16 August 2006

At midday today (Wednesday 16 August 2006) the lead boat in the Shepherd Ocean Fours Rowing Race 2006, Boat #2 – James Robert Hanssen had only 34 nautical miles left to the official race finish line.

The James Robert Hanssen, along with three other identical 29ft long purposely designed and built ocean rowing boats, set off from New York Harbour on the 10 June 2006, with the aim of rowing 3,100nm across the North Atlantic Ocean to Falmouth in the UK.

After an epic 67 days at sea, the Seattle, US based crew of Jordan Hanssen, Dylan Le Valley, Brad Vickers and Greg Spooner have an estimated 15 hours left of rowing before they triumphantly become the first boat to cross the race finish line, a line of longitude running North/South at Bishop Rock Lighthouse (06 26.74W).

After crossing the race finish line, the crew will then continue to make their way up the English Channel to Falmouth in Cornwall – a further distance of approximately 70 nautical miles. At this point, the crew can choose to accept a tow from the race support RIB, Woodvale Alpha without jeopardising their position in the race. However, pride and the desire to be the first ocean rowing crew in history to row from mainland US to mainland UK unaided is driving the crew forward under there own steam. This means that the crew are likely to finally touch land at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth on Friday morning (Friday 18 August 2006).

For the families of the four courageous crewmen of the James Robert Hanssen, the past few weeks have been tense and frustrating as the crew had originally been scheduled to finish a week earlier. However, unusual strong Northerly/North Westerly winds off the cost of the South West have slowed the progress considerably of all three competing rowing boats in the closing stages.

Along the way, the crews have overcome many extreme obstacles including surviving the full effects of Tropical Depression Alberto, numerous near misses with containers ships, salt sores and sleep deprivation. However, they have learnt a lot about themselves and grown both physically and mentally as a team. The inaugural Shepherd Ocean Rowing Race 2006 truly is a totally unique event and will provide these pioneers with an experience that they will never forget.