Ian Rivers, a 55-year-old veteran of Britain’s Special Air Service, just became the first person to row across the North Atlantic by himself, without any support, without using a GPS and navigating with a sextant.
All told, Rivers rowed 3,100 nm from New York to the Isles of Scilly in 85 days on his 27-foot boat. This voyage is “the wrong way,” going against the prevailing winds and currents.
About 500 miles from the end, the boat capsized three times in a storm and Rivers was trapped upside down in the cabin filling with water. He suffered a concussion and some broken ribs and said the experience was “brutal.” After the storm, Rivers had to repair the boat’s steering gear and build a new rudder.
Rivers is no stranger to unusual challenges. He spent 27 years in the SAS, Britain’s elite special forces unit. He’s a trained mountain guide and an ocean yacht-master. In December, 2012, a year after he retired from the SAS, Rivers was serving as a security consultant for Richard Engle, the NBC News foreign correspondent, when their five-member team was kidnapped in Syria.
Rivers escaped and walked for three days without food or water until he reached safety in Turkey. Engle and his crew were rescued after five days in a firefight.
Now, at the end of his row across the Atlantic, Rivers struggled to walk up the dock on the Isles of Scilly, saying he was “surprisingly wobbly” and all he wanted was “a plate of chips, tomato sauce, mayo and brown sauce.”
When someone asked if he wanted to row across the Pacific next, Rivers replied quickly, “I’m completely done with ocean rowing.” Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-58309267
