Too Late To Resume Row

Why do they do it? Why do people put themselves in harm’s way, risk the wrath of nature, simply to challenge a record?

"Why not?" was the response given by French rower Emmanuel Coindre when the question was posed to him recently. He launched his second row from Chatham on Saturday, only to summon assistance from the Coast Guard when his 19-foot rowboat, Lady Bird, overturned and would not right itself late Sunday. Even though he had little chance of breaking Gerard D’Aboville’s transatlantic rowing record, Coindre took the challenge in order to raise money for a Paris hospital for sick children. There’s no arguing with the cause, but one wonders about the benefits, especially given the direction things were headed early this week. As of Tuesday, Coindre, aboard a hired Chatham fishing boat, was searching for his lost Lady Bird somewhere 100 miles east of land.

Last year, Coindre was at sea for 87 days, rowing through several severe storms before reaching shore in Brest, France. If he finds his boat and decides to continue his quest, he will be leaving even later than last year and risks running into even more severe weather. The North Atlantic is no place to be in the last summer and early fall, especially in a row boat, as Chicago cardiologist Nenad Belic discovered when he was lost at sea off the Irish coast in the fall of 2001. While we admire Coindre’s spirit and courage, we would have to question his judgment if he decides to resume his row this late in the season, rather than regroup and wait for more favorable conditions next year. It would be safer for Coindre and those who may have to rescue him, like the Coast Guard helicopter sent to pluck him from the ocean Monday, and fairer to the children of Necker’s Hospital in Paris, who deserve a fund-raising effort with a chance of success and a benefactor who returns to them safe and sound. To mangle a phrase, a wise man lives to try again another day.