Entrants in the Indian Ocean Rowing Race 2009 will weather storms and paddle with sharks, whales, dolphins and birds for up to 100 days on the open ocean. Teams will carry their own food, eat raw fish, make their own water and push their physical and mental capabilities to the limit.

Entrants include two solo paddlers, two pairs, a women’s foursome from the UK and a men’s foursome from Australia. Teams of four are expected to take around 60 days, pairs around 80 days and solo paddlers may take over three months to reach the capital of Mauritius.

Australian team leader, 193-centimetre, Matt Hort, said all members of the “Go West” team would row 12 hours a day and they hoped to reach the finishing line at Port Louis in 47 days.  “In foul weather the lads will be packed into the cabin like sardines.”

The nine-metre rowing boats have tiny cabin spaces at each end for sleeping and shelter. The two tapered “cabins” are just 2.7 metres long by 1.2 metres at their widest and between 60cm and 1 metre high.

A local fishing fleet will escort the rowing boats away from the Western Australian coastline past a reef system 100 km off shore and then the rowers are on their own.

The Go West team was formed by four members of the West Australia Rowing Club determined to “beat the Poms across our ocean” and will raise funds for Surf Life Saving West Australia as they row.

The 2009 Indian Ocean Rowing Race is run by Woodvale Races who organise the world’s toughest rowing events and has been sponsored by the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority.

Air Mauritius has easier ways to get to Mauritius but competing rowers will enjoy a tropical paradise after heaven and hell on the high seas. Wide white beaches azure seas and a lot of rest in deck chairs await the rowers.

And the other prize for the longest paddle in the world?   Matt Hort answers with one word. “Satisfaction.”