SIX ROWERS, ONE of them Irish, have been rescued from the Atlantic after their boat capsized.
The rowers had been aiming to become the first crew to ever row across the Atlantic Ocean in less than 30 days. They were 27 days into their journey when their boat capsized yesterday, less than 520 miles from their destination of Barbardos.
The alarm was raised when the rowers activated an emergency beacon, signalling that they were in distress.
Coastguards in Cornwall, who co-ordinated the rescue with authorities in Martinique, said that a general cargo vessel from Panama rescued the six crew members early this morning.
The rowers were on a life raft which they had tethered to the hull of their overturned boat. All six are unharmed and are “as well as can be expected after spending 14 hours in a liferaft in rough seas,” the Falmouth Coastguard said.
26-year-old Aodhán Kelly from Dublin is the youngest of the crew members of the Atlantic Odyssey challenge. A rower for more than fifteen years, he has represented Ireland at Junior and Under-23 World Championship Levels and the Rowing World Cup.
The skipper of the boat Matt Craughwell wrote on their blog on Sunday that the boat, the Sara G’, had had “not only her toughest week of the expedition, but her toughest week under my watch”.
He wrote that the crew “have battled on” despite no wind and “swells from every direction”.
“It has no made our world record attempt become the most difficult ten days we will spend at sea this year”.
The group had been on target to meet the record before the boat capsized. They are now bound for Gibraltar where they are due to arrive on 9 February.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say