Novice rowers celebrate Atlantic crossing
● Elliot brothers from Dunblane help raise funds for firefighters charity
From forty feet-high waves and sweltering temperatures through to malfunctioning equipment and an on-board fire, it proved to be a treacherous test of endurance which even the most hardened seafarers would have struggled with.
But two novice rowers from Dunblane were celebrating yesterday after completing a 3,000 mile journey across the Atlantic in memory of a firefighter who died on duty.
Brothers Kris and Blair Elliot were reunited with their loved ones in the Caribbean enclave of Antigua, nearly eight weeks after setting off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands.
Along the way, they suffered severe sickness, blisters and extreme weather conditions which forced several of their fellow competitors to abandon their efforts.
The successful crossing is made even more remarkable by the fact that until recently, the siblings’ combined rowing experience extended to loafing on the sofa, cheering on Team GB at the London Olympics.
As well as representing a remarkable personal achievement, the brothers’ triumph in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge has helped to raise funds for The Fire Fighters Charity.
Kris, a crew manager with Scottish Fire and Rescue, lost his friend and colleague, John Noble, after he was killed in a road traffic accident while responding to an emergency call in 2008.
Completing the world’s premier ocean rowing event in Mr Noble’s memory, he said, was a moment to savour.
“It’s been a real privilege to come out here and to be able to undertake a challenge like this,” he explained. “Being brothers on the boat only made the experience even better, and we had some incredible days out there.”
The Elliots followed a strict routine, rowing for an hour straight before resting for an hour during the day.
At nighttime, Kris would start a four hour-long solo shift at 1am while Blair, a North Sea engineer, caught some shut eye, before they switched places at 5am.
Hairy moments along the way included realising their automatic identification system was not working, and being forced to extinguish a fire after a speaker overheated and caught alight.
Yet for all the testing times, the brothers – competing as Team Noble – seldom lost their high spirits, even appropriating The Proclaimers’ most famous song, changing the lyrics to “But I would row 500 miles / And I would row 500 more”.
On Christmas Day, when the duo were faced with an underwhelming lunch of tinned turkey, they managed to catch a dorado fish, which they made into sushi and washed down with a dram.
“We just took the challenge step by step and day by day and now we’re here,” Kris added. “It’s amazing to have finally arrived in Antigua.”
So Scotland can beat Wales at one sport, at least. They may hold the bragging rights when it comes to rugby, but as for rowing across an ocean, Scotland officially has the faster team … just. Team Noble, consisting of brothers Kris and Blair Elliot from Dunblane, crossed the Atlantic in a time of 55 days, one hour and 54 minutes – half an hour ahead of Team Oarstruck, a fourstrong Welsh crew.
However, such is the camaradery of the sport, it wasn’t really a competition. The Oarstruck crew had waited for them ahead of the final approach into Antigua so they could savour their arrival together.
They may not have broken the recently set world record of 29 days and 15 hours, but making such an epic journey in any time at all is a marvellous achievement.
And this was no gap-year jolly. The brothers are raising money for the Fire Fighters Charity in memory of firefighter John Noble who died in a road accident while responding to an emergency call at a local school.
In the final week of their journey, they said they were thinking of him and hoped they were honouring his name. They’ve certainly done that.