Six women row 8,000 km from Lima to an island in French Polynesia.

Six women – five French and one Spanish – take turns paddling on Thursday paddle boarda few hours after sailing the day before from the Gulf of Lima with the task of uniting the 8,000 km that separate Peru MooreaFrench polynesia.

This charity adventure called “Cap Optimist” aims to demonstrate that sport can be an engine of improvement and emotional recovery for cancer patients.

“Let’s try global problem Unpublished: Linking Lima to Moorea aboard a sailboat. We are “six female water workers,” Stephanie Geyer Barnaix, project manager, told AFP at the pier at the Regatas Club in Lima before sailing at sunset on Wednesday.

“This is a three-year project, materialization today, we are going to rowed day and night try to reach the end of March [de 2023] a Moorea. Every hour we rotate at the table,” adds this 47-year-old woman who survived four breast cancers.

All six women are athletes and specialists in the rescue coastal from 22 to 47 years. Each will row an average of four hours a day, alternating strokes every hour.

Geyer estimates that they will move 5 to 6 kilometers every 60 minutes. During the tour they will be accompanied by a catamaran on which they will rest, as well as a human team first aid.

INSPIRATION

The journey is inspired by the Kon-Tiki, a symbolic 20th-century expedition carried out in 1947 on a log raft with a team led by the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl, to test the hypothesis that South Americans had reached Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.

“In the beginning, we saw that the shortest path is through Mexicobut then we discovered the story of Kon-Tiki, which inspired us a lot because it was made by six men and us by six women (…) We want to intertwine these stories that are an example,” Stephanie said.

In addition to participating in the trip, Alexandra Lux, Emmanuel Beceron, Itziar Abascal, Marie Goyenes and Margot Calvet took part.

Spaniard Itziar, 34, was the first to leave the stadium. shores of lima floating on the board, driven by his punches.

She was accompanied by two local fishermen aboard “caballitos de totora,” rustic rafts made from a South American aquatic plant that has been used for sailing and fishing in Peru since ancient times.

“It is a great sporting challenge to walk this great path (…) I had a very close experience with cancer with my parents, they taught me that you should never give up, you should always keep moving forward. Itziar thought.

“The motto of our project is to continue day after day, ladle after ladle, until PolynesiaIt’s a bit like fighting a disease – day by day and step by step,” he added.

Through this expedition, the mission seeks to raise funds for the Hope Team East association and promote sports among children with cancer during their treatment or recovery.

“We are here to row for sick children (…) We have everything oceans pass, this disease is reversible, and with the help of sports you can overcome these difficulties,” Stephanie proudly concludes.

AFP