By JACK COLEMAN, Cape Cod Times                                                                  The Standard-Times, July 29, 2003.

CHATHAM -- A Frenchman attempting to row across the Atlantic Ocean ran into a bit of trouble yesterday when his boat capsized 100 miles east of Cape Cod.
How did Emmanuel Coindre bail himself out of the jam?
He took out a phone and called his father in France.
Coindre's father, in turn, notified French authorities, who contacted the U.S. Coast Guard at 10 a.m. yesterday.
It was an unceremonious end for Coindre, a 30-year-old adventurer from Pornichet, France, who was hoping to break the record for a trans-Atlantic trip in a one-man rowboat. Coindre, who has made three successful Atlantic crossings, launched from Chatham on Saturday for his latest attempt.
A Coast Guard jet yesterday spotted Coindre hanging onto the Lady Bird, his overturned 6-meter, fiberglass boat. A radio was dropped into the water, allowing Coindre to speak with Coast Guard personnel.
Coindre made contact with the Coast Guard cutter Tahoma, which earlier in the day assisted a troubled fishing vessel near Nantucket.
He was taken off the Lady Bird shortly before noon.
A Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter flew Coindre to Air Station Cape Cod, from where he was taken by ambulance to Cape Cod Hospital.
A Coast Guard spokesman said Coindre was evaluated for hypothermia, since he spent an uncertain length of time in the water. Coindre was wearing survival gear, which kept his injuries to a minimum.
With a water temperature of 54 degrees where Coindre was found, he might have survived only six to seven hours without the survival gear, according to the Coast Guard.
After being released from the hospital, Coindre started working to retrieve the Lady Bird.
"He has put every bit of his money into this boat," said Chatham resident Jane MacDonald. She and her husband put up Coindre at their house for a month prior to his departure.
Coindre had been rowing six to eight hours a day, in addition to jogging, to prepare for the grueling trip.
Paul Taylor, a Chatham fisherman, agreed yesterday afternoon to help Coindre search for his boat, according to Geoffrey MacDonald.
Coindre successfully rowed across the Atlantic last year in 87 days, capsizing 17 times en route. Each time he was able to right the vessel.
Yesterday, only one day into his latest attempt, Coindre's boat capsized while he was sleeping and he was unable to turn it back over, MacDonald said.
The MacDonalds know Coindre through a young woman staying with them this summer.
The woman's uncle, Gerard d'Arborville, set the trans-Atlantic west-to-east rowing record of 72 days in 1980.