When I was writing Monty and the Ocean Rescue I started looking around at organisations who were working to highlight and combat plastic pollution in our oceans and I came across Ocean Revival 2020.

When I read that it was a group of four Royal Marines rowing across the Atlantic to raise awareness about plastic pollution I was immediately interested in finding out more. Anybody who has followed Monty for a while will know all about our support for military and veterans charities, and so this was something I wanted to get on board with (pun intended).

I spoke with Matt Mason from the team and after finding out more said that that we wanted to help in whatever way we could. Though what we could do is limited, we could help to publicise and promote this fantastic initiative.

This included getting Monty and Cookie to model their Ocean Revival 2020 bibs and become mascots for them which tied in really well with our book and also considering the breeds history in water rescue.

Well it’s certainly been a strange year to say the least and predictably the expedition was cancelled so I thought I’d catch up with Matt to see what the future held and of course Monty wanted to ask some questions as well.

Mark - Could you just remind everyone how this all came about in the first place. Why row across the Atlantic?

Matt - Well the other three lads wanted to row an ocean and they got in touch with me knowing I’d had some previous experience and various options were discussed. We decided we wanted to do something iconic and New York to London fitted the bill. I wanted to do something that would capture the publics imagination and we had a passion for the whole issue of plastic pollution so we decided on that as our focus.

We teamed up with Plastic Oceans UK and the Royal Marines charity as our partners and then began to publicise the event and speak to potential sponsors.

Mark - I know you’ve been going into schools, how have you found that?

Matt - It’s been pretty amazing really. We’ve spoken to about 15,000 children and they’ve been really receptive. We go in with the boat and in uniform so it gets their attention straight away. I take a big black bag full of plastic and then explain how many bags like this go into our oceans every year and it’s pretty dramatic, especially when I empty it all over the floor.

Mark - So then this pandemic hit, and I guess you were very close to being ready. How did that news affect you?

Matt - Well the boat was packed full and all ready to be loaded onto the transport for New York when it first started becoming clear something big was happening. The sponsorship to get the boat over to the US was a one way thing so we were in a situation that if something happened we‘d have to fund getting it back and then over again at a later date. We decided to wait for a few weeks to see how things panned out and then of course the lockdown happened and that was it.

Mark - I’m guessing you were gutted.

Matt - Well to be honest you’ve always got to find a positive and for me it means another year to get fitter. I’d been doing so much with visiting schools and speaking to sponsors that I hadn’t been training as much as I’d like so I was probably not at my fittest, so every cloud has a silver lining.

Mark - So what is the plan now?

Matt - We’re going in May 2021, so a year after the original date. That time of the year gives us the best chance of missing the worst of the storms and when you’re rowing 3700 miles that’s pretty important.

Monty - I’m a bit worried about you having to row all that way and I’m happy to volunteer the spangles as their ears could be really useful. Cookie could also come to help pull.

Matt - Well we have plenty of room in the cabins so it sounds like a plan.

Monty - Do you think I’d make a good Royal Marine? I think I would but I don’t like swimming or heights. I do look very good in a beret though and have a loud bark when the postyman comes.

Matt - I think you’d be great because if you look the part that’s the main thing.

A huge thank you to Matt for taking the time to speak to us and all the very best for next year and a successful expedition. It really is such an important thing you’re doing and I’m sure it will have a massive impact.

You can follow Ocean Revival 2020 and get updates regularly as they prepare to go again on Facebook and Instagram or on their Website.