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Two American women, a newly released convicted killer from France and 57
other adventurers shoved off from this Canary Island yesterday 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 yesterday because a member had stomach trouble.
It's not simply a question of who will win the race, or even finish it,
but whether or not 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 different 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 Le Guen, met Blond last year while
giving an ocean-rowing workshop to prisoners near Le Guen'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.''
Blond, a muscular man with close-cropped hair, has ``Little Bear''
tattooed around his wrist in fading blue ink, which referred to his
dangerous temperament as a youth.
``I'm not that way anymore,'' he said.
LeGuen, who rowed across the Atlantic solo in 1995, is more concerned
about finishing the race with Blond than with winning it.
``Pascal has paid for what he has done. He has to start his life,''
LeGuen said. ``Whether we're third or 28th - it doesn't matter - he will
win respect and can put his past behind him.''
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 coordinates
projects aimed at revitalizing poor Louisville, Ky., neighborhoods. ``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.
Race organizer Sir Chay Blyth, who rowed across the Atlantic in 1966 and
who launched the BT Global Challenge round-the-world yachting race in
1994, acknowledges the racers face risks.
``No one has forced them to go,'' Blyth said on a dock as the rowers
made last-minute preparations. ``If you don't want to take the risk,
don't take the risk.''
The boats have emergency locator transmitters, but the yachts won't be
able to immediately save foundering racers.
The boats carry inflatable liferafts. 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.
Except for a 6-foot, 6-inch aft sleeping compartment and a forward
storage area, the boats - made from inch-thick mahogany plywood - are
open to the elements.
Of 53 ocean-crossing attempts, 24 have been successful, and six rowers
have died, according to the Ocean Rowing Society.
With the blast of a boat horn, the racers left this Spanish island off
the African coast at 10 a.m.
Two dozen other boats carried supporters a ways out to sea. The black
lava cliffs of Tenerife receded in the distance.
Despite the dangers, the competitors were relaxed moments earlier.
``I'll turn 34 out there,'' Graff said wistfully, pointing at the ocean.
What will she do on her birthday?
``Eat, sleep and row. The usual,'' she said.
Murden joked: ``I might give her an hour off.''
Pascal noted before he shoved off with Blond that the race won't really
start for about a week.
``When people's behinds really start hurting, when their backs are
aching, when their fingers are a mess of broken blisters, that is when
the race will truly begin.'' |
