NEW YORK, July 2 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian man set off in a tiny rowboat on Wednesday in a bid to become the first man to row solo from New York across the Atlantic Ocean.
Theodore Rezvoy, 35, from Odessa, plans to spend almost three months at sea in a specially designed boat fitted with a global positioning system and solar energy panels. He will sleep by day and row at night to minimize the danger of a large ship crashing into him.
Rowing from New York to Europe has been achieved only once before, in 1896. But that journey was accomplished by a two-man team, Rezvoy said.
The trans-Atlantic trip from west to east has been done by other solo rowers, but they left from points further north, in New England and Canada, which meant they started out further in the ocean and closer to the Gulf Stream, according to Rezvoy, an experienced seaman.
It will take some one million row strokes to complete the 3,350 nautical mile journey to Brest, France.

"All of us, me, my father, my wife and everyone who is here, we said to him 'You have no vodka!," said his brother Peter Rezvoy. "Now we understand he's really crazy."