Offaly man reaches end of trans-Atlantic rowing odyssey
BIRR adventurer Fionn O'Carroll has reached the end of his astonishing trans-Atlantic odyssey, arriving safe and well in the South American country of French Guiana.
Accompanied by three other adventurers, Fionn spent 54 days, 11 hours and 45 minutes rowing across the Atlantic from Portugal to French Guiana.
Starting out on January 14 from Portimao in southern Portugal the four rowers aimed to make the 3,800 mile crossing in less than 48 days but adverse weather conditions put them several days behind. The conditions also dictated that they missed their hoped-for landfall at Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana because of exceptionally strong currents which pushed them northwards to a position just off the coast in the Kourou area. Here, they moored to a buoy near a heavily forested coastline.
The forest was part of the Amazon and the four men waited for their lift to come. It came in the form of a local fisherman who pulled alongside the rowing boat at three o'clock on Wednesday morning, and let off fireworks in celebration.
The other rowers with Fionn, who is 29 years of age were Ralph Tuijn (51) from the Netherlands, Jordan Godoy (28) from the US and fellow Irish man Ciaran Kavanagh (40). Ciaran has raised over €10,000 for the charity Little Blue Heroes Foundation.
Brendan's parents Martina and Brendan are over the moon that Fionn came safely through the gruelling challenge.
“I was speaking to Fionn yesterday,” Martina told the Midland Tribune, “He was in great form, exhausted but really happy. All the crew members are doing very well. The only complaint they had was shaky legs after rowing for so long!
“They got a warm welcome from the fishing boat with his fireworks and from locals in Cayenne who gathered to applaud them when the fishing boat towed them into safe harbour. The crew are now relaxing in pleasant accommodation in Cayenne where they are enjoying good food and a few celebratory drinks. Fionn said he would not be sorry if he never saw Thai Green Curry again! Thai Green Curry was a major staple of their Atlantic crossing diet.”
Martina said the toughest part of the experience for Fionn happened around Day 30 when pressure sores caused by the rowing became infected. “He said the pain became very bad,” she related, “but despite that he only missed two hours of rowing and after a few days the infection had eased quite a bit, thankfully.”
The four man crew rowed two hours on, two off, for the length of the journey; 12 hours rowing every day.
Fionn set off from Ireland on the 2nd of January to meet up with the others in Portimao. Ralph Tuijn was the skipper for the voyage and lives in Amsterdam. Ralph had done the crossing 15 times. The team were hoping to break the Atlantic rowing record of 48 days but sadly weren't able to achieve this goal.
The challenges of the trip included blistering heat, sleep deprivation, unpleasant living conditions, and sea sickness. The trip took a big toll on their legs and hands. They were ingesting six to seven thousand calories a day. Apart from a few hours of not being able to row, none of the crew got so sick that they were unable to continue rowing for a prolonged period of time.
During the row the water pump broke down for a while which meant they had to handpump the water. They also ran into a storm just before the Canaries which meant they had to anchor for four days.
Another issue was that for a while there wasn’t enough sunshine to power the solar panels (which were providing power for electronic devices including navigational devices).
They saw dolphins and cruise ships during their journey, but thankfully no aggressive Orca Whales. Before they began their trip the Orca Whales in the Portuguese waters were a big worry. The whales were known to sometimes bite the rudders of boats.
Prior to the trip Fionn did a lot of training on the rowing machine in Birr Leisure Centre.
Martina said she and Brendan have five children and all five children are into the great outdoors.
“Growing up I encouraged them to appreciate the great outdoors”. She said Fionn was inspired by the story of the famous Kerry adventurer Tom Crean. “He loves the book about Tom Crean, ‘An Unsung Hero’. He’s inspired by his resilience. He’s said he’d like to go to the Antarctic one day.”