Trans-ocean rowers rescued in the Atlantic

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Two Canadians and two Americans attempting to set a world record for an unassisted, human-powered row across the Atlantic Ocean have been rescued after a rogue wave capsized their boat after 73 days at sea, the U.S. Coast Guard and organizers said Sunday.

The four endurance rowers, including Canadian Olympic gold medallist Adam Kreek, were rescued from waters some 645 kilometres north of the U.S. Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. They were attempting to row more than 6,700 kilometres between the West African nation of Senegal and Miami and set a Guinness World Record.

But after weeks of battling rough weather, a couple of shattered oars and various technological headaches, the adventurers were forced to take to a life raft early Saturday after their 9-metre ocean rowboat “James Robert Hanssen” overturned and could not be righted. They donned life jackets and set off a personal locator beacon.

Coast Guard crews located the men a few hours after getting a distress signal on Saturday morning and an 244-metre cargo ship later picked up the rowers.

“For just about the entire trip, except for about eight days, the weather and conditions did not match up with the expected models and predictions. So it was a bit of a slog for a good portion of the whole trip,” said Greg Spooner, land operations chief for Seattlebased OAR Northwest, which organized the trans-Atlantic attempt sponsored by the Canadian Wildlife Federation.

Even so, Spooner said, the rowers reported that the last week had progressed relatively smoothly, so it was a shock when he was notified by the Coast Guard that their boat had overturned and the four had been rescued.