Jasmine Harrison: Swim challenge for youngest woman to row Atlantic

Swimming the length of the United Kingdom is the next challenge for a teacher who is the youngest woman to row solo across the Atlantic.

Jasmine Harrison, 22, from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, said she intended to swim the 900 miles (1,448km) from Lands End to John O'Groats later this year.

The swim was previously only completed by two other people, both men.

Ms Harrison said jellyfish stings were one of her main worries about the swim, expected to take about three months.

She said: "I have always been a swimmer and not a rower, so to me this is more possible than the Atlantic row - although more challenging in many different ways."

She completed her 70-day 3,000-mile (4,828km) solo trans-Atlantic journey from the Canary Islands to Antigua in February 2021.

Ms Harrison said she would swim about a mile from shore the whole way up the west coast of the UK and expected to spend between eight and 12 hours a day in the water.

"Because of the way the tide works - it's every six hours - I can only really swim with the tide, so I can only swim six hours at a time."

She said she intended to begin the challenge in July, but added that it was hard to say how long it would take her to complete it.

"It is a bit of an unknown one. It has only ever been done twice, the first one took four and a half months, the second took 61 days.

"So, I am going to go in the middle and take three months."

Ms Harrison, a swimming teacher, said she had chosen the west coast route as it had less traffic than the east coast and her journey would be dictated by the weather.

"The prevailing winds go clockwise around the UK, so it's the direction of the swell of the waves.

"I don't want to be swimming into the waves, so it would have to be up the west coast or down the east coast."

Ms Harrison said most people would think the main issue she faced during her swim would be the sheer physical effort of swimming for so long.

However, she said: "The thing I am most worried about in terms of the toll on my body is the rubbing from wet suits. Another big thing is jellyfish stings."

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