Our row reached land by our own power and completed the over 400 nautical miles minimum distance requirement to be approved as a completed open waters row in the polar area. (for coastal rows in polar areas minimum requirement is 700nm). 400nm is the distance between Norway and Svalbard for example, which was rowed more than once. Therefore it was the first row from the Antarctic continent and the first row on the Southern Ocean South to North. In polar areas only south to north and north to south directions are considered while on the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans only east to west and west to east directions are considered. It was also the southernmost start of an ocean rowing expedition. Additionally it became the first row completely within the boundaries of the Southern Ocean. Drake row for example only partially happened on the southern ocean. Southern ocean is a ring actually and it is difficult to row completely within it. It consists of the waters encircling Antarctica above 60S.
In ocean rowing, marginal seas are adjudicated only in the polar areas and we covered significant polar part of the Scotia Sea, the part that belongs to the Southern Ocean, not South Pacific. the row covered 400nm of the polar part of the Scotia sea. Therefore it is the first row on the Scotia Sea, not across the Scotia Sea just like the row from California to Hawaii is a row on the Pacific, not across the Pacific. This is the only difference regarding the titles we aimed and we achieved. The remaining ones are achieved regardless of our change of route. Therefore I mentioned in the initial post that we secured most of our titles.
It also became the fastest polar row, we completed half of our route in 6 days, which means maintaining this speed would make us complete the entire route in less than 12 days. The first half of our route was definitely the more challenging one. Our average speed was over 2,8knots. It was also the longest distance rowed on the Southern Ocean. Please note 10 years ago polar rows were moving less than 1knot average, so our distance would be rowed in over 60 days by Row to the Pole expedition speed or 24 days by Arctic Row speed for example.