Yet it's the distance and unlikely destination being claimed - and ratified by the Ocean Rowing Society - as the new transatlantic land-to-land solo rowing record by 28-year- old oarsman Rob Munslow from Monmouth.
The Welshman had set out on his "epic" adventure on June 27, bidding to beat the transatlantic solo record set by his boyhood hero SAS man Tom Mclean, who journeyed into Scilly in 1987 in 55 days.

Rob failed to lower the mark by nine days - passing the Bishop Rock Lighthouse finishing line in 64 days, 10 hours and 48 minutes, but landing at 10.29pm on August 30 to claim the land-to-land record as McLean was said to have been assisted into St Mary's.

"This was something I had always wanted to do since I was a boy of 16," Rob said.

And then, with the line passed and landfall of the crossing established, however unorthodox and unscheduled, the drama started.

In what the St Mary's lifeboat coxswain Andy Howells called "inky darkness" and Force 4 winds, Rob's 7.5 by 1.8 metre Exmouth-built rowboat Carnegie X-stream, began to drift towards the adjacent and dangerous Western Rocks infamous for their tally of shipwrecks

Soon he was in the region of the "Daisy" scene where some years ago a drama involved a French trawler Enfant de Bretagne and heroic rescue attempts by the St Mary's lifeboat under coxswain Matt Lethbridge.

"I found myself drifting, pinned in against the rocks," said Rob. "I could hear the waves echoing."

The St Mary's harbour boat Progress, manned by harbour staff, had gone out to the rower. Unfortunately, positions given to them proved inaccurate and by the time they caught up with the rower he was near the rocks.

It alerted the St Mary's lifeboat, under coxswain Howells, who brought their inflatable and used strobe and white flare. "We got a line to him on the east side of the Daisy and pulled him off," said Mr Howells. "He was literally bouncing on the rocks. A few seconds later and it could have been serious. I think he had some rudder damage and scratches."

The rower - with his boat in tow - was taken to St Mary's where daily bulletins of his pending arrival had stirred much interest among visitors and islanders blissfully unaware of what was happening.

What would have been "St John's to St Mary's" as the new transatlantic mark thus became "St John's to Rosevear, which one island wag suggested "is unlikely to be repeated as a planned route for some time to come".

"Lady luck was on my side," Rob admitted to the islands' Cornishman correspondent.

Dropping into Scilly in summertime - or rather rowing in - is becoming something of a habit for Rob. It was, in fact, a reprise of his 2005 arrival in St Mary's harbour but with an essential difference.

Last year he was a crew member of the Vivaldi Four quartet in Naturally Best who set a new transatlantic rowing record of 39 days over the Newfoundland to Bishop Rock route and came ashore to a firework welcome at a crowded St Mary's quay.

This time he was very much alone in an experience and an adventure that, in his own words, was "emotional, incredible, mind-blowing needing 70% mental attitude to 30% physical strength. It made last year's row look like a picnic."

And there were no welcoming crowds on his deserted islet landfall, although a dead-of-night arrival at St Mary's Quay to which he was escorted by the lifeboat was attended by a good crowd of well-wishers.

The start of Rob's row had been delayed seven weeks awaiting favourable conditions. By July 27 he had reached the half-way mark. To lower McClean's record he would have had to have passed the finish line by August 21.

He jokes that he developed the necessary qualities for transatlantic solo rowing when only a child. "Where else could a young boy learn the meaning of endurance, patience and tolerance than on a shopping trip to Marks and Spencer's with his mum?" he cracks.

It was on one of these schoolboy shopping trips that the book about McClean's transatlantic epic in the 1960s was bought for him and became his lifetime's inspiration. "My ambition to row the Atlantic started as a dream. It was the biggest challenge of my life, far from the comfort zone, a test of my character."

Falmouth Coastguard reported they had been "keeping an eye" on the rowboat as it inched its way eastward and noted the occupant had capsized twice en route.

That Rob endured these as well as 12-14 hour daily pulls, nights of a mere 4/5 hours' sleep and all the tribulations consistent with being alone in a tiny boat in a huge ocean, having to collect rainwater to survive suggests he comfortably passed his character test with something to spare.

He appeared utterly drained when he landed at St Mary's Quay. Three hundred miles from the finish the record had looked "on". Then came constant northerlies. There had been times he had put out the sea anchor to have a nap and awoke, disheartened, to find himself driven further back. He had, on that last day, rowed some 18 to 20 hours non-stop. "He was shattered," said an observer, "his hands blistered raw."

Lifeboat Operations Manager John Nicholls said that a combination of circumstances had put Rob ashore on the Western Isles-darkness, a freshening southerly wind and tide. "By his own admission he said he should have made a course far more south which would have allowed him to clear all outlying rocks. The harbour launch Progress was unaware of his close proximity to the rocks when it set out to meet him.

"By the time they made contact the inevitable was going to happen. Harbourmaster Glenn Covell, seeing the danger, phoned me and explained the situation requesting the lifeboat. It was fortunate that the harbour launch was in the vicinity and could pin-point the rower for the lifeboat. The coxswain and crew, operating in darkness and rock-strewn water, undoubtedly saved rower and craft from significant damage. Given the change in weather that happened in the next 12 hours this could have been a different story."

Rob professed to a feeling of sadness now that the epic was done. "We had a wonderful welcome in Scilly, far exceeding what I expected. It has been pretty beautiful and I am going to miss it." And routine of a different nature loomed for the Territorial Army recruitment officer. "It's back to work on Monday," he said.