Lodders Life Issue 10: The Brightsides

It was indeed a dream, or perhaps a crazy idea, that West Midlands turkey farmer Rod Adlington had back in the summer of 2022 – to row 3,200 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, unassisted.

However, in January 2024, that dream became a reality as Rod and his crew, Guy Minshull, Alex Perry and Anna Williams – also known as The Brightsides – successfully completed the row in 52 days and 18 hours, becoming the first mixed crew and fastest team to take on the C-Map Atlantic Dash Regatta.

In completing the row, The Brightsides have helped raise more than £150,000 for Meningitis Now and the Get A-Head Charitable Trust. As a trustee of Meningitis Now, Rod has been fundraising for the charity since the devastating passing of his son Barney from meningitis aged just three years old. Rod first approached Lodders in 2023 to ask for the firm’s backing and support in The Brightsides’ incredible pursuit, which we were very pleased to provide. To find out more about the row, we caught up with Rod and Guy at a celebratory afternoon tea hosted by the team’s sponsors.

What is the most asked question about your experience?

Guy: I think it’s the toilet facilities that people want to know about the most. Obviously, the en-suite facilities weren’t great – they consisted of a bucket!
Rod: If they don’t ask that question, you know they want to, and you tell them anyway.
Guy: The sores and blisters were a close second.
Rod: We used beeswax for those though. We hadn’t tested it out but started using it and it was amazing. Claw hands were a problem though, with our fingers getting locked.
Guy: It was sitting down that was the most painful. We had a variety of cushions, but they never really made much difference!

What frightened you the most during the row?

Guy: Weather-wise, I wasn’t massively frightened. We had a storm one night when we had to get the power anchor out and turn the boat back 180 degrees. We were sideways onto the waves which were 50ft – that felt like an eternity, but realistically was probably only a few minutes.
Rod: The fear of failure was probably more frightening, as well as the fear of one of the Brightsides team becoming injured. I don’t know what we would have done. The boat was so small – there wouldn’t have been anywhere to put anyone to convalesce, and we would have had to be rescued.
Guy: We were lucky we had no sickness or stomach bugs, and we all stayed healthy!

Were there any times of day when rowing shifts were harder than others?

Guy: The worst for me was the 4am till 6am shift. The witching hour. Getting out of your bunk at 4am was tough.
Rod: The afternoons in the heat were also brutal – I found those hard with the relentless sun. In contrast, rowing at night was a great experience. You can lose yourself very easily. Some nights it was pitch black. The hardest thing at night was dealing with cross winds as you couldn’t see the waves coming, nor the flying fish!

Did any of the Brightsides team have any food cravings?

Guy: It was fresh fruit towards the end and simple things like a sandwich and crisps – basically something other than dehydrated food.
Rod: Lots! We had Haribo and tinned peaches stashed in a locker that was a little bit harder to get to. When we got into those, they were heaven.
Guy: It was also nice to get on land and use proper cutlery again and feel a bit more civilised.

What have you found to be the most rewarding part of the experience?

Guy: The support and response the Brightsides received has been overwhelming. People who you wouldn’t dream would have the slightest bit of interest have said they were glued to it and followed our progress every day. It’s been really humbling.
Rod: The whole feeling of kinship that everyone was coming with us. It felt like we were part of a family.

Is there anything you learnt on the row that you have applied to your day-to-day business?

Rod: The interesting thing I learnt is that when working on your own, you have parts missing, but as a team, it can really work. You can apply this to a small business and work together as a team to focus on strengths rather than failings.

What top tips would you give to anyone planning some kind of expedition?

Rod: Choose your team mates very wisely.
Guy: Get a strong team behind you and be very honest about what you want and what you expect.

What’s next? Will the Brightsides be taking on any more endurance challenges?

Rod: Maybe the North Pole? I keep mentioning it, but nobody is putting their hand up.
Guy: The North Pole wouldn’t appeal to me – it’s got to be warm. Rowing the Amazon would be good. If you are rowing a river, you’ve got something to see.
Rod: The organisers of the Atlantic Dash want to form a community of people who have completed the event. We are only in the second year, but as time goes by, it will be nice to pull together all the participants and share our experiences. At the start of our race, some of the guys who raced last year came over to see us off which was fantastic.

Click here to read Lodders Life Issue 10 in full.