Photo: Team Antigua Island Girls have crossed the Mid-Pacific Ocean in 41 days, 7 hours & 5 minutes. Kevinia Francis, Christal Clashing & Samara Emmanual finished second in the Women’s Class in the World’s Toughest Row – Pacific 2023, making this their second successful ocean crossing. © World’s Toughest Row
By Raye Mocioiu
When four women from Antigua and Barbuda pushed off from La Gomera in December 2018, none of them were rowers. But by the time they reached Nelson’s Dockyard 47 days later, they were finishers of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge (now World’s Toughest Row), and more importantly, they were symbols of a country’s resilience.
The quartet, comprised of Kevinia Francis, Christal Clashing, Samara Emmanuel, and Elvira Bell, united under the Team Antigua Island Girls banner.
More than finishing a trans-Atlantic campaign, the Antiguans made history as the first all-Black team to row any ocean. They galvanised a nation with their daring, with the government declaring a half-day holiday on their return, and they raised funds for a project to aid a girls’ home that housed abused, abandoned, and neglected girls.
In 2023, the team, minus Elvira (for personal reasons), conquered the mid-Pacific route from Monterey Bay, California, to Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, in 41 days, seven hours, and five minutes in the inaugural Pacific Row.
A Call, A Crew, and Eight-and-a-Half Months to Learn—Row One
After two Antiguan men’s teams completed the race that finishes in historic Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour, Antigua, Prime Minister Gaston Browne threw out a challenge: could an all-women’s team represent the island next? Fifteen women answered. Coaches from the men’s team helped train and whittle the roster to five, then four. The Island Girls shipped a used boat back to the U.K. for repairs, crammed essential certifications into their calendars, and learned as they went.
“There was a lot of naiveté,” Kevinia explained. “We were checking boxes more than grasping the full scope. However, by the time the race started, the checklist was complete. We felt ready to go. Nothing could have prepared us for the breadth of the race—the unpredictability of the ocean, the extreme fatigue, the unique experience for each rower while still needing to function as a unit, and still, the beauty and privilege of the experience. By the time we were mid-Atlantic, challenges and all, we knew we would conquer, because we weren’t just rowing, we were rowing home.”
“Home” mattered. Most ocean-row crews finish somewhere unfamiliar and then fly back. The Island Girls rowed toward their own shoreline, along part of the transatlantic slave trade route that delivered their ancestors under brutal coercion. As descendants of enslaved Africans, they experienced the Atlantic crossing as a reclamation of history and of their relationship to the sea.
“We wanted to show that we belong on the ocean on our own terms,” they said. “And we wanted girls to see that women can work together under pressure and achieve something extraordinary.”
Everything That Can Go Wrong at Sea
Plenty of ocean-row crews fracture under stress. The Island Girls didn’t. They fought and forgave like sisters, kept the mission present, and protected the chemistry that carried them from “we barely know each other” to “once an Island Girl, always an Island Girl.”
And it was far from easy; the Atlantic tested them early. Seasickness scrapped their opening sprint. Then the autopilot failed repeatedly, forcing hand-steering by compass for punishing stretches.
“It was the only time I thought, ‘We can’t do this for two more weeks,’” said Kevinia.
Luckily, a late-night fix from the home team revived the system, just enough to finish the job. By then, Antigua and Barbuda were already watching. The Island Girls had captured the attention of the predominantly non-seafaring community, and that attention cascaded into support and unity. When the team crossed the finish line, the country met them—a sea of red, yellow, blue, black, and white flags waving them in. One mother said her daughter now wanted to row when she grew up.
“We went in with goals to win,” the women shared. “We came home with a sense that we’d helped pull our country together.”
A New Trip—Back on the Row Again!
In 2023, after years of school visits, talks, and local advocacy, the organizing body invited Team Antigua Island Girls to the inaugural Pacific race.
An unexpected turn of events just before the team was due to depart the island ruled Elvira out. The reduction to a trio forced tactical changes, many of which the team had to confront as they arose during the row.
As they did on the Atlantic, the team surmounted each challenge—even the currents during the final 24 hours that threatened to toss them off course, well beyond the finish line, and into disqualification.
The team plans to put funds raised toward establishing a dedicated facility for girls in conflict with the law. The stakeholders are close to finalising the specifics, with hopes of breaking ground shortly.
“If we plant good seeds early, like skills, confidence, a sense of belonging in the water and in the world, we shape a better society,” the team said.
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