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March 31,2001 |
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LONDONER
ROWS PACIFIC SOLO |
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A
54-year-old Londoner who left his job as a management consultant to row
across the Pacific has become the first man to achieve the feat unaided. |
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Jim
Shekhdar,
from Northwood, has been attacked by sharks, hit by a fishing
trawler and almost "made into matchwood" by a tanker
since beginning his 8,000-mile journey nine months ago in Peru. |
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And
after rowing for up to 12 hours a day for 274 days, the ocean was
still against him as the Queensland coast came into sight - he was
swamped by the surf and forced to swim the final 200 yards to dry
land. |
Le Shark rights
itself but Jim swims to shore
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Water
polo player |
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two daughters ran to greet him in the surf off North Stradbroke
Island before he gave his wife a huge hug and cracked open a
Castlemaine XXXX beer. |
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stayed in touch with his family with phones, faxes and a computer
throughout his voyage. |
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The former England water
polo player told Sky News: "Anyone who does anything like this is
absolutely crazy - but I'm going to write the manual so they know how to
do it. I wouldn't want to do it again - I want to do something difficult
next time!" |
Sarah and Anna
Shekhdar greet their father |
It is not Mr Shekhdar's
first ocean voyage - he rowed the Atlantic with adventurer David
Jackson in 1997. Deciding the corporate lifestyle was
boring, Mr Shekhdar cancelled a hip replacement operation and set
off from Peru last June in his 23ft boat, Le
Shark.
And he said the reaction to his
success had been "stupendous" - he even received a
message of congratulation from Tony Blair.
"When I said it was what I was going to do nobody believed me
so I thought I'd better do it. There's been a lot more attention
at the end than there was at the beginning." |
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www.sky.com |
