Talk about Puffin at RRM - Not to be missed!

Last year in September 2013, the River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames presented Graham Walters, who gave a thrilling talk on an incredible journey across the Atlantic in the fifteen-foot Puffin, successfully completing an ill-fated voyage that began 30 years earlier when the two-man crew, David Johnstone and John Hoare, disappeared after 106 days at sea in an attempt to row across the Atlantic. Due to popular demand, on Saturday 7 June, Walters will be back at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley to repeat his talk, which is called “Puffin’s Redemption: The Journey across the Atlantic”. The talk is between 11.30 a.m. and ca. 12.30 p.m. (coffee from 11 a.m.) and the ticket price is £7.

River & Rowing Museum • Mill Meadows • Henley-on-Thames, RG9 1BF
For more information call 01491 415600 or visit www.rrm.co.uk

In October 1966, the headlines in newspapers around the world told the tragic story how Puffin was found upside down in the mid-Atlantic with no trace of the crew, David Johnstone and John Hoare. There has since been much speculation about the reasons for this tragedy. In 1968, The Penance Way: The Mystery of Puffin’s Atlantic Voyage by Merton Naydler was published. The author based his book on a first-hand account, a 35,000-word journal written by Johnstone, who was a journalist who got the idea to row across the Atlantic from west to east. Johnstone’s day-to-day log book was found by divers and, as the front flap of the book reads, ‘it depicts heroism of a high order and may come to be acknowledged as one of the most moving and vivid documents of personal experience and high endeavour ever written.’

Three Crews have now Completed the 2013 Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge

The Atlantic Polo Team. Photo: Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

After 48 days, 7 hours, and 3,000 miles, the rowing crew The Atlantic Polo Team crossed the finish line in the habour of Antigua. The four Brits, 38-year-old Henry Brett, 39-year-old James Glasson, 29-year-old Bobby Dundas (10th Viscount Melville) and 31-year-old Fergus Scholes, all polo players, thereby won the four class in the 2013 Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, called the toughest rowing race in the world. They rowed to raise money for The Brooke, Hilton in the Community Foundation and Right to Play causes.

Henry Brett said, according to the Talisker’s website: ‘The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is something we feel extremely privileged to have experienced, yet would not have wished upon our worst enemies – we have been through hell and back again out there.’

However, coming in as the first boat in the four class did not mean that the four polo players won overall; they came in second. The first boat to cross the finish line in this race was Locura Rows the Atlantic with the two Brits 53-year-old Mike Burton and 30-year-old Tom Salt, both experienced sailors. Their winning time was in 41 days, 2 hours, 38 minutes and 54 seconds. They raced to raise money for the Generous Hearts Foundation.

On the Talisker’s website Tom Salt commented on their win: ‘Mike and I are absolutely ecstatic to have won! We’re no strangers to extreme challenges, but this is definitely the hardest thing we’ve ever done and pushed us to new limits both physically and mentally. We will be celebrating this evening with our friends and family – and the burger we have been dreaming about since day one!’

Watch how Salt and Burton arrive to Antigua – and how they finally could have those burgers!



While writing this, late Tuesday evening, the third-placed boat in the race, the British crew Row2Recovery, has just yet crossed the finish line. Racing in this four were 27-year-old Cayle Royce, 27-year-old Scott Blaney, 34-year-old Mark Jenkins, 31-year-old James Kayll. Royce and Blaney were injured while serving in Afghanistan and Row2Recovery are rowing to raise money for three military charities, Help for Heroes, the Endeavour Fund and Row2Recovery.

Three crews, The Atlantic Polo Team, Row2Recovery and Atlantic Row 2013 (with Dan Howie and Will North), were even featured in the January 2014 issue of the glossy magazine Tatler.

Read more and get updates about the race and the teams here. HTBS congratulates all the crews for their brave effort to reach Antigua.

The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is on!

Team “Inspirational Friends”, 23-year-olds Lauren Morton and Hannah Lawton, two of the four women who are rowing across the Atlantic right now in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

It has been called the toughest race on earth – the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, which started on Wednesday, 4 December, from San Sebastian in La Gomer, the Canary Islands, to the Harbor of Antigua, in the West Indies, a distance of roughly 2,600 nautical miles (3,000 miles/4,828 km).

Sixteen boats started with crews from four countries: Great Britain, Sweden, Australia and Spain. There were crews with solo rowers up to crews with five people on board:

Solo – two boats from Australia and Sweden;
Pairs – five crews from Great Britain, three from Sweden and one from Spain;
Trio – one crew from Great Britain;
Fours – three crews from Great Britain;
Five – one crew from Great Britain.

Four women are competing this year, the pair Hannah Lawton and Lauren Morton in team “Inspirational Friends”, and Jane McIntosh and Liz Beauchamp who are rowing in the Royal Air Force four team “Atlantic Forces” with Warren Burns and Howie Raw.

The media coverage for this race, at least in Great Britain, has almost entirely concentrated on the British crew “Row2Recovery” with Cayle Royce, Scott Blaney, Mark Jenkins and James Kayll. Royce was injured in 2012 whilst serving in the British Army in Afghanistan. He stepped on an explosive device and had to have both his legs amputated above the knee, and suffered facial scarring and multiple amputations to the fingers of his left hand. Blaney suffered an above-the-knee amputation and soft tissue injuries from a bomb whilst conducting operations in Afghanistan in 2007. Blaney and Royce will row with Captain James Kayll of the Light Dragoons and Captain Mark Jenkins, who serves with the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Physiotherapy Officer.

Here is a video clip of the brave men in the “Row2Recovery” crew:



HTBS wishes all the teams the best of luck in their endeavour to cross the Atlantic Ocean. 

Mylène Paquette - A Very Brave Woman

After 129 days at sea in her seven-metre rowboat Hermel, at 11:09 a.m. local time on 12 November, Mylène Paquette arrived to her destination Cité de la Voile Éric Tabarly, Lorient, in France. Hermel had then carried her almost 2,700 nautical miles (5,000 kilometres) across the Atlantic from Halifax, Canada, to the French northwest coast. Mylène, from Montreal, is the first North American woman to solo row across the Atlantic.

Hélène Rémond wrote about this brave woman, who, believe it or not, has aquaphobia (fear of water), on 2 October on HTBS. During her four-month voyage on the Atlantic Ocean, her boat capsized several times and she saw enormous waves crashing over her boat while she locked herself in the small cabin of the boat. At one point she spent almost six days strapped to her bed, she told an interviewer for the blog C.G. Compass. After living in these cramped conditions, Mylène had problems walking on land when she reached France.

Read the whole article in C.G. Compass here.

Here is a short video clip (in French) when Mylène arrived at Lorient:



Thanks to Hélène who pointed us in the direction of the C.G. Compass blog.

Mylène Paquette on a Solo Row Across the Atlantic

Mylène Paquette is rowing across the Atlantic from Canada to France. Photo: Patrick Mével.

Hélène Rémond writes from France about the Ocean rower Mylène Paquette, who is right now in the middle of the Atlantic, solo rowing from West to East:

Canadian Mylène Paquette is aiming at becoming the first North American woman to row solo across the Atlantic from Canada to France, a distance of 2,700 miles (5,000 km). She departed on 6 July, 2013, from Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, Halifax, Canada, and her arrival location is Cité de la Voile Éric Tabarly, Lorient, Brittany, France.

Mylène spends her days rowing while observing the environment to later testify the presence of the marine fauna and the essential interdependence between humans and the Ocean. Mylene wishes to become a credible environmental spokesperson.

Photo: Shaun Lowe

On 30 September she was half-way to France. You can follow her through her blog:

in French at http://www.mylenepaquette.com
in English at http://www.mylenepaquette.com/en/

She also shares her adventure with the public through social media, posting photos, videos, blogs in addition to other media interventions.

Follow her on Twitter or Facebook as well as other social media presented on her blog.

Bonne chance pour le voyage!

Puffin’s Redemption: The Journey across the Atlantic

Graham Walters and Puffin

On Saturday, 28 September, do not miss what promises to be a thrilling talk at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, England. Graham Walters will be telling the story of an incredible journey across the Atlantic in the fifteen-foot Puffin, successfully completing an ill-fated voyage that began 30 years earlier when the two-man crew, David Johnstone and John Hoare, disappeared after 106 days at sea in an attempt to row across the Atlantic. Puffin is now on display outside the River & Rowing Museum.

Walters’s talk, which is called “Puffin’s Redemption: The Journey across the Atlantic”, is between 11.30 a.m. and ca. 12.30 p.m. (coffee from 11 a.m.) and the ticket price is £7.

River & Rowing Museum • Mill Meadows • Henley-on-Thames, RG9 1BF
For more information call 01491 415600 or visit www.rrm.co.uk
To get a pamphlet on the museum’s activities until December 2013, click here (PDF).

In October 1966, the headlines in newspapers around the world told the tragic story how Puffin was found upside down in the mid-Atlantic with no trace of the crew, David Johnstone and John Hoare. There has since been much speculation about the reasons for this tragedy. In 1968, The Penance Way: The Mystery of Puffin’s Atlantic Voyage by Merton Naydler was published. The author based his book on a first-hand account, a 35,000-word journal written by Johnstone, who was a journalist who got the idea to row across the Atlantic from west to east. Johnstone’s day-to-day log book was found by divers and, as the front flap of the book reads, ‘it depicts heroism of a high order and may come to be acknowledged as one of the most moving and vivid documents of personal experience and high endeavour ever written.’

To read more about David Johnstone and John Hoare’s ill-fated voyage, click here.
To buy a second-hand/antiquarian copy of The Penance Way, click here.

GB Row 2013: A 2000-Mile Race

Photo from The Islanders website.

On 1 June, the team The Islanders, Alan Morgan, 22 years old, Josh Taylor, 23, James Plumley, 23, and Gavin Sheehan, 24, embarked on one of the toughest rowing races in the world, the GB 2013, were they row day and night non-stop around the entire circumference of England, Wales and Scotland. This is a voyage just over 2000 miles. Six crews started at Tower Bridge.

Alan, Josh, James and Gavin’s aim is to break the current World Record of 26 days and 14 hours. Now, why would four young men do a crazy thing like this? On their website they write: ‘Well one could say there’s something unique and special about a human pushing their body beyond the limit for self-awareness and personal achievement, but no. Every day there are people in hospital going through far worse. Our aim in attempting to get the record is to raise £50,000 towards Leukaemia Research and The Evelina Children’s Hospital.’

This is a very honorable quest. Help these tough boys by donating today. Click here to go to their website’s donation page. Follow them on Twitter @rowchallenge

Charlie Pitcher Sets an Amazing Record!

Yesterday, FISA/Worldrowing wrote on their website that it took the Brit Charlie Pitcher, 50, just 35 days to row 4,800km across the Atlantic Ocean This is an amazing record that puts him on the top of the list of the fastest rowers to cross the Atlantic, also before all doubles and fours!

Worldrowing.com reports:

Pitcher started in La Gomera, Canary Islands, and followed the trade winds across the Atlantic finishing in Port St Charles, Barbados.

Boat speed is hugely dependent on weather conditions. In 2010, as part of the Woodvale Challenge, Pitcher set out to cross the Atlantic in record time but it ended up taking him 52 days with ten of those days spent being blown backwards. This crossing inspired Pitcher to do it again with the belief that if he got the right weather conditions then he could break the record.

The solo record was then broken by Andrew Brown during the 2012 Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge. Brown finished in 40 days 9 hours 41 min, just 26 minutes slower than the overall Challenge winners, a men’s double.

Pitcher’s time of 35 days, 33 minutes ranks him as faster than the fastest four and fastest double to row the Atlantic.

Right from the start Pitcher set out to break the World Record for a solo row of the Atlantic aiming to go under 40 days. After reaching Barbados, Pitcher wrote in his log, “As for the World record attempt? It was successful. I dreamed of being the first person to break 40 days to cross the Atlantic solo rowing.”

As well as ocean rowing Pitcher, 50, has completed ultra-running challenges including the Marathon des Sables across the Sahara desert. Pitcher plans to return to ultra-running.

With the Titan Over the Atlantic

The latest attempt to cross the Atlantic, from Gran Canaria to Barbados, is right now under way. Today the Titan, which is the lightest eight-man ocean boat ever, is on her twelfth day out on the open water. Her seven-man crew (!) is chasing the current record, 32 days, and is hoping to speeding across the Atlantic in under amazing 30 days. Read more about the boat, the brave crew and their record-breaking chase on their web site here.

Below is a short clip showing the Titan a year ago when another crew made an attempt to break the record over the Atlantic:

Pascal Vaudé Wins The 2012 Bouvet-Guyane Rowing Race

While we have heard a lot about the Atlantic oar-powered crossing between the Canary Islands and Barbados, HTBS’s Hélène Rémond reports about a fairly new rowing race between Senegal and French Guiana, or Guyane, which actually has a rowing boat in its coat of arms. Hélène writes,



On January 29, the third edition of the 27,000 km-long Bouvet-Guyane rowing race set off from Dakar in Senegal. The “teaser trailer” below gives you an idea how physically and mentally demanding the adventure was for the 23 rowers, who rowed in identical 8-metre long boats:



After a week at sea, the rowers met with bad conditions with a raging sea with hard winds. Many boats capsized as another video shows and some rowers retired, like Olivia La Hondé, the only woman in the race. She suffered a setback after her boat had a problem with the rudder.

Pascal Vaudé, a 42-year-old Guyanese (seen above) who owns a business, was the first one to cross the finish line on Tuesday. He actually set a new record at 37 days, 10 minutes and 26 seconds. In 2006, for the first row, Romain Vergé arrived after 40 days, 3 hours and 45 minutes. Today, 11 rowers are still competing in the race that has its British equivalent, The Woodvale Challenge.

Julien Besson, 35 year-old, and Henri-Georges Hidair, 48 year-old, arrived respectively second and third on Thursday. The funny thing is that the winner, Pascal Vaudé, is the grandson of a former convict, Raymond Vaudé, who retrieved his freedom from the Saint-Laurent-of-Maroni penal colony by escaping to sea in a rowing sailboat at the end of the 1930s, after being condemned for burglary. He was pardoned in 1945 by General Charles de Gaulle.



If you feel like taking part in the 2014 Bouvet-Guyane solo rowing race, you can contact Michel Horeau at michel.horeau@ramesguyane.com or Jean-Pierre Habold at habold@libertysurf.fr

For more information, see the Bouvet-Guyanne website in French or English.

Start saving some money, too. This year, each competitor paid €80,000 (£67,090 or $106,150) to compete...

Interview With Sylvia Cook!

For all of you readers of HTBS who have enjoyed the entries about John Fairfax, today The Daily Telegraph’s travel section has a real treat for you: an interview with Sylvia Cook, the woman who helped Fairfax prepare for his solo-row across the Atlantic in 1969, and then two years later rowed with him from San Francisco to Australia. Four days shy of a year, Fairfax and Cook rowed across the Pacific Ocean and were struck by all kinds of terrible disasters. Why did she accompany him on this trip? For love, she says. Read this wonderful article here.

John Fairfax Never Dies...

On 18 February, HTBS posted the news that John Fairfax, the first person to solo row across the Atlantic, had died on 3 February, 74 years old. A couple of obituaries had by then been published about this remarkable adventurer, who at 9 settled an argument with a fellow boy scout by firing a pistol at the hut where the boy and the rest of the scouts were sleeping; and at 13 was living in the Amazon jungle like Tarzan; and at 20 tried to commit suicide in the jungle by having a jaguar attacking him (the animal did attack, but then Fairfax had changed his mind and killed it with his gun); and became an apprentice to a pirate, etc, etc.

The story about John Fairfax seems to really have taken off - it went viral, as they say - after Margalit Fox's obituary in The New York Times last Sunday. It is a very well-written article, although I think that I prefer the one in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

There is actually an interview on YouTube with Fairfax from 1969, after he had completed his crossing over the pond. He seems very relaxed in this clip:



I managed to find some other film clips from 1969 with Fairfax before he sets out from the Canary Islands and during his voyage. Now, I have to warn you, the link will take you to an hour video with several film clips of news from 1969: media mogul Robert Maxwell loses News of the World to Rupert Murdoch, the war in Vietnam, Sophia Loren shows her new baby, Judy Garland gets married (again), Paul McCartney gets married (not with Garland!), housing problems in Northern Ireland, a plane crash, Harold Wilson goes to Nigeria, Richard Nixon goes to the U.K., etc, etc, etc.... I am afraid, you will not be able to fast-forward the film, but while waiting for the different clips about Fairfax - his girlfriend at the time, Sylvia Cook, is talking to him on the phone 'over...'; Fairfax shows his food; in the middle of the Ocean, he is filming a Russian tanker which he boards to take a shower and get some food; an interview where he explains his thoughts about fighting Nature even if it means that he will not survive (check out the foot stretchers) - you will brush up your knowledge about what happened in 1969!

Here is the link: John Fairfax continues Atlantic crossing Video - Watch ITN Videos

While I am writing this, I am sure there are already some writers in Hollywood working on banging out a script in a month, or two, for a movie about John Fairfax. Whom would you like to see as 'the lone wolf' who crossed an Ocean in a rowing boat?

John Fairfax Dies

Yesterday, newspapers reported that John Fairfax, who was the first person to solo row across the Atlantic, had passed away at an age of 74. As a child he had read an article about the two Norwegians, George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen, who in 1896 crossed the ocean in a small rowboat. He had in 1966 tried to raise money for his solo voyage, but then he was unable to get any financial backers. After John Ridgway and Chay Blyth had rowed the Atlantic in 1966, Fairfax “felt a sudden sense of urgency.” He continued: “I realised if I didn’t solo it soon, it was going to be done by somebody else.”

In January, 1969, at the age of almost 32, Fairfax, who in his passport under ‘Occupation’ had put down ‘Adventurer’, left the Canary Islands in his Britannia, which was designed by Uffa Fox. After battling the sea for 180 days, Fairfax reached Florida where he was met by his girlfriend, Sylvia Cook, and the media of the world. He also received congratulations from Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Armstrong and Aldrin were just getting ready to take their first steps on the Moon.

In 1971, Fairfax and Cook, who could not swim, were the first persons to row across the Pacific, from San Francisco to Hayman Island in Australia, a 361-day voyage. About their passage Fairfax said: “It was a miserable journey. I don’t care if I never touch another oar.” A quite understandable statement. Read The Daily Telegraph’s obituary here. (The British paper writes that John Fairfax died on 8 January, while some other papers write that he passed away on 8 February.) Read more about Fairfax on The Ocean Rowing Society website. On 19 February The New York Times published an obituary where Ms. Cook was interviewed from London.

See also HTBS 22 February, John Fairfax Never Dies...

Anything Is Possible!

Finishing as the seventh boat, Row2Recovery arrived to Port St Charles, Barbados, after 50 days, 23 hours and 12 minutes at sea, rowing in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. The brave crew of ex-servicemen had then travelled 2637 nm, raising close to £700,000 to support service men and women who have been injured in battle. At their arrival, the crew, Neil Heritage, Rory Mackenzie, Carl Anstey, Will Dixon, Ed Janvrin, and Alex Mackenzie, received the following message from Queen Elizabeth II: “Please convey my warm thanks to all the members of the Row2Recovery team on the occasion of them reaching the end of their row across the Atlantic, in aid of injured soldiers and their families. I heard of the trials and tribulations on your journey and, in return, I send my good wishes to you all for the successful completion of the challenge.”

During the crew’s voyage, the media has pumped out the message that these fellows, four with severe injuries from serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, are trying to prove that anything is possible. That is what these brave men now have proved. Well done!

More Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge Reports

Here is some more reports about the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge – The World’s Toughest Rowing Race.

As HTBS has mentioned before the all-female crew Row For Freedom in The Guardian has reached Port St Charles in Barbados. The women – Julia Immonen, Debbie Beadle, Helen Leigh, Kate Richardson and Katie Pattison-Hart – have set two world records: they are the first five-woman team to row any ocean in the world and have broken the record for rowing The Atlantic in the fastest time by an all-female crew. Here is an interview with the ladies, who almost seem to have laughed their way across the Atlantic.

The other day, there was a great article in the Daily Telegraph about Andrew Brown, who came in on an over-all second place, but broke a new record for solo-rowing the Atlantic. Read the article about this extraordinary man here. (When he is back in England, I hope he will sit down to write a book about his experience how to battle the Ocean all alone. That would be hot stuff, as they say…)

The team The Atlantic 4 with Adam Wolley, Greg Symondson, and twin brothers Hugo and Ross Turner came in on a third place.

Coming in on fourth place was two Welsh firefighter, John Haskell and Jamie Windsor. Read article here and watch interview with these brave fellows.

Spirit of Corinth with Chris Walters, Elliot Dale, Tony Short, and Brian Fletcher, who docked Port St Charles as the fifth boat, have promised to update their blog after they have had some beers, which is a very reasonable request……

At the same time as these boats are arriving in Port St Charles, oarsman Tommy Tippetts has now left La Gomera for his solo-row to Barbados. Follow his voyage here.

Five Very Brave Women!

The Row For Freedom crew, left to right: Kate-Richardson, Captain Debbie Beadle, Julia Immonen, Kate Pattison-Hart, and Helen Leigh.

Feeling a little ashamed that HTBS has neglected to mention Row For Freedom, an all-female team from the U.K., rowing in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, we are here trying to emend. Like the rest of the Atlantic rowing teams, The Row For Freedom race to raise money and awareness of a special, noble cause, in their case, the issue of child slavery and human trafficking.

According to their website, this female crew of five, Captain Debbie Beadle, Kate-Richardson Julia Immonen, Kate Pattison-Hart, and Helen Leigh, has also decided to try to break two world-records, to become the first female crew to row across the Atlantic Ocean and to do so in the fastest time.

The team, hard at work at the oars in their boat The Guardian, has gained a lot of media attention, for example from The Huffington Post the other day, and from The Evening Standard, which could not ignore to mention to its readers that the ladies in Row For Freedom were rowing naked.

According to the latest reports, The Guardian seems to be the next boat making landfall in Port St Charles in Barbados.

Here is an earlier film clip about these brave women’s voyage over the Atlantic:



HTBS would like to express our admiration for these five brave women. Well done, ladies!

Team Gallagher Made It Across!

Bernard Hempseed of New Zealand gives an update about Team Gallagher Trans-Tasman Rowing Challenge, rowing from Sydney to Ackland, whom HTBS wrote about on 6 January. Bernard writes,

The Trans-Tasman rowers have made it across. They landed near the top of the east coast of the North Island, and are going to continue on to Auckland. One crew member has had to leave but the other three hope to be there soon. See this link for more details (with video clip). - Cheers, Bernard

Great news, Bernard! Thank you for sharing!

Box No. 8 Wins Whisky Voyage

After having travelled 2591 nm during 40 days, 9 hours and 15 min., Team Box Number 8, with Toby Iles and Nick Moore, has now reached Port St Charles, Barbados, as the first boat in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Congratulations! HTBS would also like to congratulate Andrew Brown who came in on a second place, breaking the world record for solo rowing, at 40 days, 9 hours and 41 min.

Read article and see short film clip about these three brave fellows here.

The support boat Aurora reached Row2Recovery, which HTBS has written about earlier, on Saturday to supply the boat with drinking water. For a week the six-man crew has been on water ration down to a litre per day since their desalinator broke. Read more about Row2Recovery’s adventurous voyage here.

This post was updated on 15 January.

Team Gallagher Trans-Tasman Rowing Challenge

Bernard Hempseed writes from New Zealand:

Here is a link about four guys trying to row from Sydney to Auckland, Team Gallagher Trans-Tasman Rowing Challenge. This is one of the worst stretches of water with frequent storms etc. They have had some bad luck with being pushed back and not making progress. I think they thought they might be home by Christmas when they set out, but they are still out there. One of the chaps is James Blake, son of the late Sir Peter Blake of NZ sailing fame (he won us the America’s Cup!) Sir Peter got killed by pirates on the Amazon about ten years ago.

Thank you, Bernard for this report. Read more about these brave fellows here, and do watch the film clip above, nothing wrong with the holiday spirit among them. Keep it up, gentlemen!

Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge 2011

While HTBS has written mainly about the British crew Row2Recovery, the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge 2011 actually has 17 teams rowing in 'the world's toughest rowing race' from La Gomera, Tenerife, to Port St Charles, Barbados. All the crews are racing to raise money for a charity or a good course. After a month on the Atlantic, a few boats have retired from the race due to different setbacks. Read more about all the teams here.