News

SUNDAY JANUARY 27 2002

Atlantic rowers reunited

DEBRA VEAL was celebrating as she rowed into Port St Charles, Barbados, yesterday — weary but exalted after completing an epic transatlantic journey and spending more than three months alone at sea, write Tom Robbins and Nicola Smith.

The feat was all the more impressive because she had never meant to achieve it. Veal, a 27-year-old businesswoman from London, left Tenerife with her husband Andrew 111 days ago, one of 36 pairs of rowers taking part in a 2,900-mile transatlantic race. But after just 14 days, he dropped out, suffering from a crippling fear of the ocean.
Without wavering, Veal decided to continue, slowly powering the 24ft boat across the Atlantic alone.

At 3pm yesterday she finally arrived, 69 days after the two New Zealanders who won the race, and about two months after she had planned to arrive. Although claiming last place, her reception was the biggest. Veal was followed into the port by a flotilla of yachts and greeted by her husband and Sir Chay Blyth, the veteran British yachtsman who conceived the race. She initially seemed reluctant to leave the boat, remaining seated in it as her husband lent over and hugged her. He then lifted her out of the craft, as Blyth sprayed the couple with champagne. Before taking deep swigs of champagne, she toasted her boat Troika, pouring the drink over the bow. Her first words were: "I just want to toast this lady, this very special lady."

She then staggered down the pontoon, finding walking on land difficult, waving to the crowd and grinning. Unlike many male ocean-going endurance rowers who arrive dishevelled, she appeared perfectly turned-out, with clean clothes, hair and a perfect tan.

"There were low times but I never doubted I would make it — there was something within me that wouldn't let me give up," she said.

"My overall memory is the overall peace, tranquillity and beauty of the ocean, which was really enlightening."
On the dockside were her mother, twin sister and two brothers. Her husband remained close, beaming with pride and visibly moved.

Their separation had been cruel. Although a highly experienced club rower, Andrew had become struck by a "nameless dread" of the sea within days of starting out. On the eighth day of the race, Debra found him curled up in the cabin, shivering and unable to talk. He became so depressed that he stopped eating and was taken off by a rescue boat at the end of the second week. "The experience just wasn't right for me but what Debra has achieved is fantastic," he said yesterday.

"My prevailing emotion at the moment is pride. I'm also very excited — I thought this day would never come."

From the start, Veal had secretly planned to carry on if her husband should retire. In fact, taking control gave her new determination. Three other teams gave up the challenge, but her resolve hardened. She has revelled in the seascapes and encounters with wildlife. Her e-mail diary is full of emotive descriptions of the ocean and its calming effect on her. "In my world there has only been utter peace, beauty and endless amounts of grace," she wrote.

Andrew helped out on a race boat for several weeks, but then returned to London, where it struck him that he "had abandoned my wife in the Atlantic". Despite being separated by thousands of miles of open water, however, Andrew has still been hearing a lot from his wife. A satellite phone powered by solar panels allowed her to call him direct, which she usually did twice a day. The phone bill had reached Ј4,000 after the first six weeks.

Last weekend she "lost count" of the number of times she called him in tears and at all hours amid terrible conditions. A massive wave tipped the boat over in the middle of the night, throwing Veal against the cabin wall, damaging and extinguishing the large navigation light — the main defence against being run down by container ships.

"As I started to weigh up the options, none of them looked that good," she wrote in her diary.

"Trying to fix a light in the dark with no torch in a storm that could easily have washed me overboard was not top of my list. Riddled with indecision, I called Andrew at 3 o'clock in the morning. Thank goodness for satellite phones and supportive husbands."

The battering by 20ft waves continued all weekend, throwing her around the tiny cabin, soaking her bedding and clothes, and prompting her to wish for the end of the race.
"I wanted it to be over then and there. I wanted more than anything to be in a warm dry bed, curled up with Andrew, safe from the raging storm going on around me. I wanted to stop having to be brave and bold."

Veal's arrival has echoes of the triumphant homecoming of Ellen MacArthur, who came second in the Vendee Globe round-the-world single-handed sailing race last February. MacArthur's welcome exceeded that given to the winner, but left her with mixed feelings about abandoning the yacht that had been her home for so long. Veal approached land torn by similar emotions. "I am full of sadness that beautiful Troika Transatlantic and I will soon be parting. She has looked after me and protected me through an endless barrage of force 8 squalls."

Everyone taking part in the Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge had to use the same basic boat, delivered to them in a flat-pack kit. Every day Veal would wake at 5.30am, row until nightfall and then wake every hour to look out for ships. The feat makes Veal, who runs an internet art company, the 10th woman to row the Atlantic and she is now looking for new challenges.