Recollecting launch day

In the blur of all the events surrounding the main event – the CWF Africa to the Americas Expedition launch – we didn’t get a chance to highlight the actual launch festivities from la plage de Ngor. Since the rowers continue their initial push to clear themselves from land’s tireless grasp, I asked Christopher Yapp, videographer for the launch, to paint a picture of the festivities:

Wednesday morning, we woke up to bigger swell and wind then we had seen up to now on Plage de Ngor, the beach the guys would be launching from soon. The beach was empty outside of a few people washing their goats and a couple joggers stretching individually. Nervously, I walked around preparing my equipment and trying to scout the best locations, anticipating the moves of the guys and where they would take the boat out of harbor. As prepared as they could be, after spending a few hours into the night on the boat fixing last minute satellite issues, the guys started to wake up and pace back and forth with an equal measure of the nerves of excitement. It still seemed so far in the distance in someways, yet there was the James Robert Hanssen, ready to go, moored between the mainland and the Ile de Ngor. Markus was running last minute errands in town and Adam was still sleeping. Jordan and pat paced back forth wondering if they should be doing something or double checking something or if everything really was ready to go; Pat and Jordan spent a few hours from midnight into the morning fixing a last minute satellite issue they were having. Rest assured everything was ready to go.

Around 10 am the beach started to fill up. A bus full of students came from IDS (Int’l School of Dakar), friends from the months of preparation and waiting in Africa representatives from IAMGOLD, the US Ambassador, and of course a live band. The kids made signs wishing the guys luck and a group of reporters showed up for interviews. As the celebratory atmosphere grew, the nerves of the guys seemed to melt into pure excitement as they beached the boat and came in to say goodbye. A few goodbyes, a few interviews, and the fact that the boat wouldn’t beach well, lead to pat suddenly looking at Markus and suggesting “Um, I think it’s about time that we go row across the ocean!!” And soon after a big group photo and some heartfelt goodbyes, Adam, Jordan  Markus, and Pat jumped in the boat, set the keel down and started to row!  Erinn and I also got in a boat of our own with US Ambassador Lukens and followed them out for a while. The swells were about as big as the guys’ spirit and smiles. Nothing was going to stop them from starting this epic journey! One last challenge before we let them drift off to sea: we had to give them the camera I was using to shoot them! In the crazy swell we weren’t sure how that would look, but it turns out our captain was a pro: we slid our nose right up to the boat and I was able to pass of the camera to Markus. A few waves and we watched the James Robert Hanssen bob up and down and disappear into the horizon.