Woman rowing for two months found herself closer to space station than anyone on Earth

A woman who was rowing her boat for a staggering two months straight, found herself closer to somebody on the International Space Station than anyone on Earth.

Since December, Miriam Payne has been taking part in the Atlantic Rowing Challenge, which involved her setting off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands on 12 December 2022.

The aim of the challenge was to reach Antigua in the Caribbean within two months as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

Obviously, this challenge wasn't the easiest, as it involved crossing 3,000 miles of water - with it being described as 'the world's toughest row' by organisers.

But Payne managed to cross the finish line in the early hours of the morning on the 10 February, making her the fastest solo female in the race to date.

She completed the mammoth race in 59 days, 16 hours and 36 minutes, beating the previous record by two hours and 38 minutes.

For the race's social channels, the 23-year-old provided regular video updates on her progress across the Atlantic.

In one short TikTok, she expressed her real disbelief of where she actually was on Earth.

"It's crazy that I'm literally closer to somebody on the space station that I am a person on land," she said.

@atlanticcampaigns/ TikTok

Payne also spoke on her distance to the space station with The Guardian, she said: "I felt in my own little world most of the time. I didn’t really have much of a concept of anything that was going on back home."

In the video, Payne showed viewers what it is like cleaning the boat, and how deep the Atlantic Ocean looks.

After returning to land, Payne did an in-depth interview with The Guardian, describing her feelings as she approached the finishing line.

She said: "When you get close to the finish, you can hear your family. I actually had a big energy burst.

"I’ve slept a bit but not much just because I feel really awake, which is weird.

"The last eight miles felt so hard because it was so close to the finish. By the end, I had nothing left to give."

@seastheday2022/ TikTok

And there was even one moment where Payne thought the record for the fastest female to complete the race was out of reach.

"The week before last, I thought I wasn’t going to get the record any more because the wind dropped and I was going nowhere," she said.

"There was one day where I rowed for 18 hours and I got less than 10 miles, so that was pretty demoralising. I could just feel the race record slipping away."

But she did manage to break it and raised over £13,000 ($15,600) for the charities Wellbeing of Women and Mind, Hull and east Yorkshire.