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A SERIES of unseasonably violent storms sweeping across the North Atlantic is threatening to scupper a British attempt to break the record for rowing across the Atlantic.
The four crewmen aboard the 30ft Skandia Atlantic Spirit, which set off from St John’s, Newfoundland, on June 11, have been forced repeatedly to deploy their sea anchor, retreat to the relative safety of two tiny cabins and abandon the boat to the mercy of gales and 50ft waves.
Battened down for up to 24 hours at a time in horrendous conditions, the crew can only try to rest as the winds push their boat in the wrong direction. Her smooth-hull design and 300 litres of water ballast have prevented a capsize, but she frequently rolls over to 70 degrees or more.
A glimpse of what the crew is going through was given in a satellite telephone conversation with The Times yesterday by the team’s leader, Mark Stubbs. Morale was high, he said, but conditions were far worse than they had expected.
The dream to beat the west-east record, set more than 100 years ago by two Norwegians, began after Stubbs, a former Royal Marine, took part in Chay Blyth’s 1997 Atlantic rowing race.
Stubbs, shouting to be heard above the gale, tried to describe the effect of 50ft waves on his craft: “The noise of the waves on the carbon hull is like the sound of a war drum . . . our bodies take the force as she crashes down. You have no control and your life is in freefall. It has been quite a ride.”
Stubbs is confident that the team can break the record of 55 days. As he spoke, they had covered 817 miles (710 nautical miles) from St John’s, as the crow flies, and had 1,300 to go before reaching Falmouth. Because of the weather they have been averaging 2.27mph — slightly more than 2 knots — but this rate would see them home in another 27 days, setting a record of 42 days. Skandia’s progress can be seen at:
www.oceanrowing.co.uk. |
