Former Olympic rower Rob Hamill and his family left New Zealand seven years ago to sail around the world. He caught up with 1News reporter Michelle Prendiville from the middle of one of the world's great oceans as they reached the halfway point in their journey.
A salty breeze. Nothing but blue for miles.
And Rob Hamill is once again in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, between St Helena and Salvador, Brazil.
“We’re out in the literal nowhere in the ocean,” Hamill tells 1News.
The Olympic rower is seven years into a journey with his wife Rachel and their three sons, Hamill - sailing the world aboard their catamaran The Cruising Kiwis. And while they are used to remote stretches of water, this one holds something deeper.
The Hamills terrifying moments on global circumnavigation - Watch this story on TVNZ+
The family has just reached the halfway mark of their global circumnavigation. And for Hamill, returning to the same waters where he once made history, has stirred powerful memories.
In 1997, Rob Hamill and fellow Kiwi Phil Stubbs won the inaugural Trans-Atlantic Rowing Race. The pair rowed for 41 days, never stopping, taking two-hour shifts around the clock.
“There was a fierce rivalry between Phil and I,” Hamill says. “We had a really driven final goal to win the race and to do that we had to not let each other down. I’d get up for my shift, get ready, get rowing, and we’d start rowing together and then he’d drop out. We would never stop rowing in our two-hour shift. It was the hardest thing we’d ever done at that stage. It actually still is.”
Stubbs tragically died a year later in a plane crash. That loss is something Hamill still carries with him.
“I made contact with Phil’s father and I just felt I needed to reach out,” he says. “We’ve been chatting quite a lot in the last few weeks. It’s just, I dunno - it’s still there. Everything that happened since and the loss that occurred. It never goes away. It never disappears. It’s always there.”
Now, decades on, Rob’s sons - now aged in their teens and twenties - are experiencing a small part of that same ocean.
“We’re getting to kind of experience what he experienced,” Declan says. “I mean, but on a nicer scale. What he had to go through would have been gruelling.”
This journey is not about racing. It is about something far more personal. The Hamill family is fulfilling a mission inspired by Rob’s older brother Kerry, who was abducted and killed by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge in 1978.
“He set off to sail the seven seas and he was unfortunately abducted - and was murdered,” Hamill says. “That legacy of my brother is strong. And we are doing what Kerry set out to do now. And we can do, where he couldn’t.”
No return date
They have no return date. But they are sailing with purpose, direction, and the weight of unfinished journeys.
“That was the halfway mark,” Rob said. “It took us seven years to get there. I dunno, it might take us another seven years to get back to New Zealand. We’ll see.”
The family has faced their fair share of danger. Rob and Rachel’s eldest son, Finn, a New Zealand rower himself, nearly lost his life in a freediving blackout late last year. There was also a near head-on collision in the Singapore Strait.
“The boys have been doing night watches since they were 13,” said Rachel. “They’re in charge of making sure there’s no boats around us. And we’ve had some close calls, I’ll tell you.”
Their journey is being shared on their YouTube channel The Cruising Kiwis, which has attracted more than 25,000 subscribers. From rescuing a turtle to Finn's terrifying freediving moment, the family has documented it all.
“Day to day there’s always something going on,” he says, laughing. “And I’ll give you something today. We’ve discovered a leak in the boat!”
There is no plan for when they'll return home. Just a direction. And a reason.
Honouring a brother. Remembering a mate. And giving their three sons the adventure of a lifetime.
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