The Telegram
The latest attempt to row across the Atlantic has ended.
After 18 days at sea, Scot Roy Finlay, 38, and American Colleen Cronin, 30, called it
quits Wednesday.
With Easterly winds continuing to rob them of what little forward progress they’ve
made, the pair decided to turn around and head back to St. John’s. It is not known
when they will arrive.
In an e-mail from their seven-metre boat the Celtic Crossing, Cronin expressed the
pairs’ extreme disappointment at the decision to turn back.
But, with adverse weather conditions that have dogged the voyage since its beginning,
it was the right choice, Cronin said.
“Roy is disappointed, but knows this is the decision that had to be made,”
Cronin wrote.
Ever since the pair departed Quidi Vidi Village July 28, the winds and weather have
been against them.
“(I) don’t know if you all realize what the weather really has been like out
here. We have had no luck since Day 2,” Cronin wrote. “The strong easterly winds
that we experienced prevented us from not only gaining no miles, but losing as well.”
The last reported position from the Celtic Crossing was Aug. 10 when they were at
position North 49 degrees, 33 minutes, West 49 degrees, 34 minutes some 196 miles from St.
John’s.
The strong winds against them played havoc with the planned 70-mile-a-day progress
Finlay and Cronin had hoped to achieve. That was the rate they needed to challenge the
record for a two-person row across the Atlantic.
Cronin said the last good rowing weather was Aug. 10, when good weather and favourable
winds saw them reach the Gulf Stream.
“This current would have taken us all the way to Ireland,” Cronin wrote.
“Unfortunately, a few hours later, the winds were changing, the rain came pouring
down, and before we knew it an easterly wind was on its way.
“We couldn’t believe it. We had no choice but to put the sea anchor out to
prevent us from drifting west,” she wrote. “For days we sat and waited.”
By Aug. 12 reports of a hurricane in the Atlantic prompted Finlay’s decision to
turn back.
The end of Celtic Crossing’s challenge is another notch in the North Atlantic’s
belt.
So far only two successful two-person attempts to row the arduous west to east route
have been made, the first in 1896 by a Norwegian pair, the second in 1966 by an English
vessel.
Celtic Crossing is the third two-person attempt to end in failure.
The voyage of the English boat Puffin in 1966 ended in tragedy when oarsmen David
Johnston and John Hoare were lost at sea.
It’s also the second time Finlay has seen an attempt to row the Atlantic fail.
The end of the attempt by the vessel Atlantic Endeavour in 1998 earned Finlay the name
“Captain Calamity” in the British press after a dispute between Finlay and his
crew arose.
But despite the disappointment, Cronin said she and Finlay haven’t given up their
goal to row the Atlantic in record time.
“This is not the end. Our journey will continue,” Cronin wrote. “We have
many thoughts of definitely attempting again next year. In fact, we are even considering
another voyage even earlier, stay tuned.”
