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Two American women, a newly released convicted killer from France and 57
other adventurers shoved off from this Canary Island on Sunday in a
2,700-mile race across the Atlantic - by rowboat.
The 24-foot boats scattered immediately, bobbing in the waves and
looking like colourful, oversized snowmobiles, their sides plastered
with sponsors' stickers.
The 30 two-member teams will be rowing about two months before reaching
the finish line in Barbados. One of the teams delayed its departure
until late Sunday because a member had stomach trouble.
It's not simply a question of who will win the race, or even finish it,
but whether the competitors will survive.
The death rate for people attempting to cross an ocean in a rowboat is
about one in nine, according to Kenneth Crutchlow, executive director of
the London-based Ocean Rowing Society, whose members are veteran ocean
rowers.
``Every racer says they're going to make it,'' said Crutchlow. ``But
statistically, you wonder who will pull it off.''
The racers come from seven countries and include an Olympic rower, a
vending machine salesman and a carpenter. Their motivations are as
varied as their backgrounds.
For 34-year-old Pascal Blond, released from prison in September after
serving seven years for beating a man to death in a brawl, the
undertaking represents redemption. He had previously served another
seven-year sentence for killing someone else with a knife in a gang
fight when he was 18.
His teammate, veteran oarsman Joseph LeGuen, met Blond last year while
giving an ocean-rowing workshop to prisoners near LeGuen's hometown of
Brest.
``Pascal told me, `I want to row an ocean,' '' said LeGuen, a burly
50-year-old with a shaved head. ``Jails are meant to break people, turn
them into vegetables. But Pascal always resisted. He is mentally and
physically strong - ideal for this race.''
Victoria ``Tori'' Murden, a veteran mountaineer and the first woman to
ski to the South Pole, is in the race ``to reduce life to the bare
minimum.''
``All the superfluous stuff is gone,'' explained Murden, who helps
revitalize poor Louisville, Ky., neighbourhoods. ``It comes down to your
hands and your heart making it happen.''
Murden's partner is Louise Graff, a friend since high school who works
in a French restaurant in Charleston, S.C.
To help minimize the danger, two yachts making the crossing will be on
standby for emergencies.
The boats have emergency locator transmitters, but the yachts won't be
able to immediately save foundering racers.
The boats carry inflatable life rafts. Each team prepared and carries
its own food, ranging from rice and beans to precooked pasta primavera
and Oriental chicken. Onboard desalinators provide drinking water. If
they break down, each boat carries 150 liters of bottled water as
ballast.
Of 53 ocean-crossing attempts, 24 have been successful, and six rowers
have died, the Ocean Rowing Society said. |
