Offaly man taking part in extreme 45 day adventure across the Atlantic

Birr man Fionn O'Carroll is currently undertaking the incredible challenge of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean.

Fionn and three other rowers set out from Portimao in Portugal on January 14 and they are presently on day 31 of their 45 day endurance test, at a point in the Atlantic several hundred miles west of Mauritania.

All going well the four adventurers will reach the end of their oceanic journey at Cayenne, which is the capital of French Guiana in South America. The total length rowed will be 3,643 miles.

The other rowers with Fionn are Ralph Tuijn from the Netherlands, Jordan Godoy from the US and fellow Irish man Ciaran Kavanagh. Ciaran has raised €8,784 so far for the charity Little Blue Heroes Foundation.

You can follow their route by logging onto https://oceanrowing.com/explorer/1878

Fionn is 29 years of age and he is no stranger to tests of physical endurance. A keen hillwalker he scaled Carrauntoohil three times in a single day during the summer of 2020. He also climbed the highest peaks of Ireland's four provinces within 30 hours.

Last year, in July 2021, he undertook the Noman Challenge, a 320km extreme rowing race across the Mediterranean, in an effort to raise much-needed funds and awareness for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) related cancer. With four UK-based teammates he rowed from Barcelona to Ibiza. Prior to this he had never been in a rowing boat before.

The challenges of that trip included blistering heat, sleep deprivation, unpleasant living conditions, and sea sickness. In preparation he trained six times a week in the gym in Birr Leisure Centre. A lot of the training was on the rowing machine, covering about 30km per session on the machine.

While the Mediterranean adventure was a tough challenge it was only a few days. This Atlantic row is a lot longer. The four man crew is rowing 2 hours on, two off, for the length of the journey; 12 hours rowing ever day.