#ROWING – Aodhan Kelly told tonight of his gutsy escape from the cabin of the stricken Sara G, which capsized yesterday just 520 miles from its destination of Barbados. All six of the crew of the ocean rowing boat, who had left Morocco hoping to break the record for rowing the Atlantic, made it to the life raft and were rescued by a cargo ship which came to their aid.
The Dubliner was in the cabin of the Sara G when it filled with water. He hoped that the boat would re-right itself and when it didn’t he “realised there was a small pocket of air to his right” which he used. He then “made a break for it”.
He pushed floating detritus out of his way and swam out of the cabin. “Eventually, disorientated, I found my way to the surface,” he told RTE reporter Will Goodbody.
The crew of Matt Craughwell, Kelly, Ian Rowe, Simon Brown, Mark Beaumont and Yaacov Mutnikas were well into the 27th day of a world-record attempt which had been hampered by poor wind and bad seas. They are now on board the 32,000 tonne Nord Taipei which is bound for Gibraltar, with an estimated arrival date of February 9th.
Kelly said the team are in good spirits. “But it is a hard pill to swallow, especially when we were only six days away from the other side. We had rowed well over 2,000 miles and we were flying. We were doing really well. It was hard to take at that stage to be honest.”
