Atlantic rower tells of drama as huge waves swamped boat
An Atlantic rower from Lewis rescued by a Dutch cargo ship after his boat Alba was swamped by waves 700 miles from New York is hoping to return home in days, after an appeal to the Canadian Prime Minister to let him disembark without a visa.
Niall Iain Macdonald, a 44-yearold Gaelic broadcaster who lives on Lewis, was making his third attempt in four years to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and set off from Norfolk, Virginia, on May 23, hoping to reach Stornoway in three to four months – and raise £100,000 for the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH).
‘Big sea today, too much for me,’ he said on Thursday June 14. ‘Back on sea anchor.’
But at around midnight, over a quarter of the 3,400-mile journey home, a wave violently knocked the Alba on her side, before righting itself.
‘I was sitting up trying to find a snack from my ration pack when it hit,’ Niall said. ‘The impact of the wave threw me into my control panel and sent everything flying around in the cabin.’
The wind generator had been badly damaged, and he put on his lifejacket and harness to go outside to check. A ‘golden rule of ocean rowing’, he explained, ‘is to always keep your hatches closed, as it just takes one wave to cause problems for you. I waited and waited for the right opportunity and then went for it.
‘As I opened the hatch door the boat pitched and water from the flooded footwell started to come into the cabin over the bottom lip of the hatch, catching me unawares in that moment. And that’s all it took, that short pause and then BANG!, the wave hit.
‘I got thrown to the rear of my cabin and water seemed to pour in from everywhere. By the time I got myself sorted and back to the hatch door it was too late, my cabin had been swamped.’
He pulled the damaged door shut by its now only working clasp. ‘Then a few minutes later the boat got knocked down for a third time. This sent water washing all over the cabin and into my control panel.
‘The decision to trigger my EPIRB wasn’t instant but I knew it was inevitable. My boat was now wallowing in the water at the stern and some of my systems began to fail. I had also lost my wind generator and possibly suffered a breach to my forward hull.
‘I felt a mix of emotions as I saw the strobe light on the EPIRB begin to flash, confirming a distress signal was now being transmitted ... relief, disbelief, anger, guilt, sadness, regret.’
He broadcast a mayday call using his VHF radio, only later realising the wave had broken the aerial. ‘I took the decision to remain with my boat and not get into the liferaft immediately as I felt my boat was more likely to hold its position on the sea anchor whereas the liferaft would likely get caught in the wind and drift rapidly.’
Eventually he could see the lights of the Dolfijngracht, the first vessel to reach him, in the swell. Niall Iain took one last look at his possessions, abandoned his rowing boat and stepped into the liferaft – the ‘last resort’ – and began paddling 600m towards the ship. ‘I lost sight of her several times as I slid into the troughs and then suddenly she was just there above me.
‘I thought my liferaft was going to get crushed under her. I was shouting, screaming and paddling, just desperately trying to get away from it. Finally, a wave caught me and took the liferaft clear, just a short distance but enough for one of the crew to throw a line down to me from the deck.
‘For a moment, the side of the ship seemed impregnable until suddenly a rope ladder appeared, clattering against the steel hull.’ It was a 10m climb. ‘I will never be able to thank Captain Goorden and his crew enough for what they did,’ he said.
But when the vessel arrived in Quebec on Tuesday last week, Niall Iain couldn’t disembark without a visa.
He appealed to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help him get home. ‘Can you help facilitate me getting off MV Dolfijngracht?’ he asked. ‘Desperately just want to get home to Scotland.’
On Thursday Niall Iain tweeted he may be able to organise charter boat in next couple of days.
‘I tried my very best. I just so wish it could have been enough,’ he said.