Careers

Striking out

Lin Diaby is a local government accountant with a difference – she's one of only 46 women to ever row across the Atlantic.

Lin Diaby is a local government accountant with a difference – she's one of only 46 women to ever row across the Atlantic. A CIPFA PQ, she spoke to Tatiana Armstrong about her story so far and what makes her tick

More women have climbed Everest than have rowed the Atlantic – and Croydon council accountant Lin Diaby is one of very few to have done the latter. Just a few weeks into her CIFPA qualification, Diaby is full of surprises – one of which is that she confesses to a fear of water!
After retiring from an impressive Dragonboat racing career during which she won an incredible 35 medals for Great Britain, Diaby found herself, at the age of 41, looking for her next challenge. That is when a friend gave her the idea of rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean in the Atlantic Rowing Challenge. However, it was another three years before Lin and her rowing mate, Rachel Smith, would make it to the start line of the race, on 2 December 2007.
As well as preparing both mentally and physically for the challenge, they had to raise funds in order to take part (for the Breast Cancer Care charity). The amount of planning and preparation they had to do was huge, says Diaby.
First off, Lin had to learn how to row the boat! That mastered, she had to learn how every aspect of the vessel worked, from the 'bucket and chuck it' (yes, that is how they relieve themselves!), right down to the electrics. Diaby explains: "We decided to do it all ourselves, so we could fix it and only blame ourselves if something went wrong." Despite all their preparation, their race was almost over on the first day when they couldn't get the water-maker to work (that's the desalination system that provides the boat's fresh water).
The race starts at San Sebastian de Gomera, in the Canary Islands, finishing in Antigua in the Caribbean. The crew's first few days were blighted by sea-sickness as they settled in to the arduous routine; they took it turns to row for two hours and sleep for two hours, 24 hours a day. Stirring tunes on their iPods, their blogs and, most importantly, text messages from home kept up spirits, as Diaby explains: "Text messages drove us, kept us going." Oddly, whenever they had a bad day a whale, apparently well known to be responsive to distress, would visit and stay with them for a while. They rowed over the Christmas and new year period, Valentine's Day and their birthdays, for a total of three months.
Even with an injury Diaby never missed a rowing session and the pair would reward themselves at their set milestones with a little sip of champagne (after the first 500 miles, and 1000 miles, and so on).
They suffered salt burns, blisters, heat exhaustion and at one point capsized. Diaby takes up the story: "The waves got pretty big and about 300 miles from the finish we were eating dinner when we were hit by a big swell on deck. Luckily the boat self-righted and we didn't lose anything."
After an amazing three-and-half years of fundraising, and 76 days, 11 hours and 12 minutes of rowing, they reached Antigua in good health and still the best of friends. So far they have raised a whopping £49,101 for Breast Cancer Care and you can still donate now at www.atlanticrowingchallenge.co.uk.

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