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| The modern world: two people in a 26-foot-long rowboat that they built by
hand, somewhere in the Atlantic, with laptop computer, cell phone, digital camera, modem
and a Global Positioning System navigation system. The two people in the boat -- COLLEEN
CRONIN, a long-distance cyclist from Bayside, Queens, and ROY FINLAY, 38, a former diver
in the British Royal Navy -- are the first man-and-woman team to try to cross the Atlantic
in this way. Rowing around the clock -- sometimes together, sometimes not -- they are also
trying to set a record for a west-to-east crossing. Going in that direction is considered
more difficult than going from east to west because west-to-east sailors cannot count on
help from trade winds. They left St. John's harbor, Newfoundland, on July 28. To beat the
current record of 55 days, set in 1987 by TOM McCLEAN, a British oarsman, they will have
to arrive in Ireland by Sept. 21. They have financial backing from Great Spirits, a liquor
importer. There has been more to the voyage than fighting bad weather and trying to stay on course: on Sunday, Ms. Cronin celebrated her 30th birthday on the boat, the Celtic Crossing. "Roy did most of the rowing" that day, she wrote in an e-mail message, and she spent the time sitting in the sun. "We saw about 15 dolphins swim around the boat, performing flips in the air. I think they new it was my b'day." She said that they had sailed through rough weather last week -- they covered 70 miles on Friday before a nighttime storm surrounded them. "We knew something was brewing," she said. "By about 10 o'clock, with no moonlight, no stars and the thick fog rolling in, there was virtually no visibility. We shifted rowing by the hour. For about four hours as we rowed, waves crashed on the deck in every direction." Yesterday, they were heading into an easterly wind, which slowed them down. Ms. Cronin, who competed in five New York Marathons in the 1990's and the Dublin Marathon last year, met Mr. Finlay on a visit to Ireland. "I loved Ireland so much I haven't changed the time on my watch," she said. "But this wasn't the way I expected to be going back. I'd never built a boat before, I'd never seen the process of a boat being built. Day 1, pieces of plywood and plans on the floor. I look at it now and say, this is a strong, stable boat." --James Barron |
