The brothers say that shopping in the supermarket can be overwhelming after spending so long at sea
After spending almost 140 days at sea, three Edinburgh brothers who rowed across the Pacific Ocean have said adjusting to normal life has been “a wee bit wobbly”.
Jamie, Ewan and Lachlan Maclean broke the world record time for rowing unsupported from Peru to Australia, a 9,000-mile (14,484km) journey.
The brothers raised £1m for clean water projects in Madagascar along the way.
They endured violent tropical storms, and one brother even survived falling overboard, but have admitted to finding the weekly shop tricky now they are back on dry land.
The Maclean brothers are back in Scotland after spending almost 140 days at sea
Freshly back in Scotland, eldest brother Ewan told BBC Scotland News they are feeling good physically but getting back to normal mentally will take a while.
He said: “There’s kind of like the odd social situation that catches you off guard, like trying to buy things from the supermarket, we’re finding really difficult at the moment.”
“The thought of rowing for 14 hours a day, I don’t think would faze any of us but trying to decide what to have for dinner or walking around the supermarket is really challenging at the moment,” Lachlan, 27, added.
The Scottish trio beat the previous record of 162 days for the fastest full, unassisted, non-stop Pacific row, set by Russian solo rower Fyodor Konyukhov in 2014.
Their final time was 139 days, five hours and 52 minutes.
The Macleans did much of their training in the sea near a croft they have in Assynt in the north west Highlands.
Their carbon fibre boat is called Rose Emily, in memory of their sister who died in the womb in 1996.
The Maclean brothers
The Scottish brothers reached Cairns, Australia, in 139 days, five hours and 52 minutes
The brothers spent two years preparing for the challenge.
To complete the row unsupported, they could not land on an island to resupply, or accept help from any passing boats.
The brothers had to bring all their food – 500kg of freeze-dried food and 75kg of oats.
Jamie, 32, told BBC Scotland: “It was the most stressful thing about the whole crossing, trying to cook a thousand meals in our old junior school kitchen.
He added they prepared lots of hearty meals like curries and chilli as they were able to be freeze-dried.
“My worst nightmare was we’d get a week into the challenge and the food would just go off,” he added.
Brother Ewan added that the home cooked meals were an “absolute triumph” but he would struggle to eat some of the store bought supplies again.
They had enough provisions to last 150 days, but Lachlan said they started rationing their supplies in the final few weeks in case of delays.
The Maclean brothers
The brothers finished their journey, which had started in Peru, in Cairns in Australia.
It’s not the first time the brothers have taken on a challenge like this. They previously set three world records when they rowed across the Atlantic in 2020.
Ewan said the thing they will miss most is the “simplicity” of life at sea.
He said: “All your decisions are made for you out there, you don’t have any daily anxieties of having to put the bins out.
“Every meal is planned and all you have to do is go out there and row.”
He said the open water allowed them to have “clear thoughts and great conversations”.
And while they experienced “incredible skies ” and “encounters with wildlife it was the sense of purpose that gave them them motivation to keep going.
“It’s very nice to wake up everyday and have purpose, and have meaning every day,” Jamie said.
Lachlan added that while finally being able to sleep for more than three hours a night is nice, it is the time with family and friends they are truly relishing now they are home.
