British rower departs on marathon ocean voyage

Story filed: 08:17 Thursday 16th October 2003

Jim Shekhdar took an hour just to get out of the harbour before heading east into the South Pacific towards Cape Horn.

The journey across the southern oceans, which will take him part-way round Antarctica, is expected to take at least seven months in his 7.8 metre ocean rowboat, "Hornette."

Shekhdar, 56, rowed the Atlantic with a partner in 1997, and in 2000-2001 made the first solo and unaided Pacific Ocean row from Peru to Australia in 274 days. He calls his latest expedition "the ultimate row."

Admitting he was seen by some people as "a nutter," Shekhdar said: "It is other people who question my sanity rather than I."

Shekhdar, from Northwood, Middlesex, is the first person to attempt the row from New Zealand across the southern oceans, past Cape Horn in southern Chile and on to South Africa.

He would be traversing some of the world's roughest waters in what he called "probably the best-built cork in the world."

He is carrying special survival gear to ensure he can quickly warm himself if he gets soaked by icy waters.

He expects to travel at 3-3.8 miles an hour and row about eight hours each day. Although he plans to complete his voyage in seven months, he has packed enough food for a year.