Credit: CWF/Erinn J Hale Photography
Last night (4/7/13) at 9:45pm EDT, the courageous crew of the “James Robert Hanssen” set foot on dry land in San Juan, Puerto Rico, reunited with family members after a harrowing 12 hours at sea in a life raft.
73 days and 2,700 nautical miles into a first-ever attempt at a mainland Africa to mainland North America unassisted rowing expedition, weather conditions were finally at their best for rowing. With Jordan and Markus at the oars with perfect tailwinds and following swells, opposing currents created two successive “standing waves” which pitched and rolled the boat into a position that would permanently capsize it for good. Just over 24 hours ago, at 6:50am EDT, the rescue beacon was activated and the rowers spent the next 6 hours trying to manually right the ocean rowboat. Unsuccessful, they recognized the need to collect supplies in their life raft and hunker down, waiting for help to arrive. The sound of a C-130 aircraft overhead started the rescue process.
More to come as details emerge and time allows. It is very busy at the moment for rowers and land support crew in Puerto Rico, and we’ll keep you updated as best as we can.
Thank you for your fantastic words of encouragement.
Greg & Crew