Rowing around Cape Horn with hopes of a book deal

Thursday, 16-October 2003

His vessel looks anything but a row boat - but then, Jim Shekhdar is not exactly paddling across a pond.

The wild-eyed man of the sea, who famously stumbled out of the surf looking like Neptune after rowing from Peru to Australia in 2001, intends to leave Bluff today bound for South Africa, with the aim of arriving in five months.

He admits he's nuts, and says his wife has described his 8000 nautical-mile journey as unnecessary and excessive, but the lure of making history has him in its grip - and if the Briton can swing a book deal, the crazy adventure might even pay for itself.

"No-one's done it before. It's the last one [solo ocean rowing record], so it's got to be a big one," Mr Shekhdar (56) said from Bluff yesterday.

However, after two years of preparing for his attempt to become the first person to row solo across the Southern Ocean and round Cape Horn, the management consultant admitted to feeling depressed as the weather threatened to further delay his departure.

If he does not leave Bluff Harbour at 12.15pm today, it will be four days before he can try again.

Already, a combination of technical problems with communications and work to fine-tune his British-built 7.8m fibreglass boat have kept him in Invercargill way past his September 19 departure target.

Luckily, when he does leave, he can look forward to eight hours of rowing a day, which should work off any lingering frustration.

To fuel his effort, the boat, which swallowed most of the expedition's $NZ500,000 budget, is packed solid with a year's supply of dried soup and canned beans; a diet on which the father-of-two expects to lose about 30kg. Electricity provided by a solar panel and wind-powered generator will power a water maker - for a while, anyway.

"The wind generator will probably be destroyed the first time the boat rolls over," he said.

He is expecting a battering similar to the one he suffered in the 274 days he spent becoming the first rower to cross the Pacific Ocean unassisted. Then, the ocean had the last laugh by tipping him into the surf as he arrived in Australia.

This time, he hopes to stay snug inside a sealed cabin designed to withstand 30m swells. If he gets bored on a journey that, realistically, could take seven months or more, he will work on his book about the trip or watch DVDs on a laptop. State-of-the-art tracking systems will guide him and inform the world of his progress via his website, www.oc2003.com.

It pays to stay in touch. The only other person to try the trip, Frenchman Joe Le Guen, stopped halfway when he developed gangrene in his toes.

That said, disease and dangerous high seas appear to be the least of Mr Shekhdar's worries.

"I don't want to tell my wife how I raised the money. I can't go back [to Britain] unless I get a good book deal."