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Kayak
team in race to clinch record |
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Nov 1 2005 |
An award winning ex-SAS soldier’s
kayak expedition is bidding to become the first British team to
circumnavigate South Georgia in the South Atlantic.
Pete Bray, 48, and three
other solo paddlers will try to round the 5,600 square kilometre
island, regarded as the “Mount Everest of sea kayaking”.
He said today that a New Zealand kayaking team brought their
expedition forward by three months when they heard of the
British team’s plans for the first circumnavigation.
“They have been going four weeks and it looks like they are
going to do it,” Bray, who flies out on Thursday, said.
“But they have not crossed the finishing line yet, and ‘Mother
Nature’ could still still sting them.”
His Templar Films South Georgia expedition plans to set out on
their 420-mile voyage on November 12 – or sooner, weather
permitting.
With Bray on the £100,000 trip will be
Nigel Dennis, 50, who runs the Anglesey Sea and Surf
Centre in North Wales; Jeff Allen,
a 43-year old kayak instructor and guide from Maenporth Beach in
Cornwall; and female team member Hadas
Feldman, 34, a former Israeli soldier.
They will face sub zero temperatures, huge seas, 100mph
Antarctic winds, the risk of icebergs, and attack from fur seals
if they land on the permanently snow and ice covered island.
“If we do get to land on a beach we are going to have to deal
with fur seals, which can attack you,” said Plymouth-born Bray,
who lives in Pembrokeshire.
“And there is around 100 miles along the south east coast where
there is nowhere to land,” he added.
Weather permitting the team could complete the voyage in 10 days
– but they will be carrying freeze dried meals for two weeks, he
said.
South Georgia lies 800 miles east of the Falkland Islands and
1,000 miles from the edge of Antarctica.
The expedition is also aiming to highlight the work of two
different charities, Children in Crisis and Ty Hafan, a
children’s hospice near Cardiff.
The South Georgia odyssey is the latest in a string of
adventures for Bray.
In 2000 he set out on a solo unsupported kayak trip from
Newfoundland to UK - but his tiny craft sank, and he was rescued
after spending 33 hours in the freezing Atlantic before rescue.
He made a second, successful attempt in 2002 – and became the
first person to paddle solo and unsupported across the Atlantic.
Earlier this year Bray was awarded a bravery medal by the Royal
Humane Society for the successful rescue of fellow oarsman in a
storm hit transatlantic rowing expedition.
He was a member of the four-man crew of the Pink Lady rowing
boat crew – which last year split in two last summer during a
storm 300 miles from their Falmouth, Cornwall, destination.
It was on August 8 that the high-tech craft was smashed by a
Force 11 storm - the tail end of Hurricane Alex – following a
1,800-mile, 39-day row from Newfoundland, Canada.
With Bray on board were former Royal Marine
Mark Stubbs, 41, from Poole,
Dorset; writer Jonathan Gornall,
49 from London, and navigation expert
John Wills, 34, from Elstead, Surrey.
They were hoping to break the 55-day trans-Atlantic rowing
record set more than 100 years ago by two Norwegian fishermen
when the storm struck.
Mr Gornall said at the time that Bray supported him in the
water, adding: “I have no doubt Pete saved my life.” |
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