September meeting: Jasmine Harrison, British Adventurer

For our September meeting, Belles were joined by Jasmine Harrison, a British adventurer who loves to travel and tackle new challenges.

Jasmine achieved world-wide recognition in 2021 when aged 21 years she became the youngest solo female to row the Atlantic Ocean in 70 days proving that age, gender and background are no barrier to a positive mind-set.

The Atlantic row, dubbed the ‘World’s Toughest Row’ saw Jasmine row up to 20 hours a day in conditions from flat calm to 10 metre high waves with lows of capsizes, injuries and physical exhaustion to the highs of amazing wildlife and sunsets travelling over 3000 miles from La Gomera, Canary Islands to Antigua.

Jasmine told Belles how she overame many obstacles to complete this adventure, from having no money to buy a boat, to having never rowed before or even having another person to row with.

She described the beautiful sunsets, abundant wildlife and peaceful solitude which sounded wonderful but then one night she was woken up by her AIS system boat alarm which alerted her to a huge drilling ship just meters away from her own solo rowing boat!

After 70 days at sea and eating mainly chocolate and sweets she arrived in Antigua 12kg lighter and tucked into a burger and a well earned cold drink. A truly #inspiringwoman.

Jasmine shared how after completing that adventure everything else in life seemed so simple and she felt very motivated and wanted to test herself again. Jasmine had taken part in many sports as a child growing up in North Yorkshire but her first love was swimming and she decided to create her own challenge!

In 2022 Jasmine became the first female (and third person ever) to swim the full length of the British Isles from Land’s End to John O’Groats, 900 miles, in 110 days.

She described how she wrapped herself head to toe in neoprene to avoid jelly fish stings but that came with a lot of chaffing. Despite being terrified of what might be in the water from dolphins to seals and even a basking shark, Jasmine felt very privileged to be on her adventure and grateful for all the support crew members who joined along the way. Her dog Bonnie even made several trips to see her along her epic journey!

Jasmine described how she used her time swimming to do a “full spring clean” of what was in her head and forget about all those little worries we all have.

Having raised over £30k for environmental causes Jasmine remains a keen advocate for ocean health sharing her stories through talks whilst still taking on micro adventures. She is keen to encourage everyone to be self-reliant and if someone wants to take on a personal challenge, of any level, then they should just do it!

Jasmine’s support for environmental causes echos that of this year’s WI campaign on Clean Rivers – to clean up rivers and promote bathing water status as a way to achieve this. The WI has joined the River Action UK and signed its Charter for Rivers, calling on the government to commit to ambitious yet achievable actions for healthy rivers by 2030. You can find out more about it here .

Jasmine is now planning her next big challenge which is a solo sail around the world in a 5.8m yacht in the Mini Globe Race 2025, the Belles look forward to following this and future adventues with keen interest.