Stu Turnbull & Ed Baylis

Stu Turnbull & Ed Baylis (GB) and Wendel Rontgen & Gijs Koning (Netherlands)

News from the Route

Ships passing in the night (literally)
*Photos by Wendel Rontgen*


February 15th 06:41GMT Mission Accomplished !
From Wendel Rontgen
Had a nice dinner with Stu and Ed. Thanks to a southern wind and excellent rowing of Stu and Ed. We met them at the beginning of the night. A small light coming closer and closer. After two attempts we could make a connection between the boats. Two pirates jumped on board and dug their forks in our Nasi Sateh. Great to see that there are people who like it. After 56 (? lost count) days eating it can't bring tears in my eyes anymore. During dinner we had a small row together because we lost connection between the boats. Luckily the Memory of Zayed still had her lights on, otherwise we would have finished with the four of us in one boat. Would have made the girls happy because we would have rowed faster. *It was perfect and very nice to do for them, hope they will make it on time. Afterwards our boat looked like we had a big party. It's definitely meant for only two persons. And now a cup of tea and to bed for a quick sleep after which we will hopefully have better wind and pick up speed again. Wendel
February 15th 04:55GMT
ORS Int. HQ, London. Via satphone.
At 2:30am GMT February 15th 2007 two ocean rowboats met in the Atlantic, 400 miles off Antigua, 17.330N 55.640W Ed reported: We had to row up to them, after rowing around for a while we got a line on them. The Dutch guys invited us for dinner, it was just great, we ate ravenously as Stu and I had been down to a small bag of nuts every day. We came away with plenty of food, I think Stu and I will have eating competitions, we have both eaten so much! Kenneth, it was a cracker of an idea to have another ocean rowboat resupply us ! The whole event was done in the night, I am sorry we did not share the sunset together, it was a unique way to spend Valentines night, that's for sure. Great guys, they've definitely got character.

February 14th 2007
ORS Int. are tracking both the Dutch crew (Wendel Rontgen and Gijs Koning) and British crew (Stu Turnbull and Ed Baylis) with Argos. The fact that they were within 30 miles of each other presents the possibility of the first ever food resupply by one ocean rowboat to another.
Dutch crew agreed to share their food with British crew. We put the rowers in touch with each other and they are now arranging between themselves a rendezvous point
Extract from the Contact 3 report of Stu Turnbull: "NEWSFLASH!! We have just had a call from the Dutch boat that is out here, who have enough food on board 'to do another crossing' in their words. We are hoping to meet up with them at 1000 GMT on the 15th February to get some food off them!! What lifesavers and gentlemen. We just need to make sure that we can coordinate the meet up. In lieu of that news, we're going to get a feed on and get rowing! They say that they've got loads of rice and sauce, so looks like that's what we're in for! Read more >>>

From Gijs & Wendel. Feb 14, 16:21GMT: Hi Captain Kenneth, Here the Dutch guys. We have VHF contact with Stu and Ed. They are on course for the rendezvous, so everything goes well. We hope and think that our plan will work out fine. It seems like we can do it. Gijs & Wendel
Editors note: Theodore Rezvoy met Mike and Steve Dawson at sea in 2001; Pedro Rippol and Pancho Korff diverted from their course and rowed to meet French team ESPRIT PME who asked for assistance in 2001; and by sheer coincidence Chris Martin met team 'Mark 3' at sea in 2006.