Four young Irishmen, three doctors from Cork and a successful entrepreneur from Dublin, are training to row across the Atlantic in a 28-foot boat on Dec. 12. They hope to beat the record of 35 days from La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, to Antigua, in the Caribbean, although they say it make take them 60 or so.
The doctors are Sean Underwood, Patrick O’Connor and Eoin O’Farrell, and they got the idea for their Atlantic adventure to raise money for the children’s unit at Cork University Hospital, where they work. Thomas Brown, who met them through mutual friends, had started a tech company and was looking for something new to do, although he’d never rowed before. “I knew absolutely nothing about rowing,” he told The Journal.ie.
Their ocean-going rowboat has a sleeping area and a bucket for a toilet. All four are now training for the voyage. Underwood says that more people have climbed Everest than have rowed across the Atlantic. “We believe that you only get one shot at life,” he says. “Everybody dies but not everybody lives.” You can follow their progress at their blog, www.relentless.ie, or read more:
http://www.thejournal.ie/relentless-rowers-irish-rowers-atlantic-charity-3645350-Oct2017/
