I am excited to announce that my boat Happy Socks is finally ready for Leo’s Row. It has undergone some structural repairs and a series of rollover tests after which new solar batteries have been installed with new wiring done by a professional marine electrician. It has then been wrapped up in yellow and blue colours of the Ukrainian flag, with yellow being one of the most easily seen colours on the surface of the Ocean. The bottom of the boat has been coloured in a bright colour, called “survival orange" so it is easily seen in the unlikely event that my boat remains upside down after capsizing.

We have a new home at the Berthon Marina in Lymington where we have been made to feel at home by the friendly team of Dockmasters. The boat has been launched from a slipway and is now kept on one of the pontoons for easy access into the Solent.

We have already been out in the Solent and, in spite of all the challenges of rowing a solo ocean rowing boat in the busy tidal waters, it was one of the most productive training days so far.

Onwards and upwards!

Happy socks is ready

After bringing her back from the boatyard in Suffolk, she was fully re-wired by a professional marine electrician. I will have to learn the basic set-up and trouble-shooting of the common problems. If worse comes to worst, I will really only need to produce fresh water with a manual watermaker, as well as know where I am and where I am going to (battery-powered GPS). Everything else is a luxury. Tom McClean, the original solo ocean rower would argue that those are luxuries too.

The boat is now in Lymington’s Berthon Marina, which is also a working boatyard with a rich history. It has become our home and it is always a pleasure to deal with the friendly dockmasters who make sure that all the problems are sorted out even before they appear!

I also have two sets of custom-made ocean rowing oars made by Jonny Stanley according to my wingspan.

We have launched the boat from the slipway and have been given a luxury of docking the boat on a pontoon which gives us so much more freedom of just popping in for a row in the harbour, or even the Solent, tides and the wind permitting.

We have been on our virgin voyage, which was quite intense. Rowing a solo ocean rowing boat in the Solent was never going to be easy. I need to take into account tides, tidal streams and speed and direction of the wind to plan my outings, and even then nothing is guaranteed.

We went on a rising tide and had a relatively easy passage up the river. There was very little wind and movement of the water - it was really a rather nice paddle. I was using oars for turning and keeping my course in the navigational channel, which was all nice and smooth…until I left the sheltered waters of the river Lym - the wind started blowing me towards the drying marches near the shore and quickly ran aground.

Luckily the water was still rising and I was lifted by the incoming tide within ten minutes. I then tried to paddle away from the shore hoping that I would be OK just using the oars to steer away from the marches, but the boat was not responding and within minutes I was aground again. After I was off, I did not take any chances and decided to engage the rudder. It is a hand steering mechanism, so it does mean that you take your hands off the oars to operate it, but you learn very quickly when under pressure.

I was on my way very quickly and made it successfully back to the Marina.

So, in summary, in spite of running aground twice, it was an amazing learning opportunity, whereas I:

- Familiarised myself with the river and the navigational channels into the Solent and back. Have also rowed in the Solent with 10 kts of side wind trying to blow me ashore.

- Learned the steering.

- Used the tide to my advantage, particularly when aground. Did not panic, just waited for the incoming tide to lift me up.

- Generally, avoided doing stupid shit and followed the rules of the road.

- Docked the boat without hitting the pontoon.

Learned more by making mistakes and being under pressure than reading books and watching videos. Excited and humbled (and somewhat scared, but a little less so).

My rumblings would be incomplete if I did not mention and thank the people who help me with all the preparations for my Atlantic row. I have finally got to meet Lia Ditton who has been my project manager from the very beginning. We spent two days at the Marina and it was a great opportunity to learn about Happy Socks, which Lia had re-built and rowed about 3000 miles in around the West Coast of the US and then raced successfully from San Francisco to Hawaii. We also launched Happy Socks from the slipway together, which deserves a separate blog post, but I will probably leave it at that.

I have also been lucky to get Darren Saunders on my team. An experienced mariner, he has also done a row across the Med (our teams raced against each other and their won, of course), and also around the GB as part of the GB Row Challenge. He is doing it again next year, but this time as a skipper of the 52 Degrees North Team and I am looking forward to following their progress.

No money could make this challenge possible - you can’t buy your way out of a proper mess that you find yourself in. I see my row as a high-fidelity simulation of life itself compressed in (hopefully) two months. There’s not going to be anyone else around to help me deal with whatever the Ocean chooses to throw at me.

And then, there are the people that inspire, the people who lift you up and make you want to be better than your current self - the people that you really want to surround yourself with.

What I love about Darren (apart from his boating experience) is his big heart and generosity of spirit. He came down all the way from Wales just for one day to help me with my first launch, which did not happen anyway due to a strong wind and the unsuitability of the local slipway. We had a good time anyway, and I learned a few useful things along the way.

Darren, you’ve put some petrol into my engine which has been running a bit empty lately. I’m the engine of my boat, and people like you are my fuel. Thanks man and let’s do it again with more Ukrainian food from Mrs Krivskaya to fuel us!

Weightlifting (and shopping for the right gear!) remains the mainstay of my physical preparation for the transatlantic rowing challenge. As a part of testing my strength I have gotten into a habit of doing a 1RM (one repetition max) deadlift on my birthday. I have always wanted to lift 200 kg off the floor, as it does seem like a serious weight, and a kind of higher goal that I have been working towards for several years having deadlifted 100 kg as my 1RM about 5 years ago.

I lifted 170 kg 1 year ago, was happy with it and thought that it would have taken me two more years to get to 200. This year, when I have a massive and unimaginable challenge of rowing the Ocean solo ahead of me, a 200-kg deadlift just seemed like a more achievable milestone.

Mentally, I was ready and had absolutely no doubt that I would do it. I literally imagined that it was a step on a ladder that I am climbing towards my finish line in Barbados. My brain told my body to make that step and the body was ready to oblige. Lifting weights might seem like a pointless activity, but like anything else it is important to have a clear “why”, a higher purpose that makes it meaningful. It is all about the process, the struggles that transform us into better human beings, but it is nice to put some numbers under the belt, to determine where you are on this map that you are drawing, to see where other ships are, not to compete but to confirm your position and keep moving on in the direction that you have chosen and will be held accountable to yourself and those who matter to you.

Finally, I have recorded a little video tour of my boat Happy Socks. Enjoy!

Follow me and be part of the journey as I prepare to row the Atlantic 2025

Leo Krivskiy 💙💛