It is with great curiosity that I find my self looking at these boats and wondering just how much pain and suffering is the human willing to self administer. I confess I do not know much about ocean rowing other than it takes a long time in a small relativly open boat to make a trans atlantic trip. Granted these boats are designed from the bottom up to do this job. I have spent many days at sea on sailing vessels of a much more substantial nature and am always in awe of how small we are when out at sea.
So let us take a close look at what was home for some very hardy and I will say adventureous souls who have just completed a trans altantic crossing in these boats. I have had some experience with rowing as an activty for fitness and recreation. I am proud to say I owned a Alden Ocean Shell for many years. Now granted the ocean shell has about as much freeboard as a bowl of chili. But the sliding seat and the foot attachments were not at all different than what I was to observe on these boats. I was also to obeserve that there were differences between each of the boats with this regard. Of the four boats that I have had the opportunity to see only one appeared to have what I would call a decent seat. Well I do not know about you but two months at sea on my butt I need a good seat. Some of the foot attachments were crude at best and one was what I would call essential. When I was rowing my Alden I installed cross country ski bindings and shoes for the foot attachments for the sliding seat. This improved the efficency of the rowing by leaps and bounds over the supplied straps. Only one of the boats appeared to have such an arrangement.
Well enough with some of the small detail observations. Once again as I said having been to sea for many ocean miles I cannot think that these guys and gals who do this are nuts. It has also been brought to my attention that more of them have been rescued at sea than have ever comleted the passage. God bless them I guess for trying but they do put other people in harms way in order to go out and save them when they are in trouble. For this reason and this reason only I cannot support this as a feat but more of a folly.
There was a woman from New Hampshire who was running for Congress. You may have heard of her. She became known as Granny D. Well she decided that in order to learn what was happening across the country she decided to walk it. She walked from LA to Washington DC a distance of 3200 miles at 90 years of age. To me this was a feat.This took every bit as much to accomplish as any of the ocean rowers have. She is certainly not the athlete that any of these rowers are. She did not need to be rescued by anyone. If she was to have failed at her attempt she would have simply gone home. This is something you cannot do when at sea. Someone has to come and fetch you. I do not mean to diminish the physical aspect of this sport. I am not sure it can be called a sport but I did anyway.
I guess that these boats are life rafts in and of themselves. I guess that it really comes down to the risk factor. We take great pains with respect to safety procedures and equipment to insure the safety of all aboard before we go offshore. I wonder just how much these rowers know of the ocean before they leave the safety of the harbor. If they really understood how unforgiving the ocean can be would they be putting to sea in such small boats. These are questions of which I cannot answer. The only thing I can tell you is that it would take an athlete of tremendous fitness and strength to endure what they must have, in order to make such a voyage in a small open boat. It is not unlike climbing the highest mountains in the world. We all know how many souls have been claimed in that endeavor.
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