanks.
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<div><strong>Rex Fisher</strong>
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/82531693_1725374572772745_r.jpeg" width="100%" />
<div><strong>(The three lunatics and me!)</strong>
</div>

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REX ROWS THE ATLANTIC FOR TACKLING MINDS

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