Graham Walters, a 72-year-old retired British carpenter, just became the oldest person to row across the Atlantic. It took Walters 96 days to row a boat he built in his front garden about 3,000 miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua. And he did it solo.
Walters has now rowed across the Atlantic five times, the last in 2007; two times with another person, three by himself. The editor of the Guinness World Records said that Walters now holds three world records: The oldest person to row across the Atlantic solo; the oldest person to row across any ocean solo, and the oldest person to row across the same ocean many times.
At the very end, a stiff wind pushed Walters’ boat away from English Harbour in Antigua, where a crowd was waiting for him. The Antigua Coast Guard went out to tow him in. Back on land, Walters said this was his last Atlantic crossing. “It’s sad in a way,” he said. “But you’ve got to finish sometime.”
Walters, who’s from Leicestershire, made his first Atlantic crossing in 1997. He says that although the weather was “cold and wet and miserable” at first, this time it was calmer overall. But, he added, age matters. “I must admit, I do feel that 23 years.”
During his trip, Walters kept a schedule of rowing two hours and resting two hours. He started each day with a breakfast of sausages, beans and porridge. The rest of his meals were food he could boil in a bag, although he had a stash of chocolates for treats. He said he hungered for a traditional English stable of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with a glass of red wine.
Walters’ wife Jean was waiting for him in Antigua. They were married just a month before he left. Read more:
