Scary storms for solo rower Elaine
Exhausting‘white knuckle’conditions on Atlantic bid
Storms may have brought some minor disruption around Stirling this Christmas but intrepid Dunblane rower Elaine Hopley faced far more terrifying conditions.
She battled huge waves on Christmas Day as she continued her bid to row across the Atlantic alone in a 22-foot boat.
The 44-year-old is taking part in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, and aiming to row 3000 miles from Spain to the Caribbean in under 70 days.
She posted a Christmas message on Twitter around lunchtime on Sunday, and said that conditions off the coast of West Africa had been a “bit wild”.
“Merry Christmas everyone,” said Elaine who set off on December 15 from La Gomera and has already completed almost 1000 miles.
She added: “Rowed through the biggest, scariest thunderstorm from 3pm yesterday until 4am, with exhausting high winds and torrential rain and me, white knuckle, hand steering `Jan’ (the boat). The sun is out now and drying out.”
Elaine is almost a third of the way through the mammoth journey and on track to be the fastest woman to solo row across the Atlantic.
Conditions so far on the ocean have been varied. After a good start to the race, Elaine struggled with waves that have reached up to 40 foot.
She described the conditions at the beginning of last week as `epic’,