ocean rowing



Hell, high water and a spot of Jaws News of some Atlantic rowers
March 13 2007

The ones that got away found themselves in trouble last week. Atlantic rowers Stu Turnbull and Ed Baylis set out from San Sebastián de La Gomera in December, their sights set on a record crossing of 40 days, so they packed light and took on board food for just 50. By luck or sheer bloody-mindedness they managed to elude the debacle which resulted in several other boats that set out that day being forcibly towed back to port when a bureaucratic row broke out over safety procedures. They carried on, making good going until frightful weather conditions set in and the two men, neither of whom were experienced in the ways of Atlantic rowboat crossings, found themselves so low on rations that starvation stared them in the face. The rough seas had meant that they were consuming their 1,500 calorie intake but burning up 7,000 in their attempts to make headway.
		Graham Walters in Puffin
At one point they resorted to considering the pros and cons of toothpaste and seaweed – that’s how bad it got! Their attempts at spearing passing fish, initially successful, ended in the loss of the spear. They eventually contacted the Ocean Rowing Society which arranged a rendezvous with a pair of better provisioned Dutch rowers on February 14. The food handover was made and gratefully accepted at a point just 350 miles away from their goal, Antigua. They won’t be smashing that crossing record, but they’ll count themselves lucky to arrive safe and sound. Meanwhile, another man looking to make his mark by becoming the first lone Spanish oarsman across passed the 50º west watershed on February 17 and will be closing in on Antigua as you read this. A recent message, in English, on Andreu Mateus’s website gives an idea of the dangers lurking beneath these frail little vessels, never mind ocean swells and storms up top: “I have been navigating for many years now,” he wrote on February 13, “and it is only the third time I have crossed the Atlantic and never before have I seen a shark, apart from the ones in the aquarium of Barcelona. “It was about 11 in the morning. I was calmly rowing and suddenly I saw the water part and saw it coming towards me. What most impressed me was how fast it was going. When I was about a metre away I could see it perfectly. It was a hell of a shark, at least four and a half metres long. It gave me the shock of my life and I not only stopped rowing but also jumped out of my seat and got into my cabin to protect myself and get my camera. “For a moment I thought it could jump up with its mouth open towards the boat, intending to eat the soft meat that was inside the small wooden cabin. I was scared to death … but it went away. Later I went out and spent a half hour looking around … and eventually carried on rowing.” February 17 started out badly when his rudder “gave up”. It had to be fixed with another pin. But realizing he had passed the 50º barrier he knew he was on the home run with about eighteen days left to reach terra firma. Ever the optimist, Andreu claims to feel ten years younger than when he set off. He has also shed 12 kilos and has stopped smoking – well, crossing an ocean is one way to kick the habit, I suppose. Further back and with way to go, though making good daily progress, is Graham Walters in Puffin, the smallest of the boats currently heading west and, at over 40, the oldest. She is also the one with the biggest history, being the boat that arguably started off the whole Atlantic rowing scene because Puffin is the boat in which David Johnstone and John Hoare made their ill-fated west-east crossing – and drowned in the attempt. But superstition is obviously not something that bothers Graham. He set out from La Gomera on February 4 and after just over a fortnight at sea was averaging around 30 miles a day. So far Puffin is confounding her critics and proving she is no leaky tub and that not only can she keep afloat but make good headway too. Forty years on, Graham Walters is saluting Puffin’s first lost crew on the anniversary of that historic row while raising funds for the purchase of an ambulance for the British Red Cross, to be dubbed … Puffin – what else? AW