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The GB Row Challenge quartet, who set off from London’s Tower Bridge
over a week ago, are 10 miles off the Cork coast today seeking
protection from another impending storm.
Aboard the 23ft vessel Outward Bound for the scheduled five-week
voyage are three Grenadier Guards, Lieutenant Will de Laszlo, 26,
Lt Ben Jesty, 25, and Sgt James Bastin, 35, who are based at
Windsor, plus company director Will Turnage, 25.
For 24 hours the crew battled along the south Wales coast in a force
eight south-westerly gale that threatened to drive them on to the
rocks of the Pembroke coast.
The team’s navigator Mr Turnage spoke today of the “enormous” seas
and “relentless” wind they had experienced.
“Twice while Jim Bastin and I were rowing we were hit by waves that
were nearly 50 feet high.
“Twice a huge wall of water hit the boat broadside on and we thought
we were going to be rolled over.
“It’s been hell. We have taken a real battering in the last 24 hours
and the boat is so small out here in these huge waves.
“You look up and see waves breaking above you. Every so often a
monster wave will roll through, threatening to swamp us.“
Mr Turnage, from Lymington, Hants, said: “Rowing is so difficult –
we are now rowing two hours on and two hours off. At the end of two
hours, you’re shattered.
“We are having to sleep in our oilskins but the sea is so rough that
we are not getting any real sleep. For the last 36 hours, we’ve been
living in our oilskins.
“We have been eating chocolate and biscuits. It has been so wild, we
have not been able to have hot main meals. We will miss breakfast
again this morning.”
The good news is that once the low-pressure front has blown through
from the west, the weather is set to improve for the weekend. The GB
Row Challenge team aim to raise £1 million for charity.
The crew are rowing 24 hours a day and carrying more than a ton of
food – army rations washed down with cold desalinated seawater.
The Outward Bound charity and the Bud Flanagan Fund for leukaemia
research will also benefit from the funds raised by the row.
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