“Can you see what I see?”
“ Land, land motherfxxxxxs…”
“Ireland !!! I see you! Finally, the old sod is in site...”
The words of transatlantic oarsman Damian Browne on day 108 of his extraordinary effort to row from New York to Galway last year which is the subject of a documentary on RTÉ television tonight (Wednesday December 6th)
Browne and fellow former Connacht rugby player Fergus “Gussy” Farrell from Galway had hoped to break a record of 55 days and 13 hours for the crossing.
Damian Browne and fellow former Connacht rugby player Fergus “Gussy” Farrell setting out on their transatlantic row
However, a series of unfortunate events, including weather and five capsizes, led to Browne spending 100 of the 112 days the row took on his own.
Ireland here we come - Damian Browne and Fergus Farrell setting out from New York
Farrell, who had learned to walk again after he sustained a traumatic spinal injury, had to be evacuated after 12 days at sea. Tension was already building between the pair, who knew each other from childhood, and the documentary reflects the strain put on that friendship
Browne, who filmed himself in tears after Farrell was taken on board a ship, admitted he cursed Farrell “many’s the time” after he left and had “bags of resentment” but also knew “the guy had to get off..”
“We just knew that being on top of each other when all of the stress and anxiety was going on about our departure that something could and might possibly erupt and, ultimately, it did, ”Farrell says in the documentary made by Tomek Ciezki of Heavy Man Films.
“Thankfully, myself and Damo are well used to that between each other, so we’re well able to take it on the chin, just get over it and move on...”
Damian Browne arrives back in Galway and is greeted by crowds of well-wishers in Galway Docks
“I left New York with virtually no time on the water in a boat with my rowing partner. So, I was not afforded the opportunity of five or six days in a cabin to understand what life was like living on an ocean. On day two, the ocean was quite harsh and choppy, so we had to get into the cabin together. That was when things really started going...wow this is going to be difficult... It was like going into a sauna. I did not enjoy that experience one little bit,” Farrell says.
“The minute you get comfortable, the Atlantic just knocks you over,” Browne says of his ordeal when he was forced to eat cold food after losing his jet boil, along with two oars and a compass after three of his five capsizes.
He explains how he hadn’t closed the air vent on the cabin properly which let in water during the capsizes.
Man vs Ocean will air on Wednesday 6th December, 9.35 pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
