Four Mums in a Boat: Friends who rowed 3000 miles, broke a world record and learnt a lot about life along the way

Four Mums in a Boat: Friends who rowed 3000 miles, broke a world record and learnt a lot about life along the way
Janette Benaddi

Helen Butters

Niki Doeg

Frances Davies

A TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 SPORTS BOOK AWARDSLONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017The incredible true story of four ordinary working mums from Yorkshire who took on an extraordinary challenge and broke a world record along the way.Janette, Frances, Helen and Niki, though all from Yorkshire, were four very different women, all juggling full time jobs alongside being mothers to each of their 2 children. They could never be described as athletes, but they were determined to be busy and the local Saturday morning rowing club was the perfect place to go to have a laugh and a gossip, get the blood pumping in the open air, and feel invigorated.Brought together by their love of rowing, they quickly became firm friends, and it wasn’t long before they cooked up a crazy idea over a few glasses of wine: together, they were going to do something that fewer people than had gone into space or climbed Everest had succeeded in doing. They were going to cross 3,000 miles of treacherous ocean in the toughest row in the world, The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.Yes, they had children and husbands that they would be leaving behind for two months, yes they had businesses to run, mortgages to pay, responsibilities. And there was that little thing of them all being in their 40s and 50s.But two years of planning, preparation, fundraising, training and difficult conversations later, and they found themselves standing on the edge of the San Sebastian harbour in the Canary Islands, petrified, exhilarated and ready to head up the race of their lives.This is the story of how four friends together had the audacity to go on a wild, terrifying and beautiful adventure, not to escape life, but for life not to escape them.

JANETTE BENADDI is a 52-year-old businesswoman from Leeds. She is married with two children.

HELEN BUTTERS is an NHS communications expert from North Yorkshire. She is 46 years old, married and has two children.

FRANCES DAVIES is a solicitor running her own law firm in Leeds. She is 48 years old, married with two sons and lives in York.

NIKI DOEG runs her own business and is a qualified rugby coach. She is 46 years old and lives in York with her husband and their two sons.

Copyright (#ulink_8bd94247-8ed2-57a2-934f-2730c50530ca)

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2017

Copyright © Janette Benaddi, Helen Butters, Niki Doeg and Frances Davies 2017

Janette Benaddi, Helen Butters, Niki Doeg and Frances Davies asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © January 2018 ISBN: 9780008214821

This book is dedicated to you. We hope itwill inspire you to conquer your own ‘ocean’,whatever it may be.

JANETTE, HELEN, FRANCES AND NIKI

‘You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.’

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Contents

Cover (#udab82ecc-bb63-53d5-911f-2b30ab3a1af8)

About the Authors (#u2b4cbb48-1887-5598-b501-9d7d17648818)

Title Page (#u01d74d0f-1c27-578e-a485-025d8b2eb60b)

Copyright (#ulink_b3fac1b6-66ac-586c-991a-6be0882753fb)

Dedication (#ue68faf98-fa13-5548-8e05-3710cc167d30)

Epigraph (#u798d7597-9864-5eae-90be-51c243278b3c)

Chapter 1 La Gomera (#u7454ed4b-5d30-5c79-9589-045a8c51c77c)

Chapter 2 Holding On (#u236bc0f3-93b7-5679-9f97-1e849d6c9877)

Chapter 3 The Beginning (#ue060fc02-1206-528b-8bca-117924d4b0b2)

Chapter 4 The Team (#uea001adc-f737-5dc8-835a-96ce960e7858)

Chapter 5 Making It Happen (#ua17bb576-1562-524b-b342-3c2f01349aee)

Chapter 6 One Step Forward (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 Rose (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 Back Home (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 The North Sea (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 The Final Countdown (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 The Row (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 Christmas (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 Hurricane (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 Flow (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 Antigua (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 Re-entry (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

The Letters (#litres_trial_promo)

Photo Section (#litres_trial_promo)