Fueling the Row: What 98kg of Food Actually Looks Like
Updated: Sep 11
Rowing roughly 18 hours a day for six weeks burns through calories at a rate most people never experience. Marc's 2024/25 crossing needed serious fuel behind it — and getting that right, before he ever left shore, was as important as any training row.
The numbers
Marc carried 98kg of food for the crossing and burned between 6,000 and 8,000 calories a day. Even eating at that level, he still lost 6kg over the 43 days at sea — the physical demand simply outpaced what he could take in.
The problem: most expedition food wasn't an option
Standard ocean-rowing nutrition tends to lean on dehydrated meals — the kind you'd recognise from hiking or camping trips. Marc is gluten intolerant, which ruled most of those out. Instead, his food plan had to be built almost from scratch.
What he actually ate
Cold-water mielie meal, in three different flavours — a maize-based staple that didn't require cooking, a real advantage when every minute off the oars is a minute not moving
Protein powder, to help offset the muscle breakdown from 18-hour rowing days
Biltong, nuts, and dried fruit, for easy, calorie-dense snacking between rowing shifts
Around 10 litres of water a day, produced on board by Dan-Dan's solar-powered desalination unit
Marc worked with South African nutrition company PVM (a primary sponsor) — a company with roots going back to CSIR food research in the 1960s — to build a plan around his gluten intolerance and the sheer calorie demand of the crossing.
Why this detail matters
It's easy to picture an ocean row as one long physical test of arms and shoulders. In reality, a huge part of surviving 43 days at sea comes down to logistics most people never think about — what do you eat when cooking isn't really possible, when you can't restock, and when your dietary restrictions rule out the easy options everyone else uses?
Marc solved that problem once already. As he builds back up to December 2027, expect food planning to be just as much a part of his training as time in the boat.
