Best friends break world record by 9 days after successfully rowing across the Pacific Ocean

A pair of women broke the world record for the fastest row across the Pacific Ocean — by nine days. 

Jessica Oliver, 32, and Charlotte Harris, 33, set out to compete in the World’s Toughest Row Pacific Challenge on June 8, 2024, from Monterey, California, with the goal of rowing 2,800 miles to Kauai, Hawaii. 

Thirty-seven days, 11 hours and 43 minutes later, Oliver and Harris arrived in Hawaii having broken the world record for fastest row by female pairs, the fastest row by overall pairs — and were the first team in the competition to successfully row both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 

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Oliver, from Gloucestershire, England, spoke with Fox News Digital from Hawaii, just days after crossing the aquatic finish line, to discuss what led to the major milestone moment. 

“We knew nothing about rowing. We knew nothing about the ocean,” she said about the pair’s experience prior to rowing the Atlantic Ocean a few years back.

Oliver met Harris, who’s from Hampshire, England, while in school at Cardiff University in Wales. 

The two were in the hockey club, and Oliver said they became best friends almost instantly. 

“Do you know when you meet someone [and] you’re like, ‘We are kindred spirits?’” 

Today, almost 15 years later, the Salesforce consultant by day said she and Harris are nearly tied at the hip and love to compete – just like the old days. 

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“In 2020, we signed up for something called the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge, having never rowed before,” she said, adding, “Charlotte [Harris] worked for a company who sponsored it… and she said to me, ‘Do you want to do this challenge?’”

Oliver said the pair had just completed a boxing challenge together and were looking for another challenge to join in an effort to raise money for Shelter & Women’s Aid — a national campaign for homeless people.  

The pair competed in the Atlantic Ocean rowing competition two years ago.  (World’s Toughest Row)

For two years after, the pair campaigned and prepared for the challenge — rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to Antigua. 

When the pair arrived 45 days later, they had beaten the world record for the fastest female row of the Atlantic. 

Oliver said she and Harris were thrilled with their success and felt like they had checked the “adventure” box. 

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She recalled, “Six months later, the race organizers opened up the Pacific Challenge, and we sat at our desks going, ‘It wasn’t that bad, was it? The Atlantic? We could do it again?’”

Oliver and Harris ultimately signed up to row the World’s Toughest Row Pacific Ocean Challenge and trained five to six days a week for two years leading up to the race. 

Oliver said the pair went through a few different challenges they weren’t expecting along the way.  (World’s Toughest Row)

Oliver said, however, that nothing could have prepared them for the experience they had rowing the Pacific Ocean. 

“The first 500 miles off America is extremely challenging from a weather perspective,” she said, adding that the pair’s nearly 23-foot-long boat lost its automatic steering within the first week. 

Due to strong winds from Canada and roughly 13-feet-tall waves, Oliver said the training the pair had planned went out the window for the first period of time. 

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Typically, she said, one person would row for two hours and then take a break and either sleep or eat inside one of the two cabins onboard for two hours — then repeat. 

Oliver said she and Harris have been friends for 15 years — and they know each other to their core.  (World’s Toughest Row)

She said this plan was ineffective for the majority of the row due to the uncertainty of the ocean and the race they were in with another team. 

“By the end of it, when we were really neck and neck with the other female paddlers. We were rowing between 16 and 20 hours a day. It was just a case of going down and sleeping whenever you could,” she recalled. 

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One of the scariest encounters, Oliver recalled, was when the pair nearly collided with what appeared to be an oil tanker. 

While the rowers were attempting to fix their automatic steering, Oliver said their systems didn’t alert them about a large boat nearby — and they were shocked to look up and see the boat coming directly toward them. 

“This boat is massive, we are tiny, and we don’t have any steering,” she recalled thinking while panicking in the moment. 

The pair beat the previous female pair’s world record by nine days.  (World’s Toughest Row)

Oliver said the oil tanker came within 30 feet of their rowboat — saying it was “so close to just completely obliterating us.”

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After the grueling 37 days of fighting to make it to the finish line, Oliver said crossing it was an “unbelievable” feeling. 

She said, “We crossed the finish line, and it had been so stressful and had been quite traumatic, that we were like, “OK, we’ve done what we wanted.’”

Oliver said maybe they will try something a bit calmer for their next challenge. 

“The real thing for us that was the cherry on top was actually winning the female class,” she explained, adding, “We beat all the teams of threes and fours, and we came second in the whole race only 24 hours behind a team of four military men.”

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As for what’s next for the pair, Oliver said maybe they will try something a bit calmer for their next challenge. 

The average crossing time for all crew sizes across the Pacific Ocean is 62 days, according to World’s Toughest Row.