Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Lawrence 19-year-old set to become youngest to row solo across Atlantic
In less than two weeks, Oliver Crane, a 19-yearold Lawrence resident, will row a boat across the Atlantic Ocean all by himself.
Let that sink in: The dude plans on rowing aboat—a 23-footer — across the Atlantic. Alone. At age 19, which would break the world record for youngest solo crossing.
“I’ll be carrying food for 90 days, but hope to make it between 60 and 80 days,” Crane said. “I figure about 12-to-16 hours of rowing per day. I’ll be doing it two hours on, two hours off.” OK. Whoa. Why? “I’m taking a gap year before I go to Princeton next year,” Crane said. “I wanted to take on some multi-month project combining endurance, learning new skills, and raising money and awareness for a good cause.”
Know this: The notion of rowing across the Atlantic is not some yearslong dream of Crane’s. In fact, he didn’t even know ocean rowing was a thing until he came across some YouTube videos of people doing it.
“I thought they were crazy,” Crane noted.
But it piqued his interest. He rowed at the Peddie School for four years, figured he was capable of doing it. He thought about it some more and realized “... it wasn’t just the rowing, but the survival part that really interested me,” he said. “The problem-solving, being all on my own. It’s like the movie ‘The Martian.’ If anything goes wrong, if anything breaks, all I’ll have are my supplies. I’ll have to come up with every solution on my own.”
A few more months of research, and Crane decided to pursue his adventure after finding out about the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, a race that will take 30 boats — virtually all of them manned in two or fourperson teams — across the Atlantic. The race goes from San Sebastian de la Gomera in the Canary Islands to Nelson’s Dockyard English Harbor in Antigua and Barbuda, over 3,000 miles.
“I came across the race, called my mom up, told her I was going to do it, and she laughed at me, thought I was joking,” he said. “It’s become a lot more real as I’m about to set off.”
As we sit here today, Crane is in the Canary Islands, going over last-minute preparations, including what he’ll be bringing with him.
“All my food and water supplies,” Crane said. “I’ll get my drinking water from a solar-powered desalinatior. All the food is dehydrated. Doesn’t taste great, but heavy in calories. I’ll need about 5,000 calories a day. I’m bringing a lot of sunscreen, fishing gear, a life raft with a survival kit, emergency flares, an emergency beacon. I’ll have two satellite phones for emergencies and for the race organizer’s being able to check in on me if they lose my GPS signal.”
Yikes. Can you imagine what mom and dad must think?
“They’re definitely nervous,” Crane said. “A lot of other parents think they’re crazy for letting me do this. They were more nervous in the beginning, they were resistant. In fact, they said there was no way they’d let me do this. But as they learned more about the precautions and the training, they’ve gotten more supportive of it. They’re excited, but still scared.”
Crane spent three months in Brixham, England training for this challenge, working with rowers who have completed the crossing.
Of course, the rowing is only half the battle. Actually, for Crane, less than half.
“Probably the biggest concern is the psychological aspect of it,” Crane said. “It is a physical challenge, sure, but it’s also a mental one. I’ve been told the hardest part is not losing sight of who you are. There is nothing there to ground you. I’ve been warned about that. I’ve done mindfulness training, went to a yoga training course, learned mediation techniques. I’ve been adopting a positive mindset, and I think it will help. But really, I don’t know how to prepare for three months in isolation.”
For entertainment, he’s bringing a Kindle and an iPod. And, naturally, a portable solar charger.
And if you think Crane is just some lone loon, think again. As it turns out, adventure runs in the Crane family.
“My family has sort of always done crazy things like this. To me, this is following the family tradition,” Crane said. “My oldest brother climbed the Seven Summits, my second oldest brother biked across Africa, and my sister hiked from Mexico to Canada. But yeah, my siblings think I’m crazy for doing this.”
Crane is also raising money for Oceania, a fund that does work for ocean conservation. To date, he’s raised $18,000, and he’s hoping for $100K. Check it out at homeward-bound. com.
Bon voyage, Oliver. Give us a call on that sat phone at some point, will ya?