70 year old rowing across the Atlantic

T

thataway

Active member
Stein Hoff, is a Norwegian descent 70 years old athlete, who is about 8 days out on his attempt to row West to East across the Atlantic. This is the 120th anniversary of the first row across the Atlantic by two Norwegiana in 1896.

He has a good boat, an AIS receiver, and appears to be in excellent condition. His biggest issue will be the weather!---as well as the mental challenge...

Due to the marvels of satellites and Facebook, you can follow this voyage! Great read--and I hope he makes it!

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Tracking

Ripleys Believe it or not web site

The last several days he has gone in a circle because of weather, and the boat was rolled and he went overboard.

Weather may be more of challenge than he thinks. We had hurricane force winds at lower attitudes than he is at, during an Atlantic Crossing...

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Well, there is crazy and then there is lunatic, but people keep climbing Everest and walking past dozens of dead bodies left in the ice and snow from over the years back to 1930's. But they keep climbing and many die. On the other hand, most do make it to the top and have a lifetime of stories to tell. But, this guy, without regard to his age, is a step past the Everest climbers in blind confidence in his abilities. At age 70, what has he got to lose? Nothing really. If he makes it, he is in the history books. If not, he is in the news. It takes more than courage to do this kind of thing. It takes something missing in the drive for survival in the brain chemistry. But, I'll watch and hope and pray for him and be real jealous of the adventure if he makes it. If he doesn't I'll still say, "good for you, you tried something stupid, but different than most of us with our keep safe mentalities would ever even conjure up."
 
My feeling is that getting help in the middle of the Atlantic, is going to be slim. AMVER, will divert ships in the area--if a ship is nearby. The route he is taking, does not often have many ships. This time of the year, recreational vessels go to Bermuda and then the Azores--It appears that he is going to try going North of that route. If he hits heavy weather, and is upwind of small vessel help. Not much chance. Planes can fly over, but he will be out of helicopter range, if he needs rescue. A merchant or fishing vessel would be his best chance of rescue.

On our Atlantic crossing, there were 3 sail boats all about the same size--so our speed was close, and we remained in VHF contact and often visual contact. We were about 100 miles ahead of 3 other vessels which sent out "MayDays" --on SSB / activated EPRIB. Although we wanted to help,, in hurricane force winds and 40+ foot breaking seas a small boat (62 feet) cannot make significant headway into those conditions.

A somewhat comparable trip was made a 26foot Grover, powered by twin 65 hp outboards, with a 9hp kicker which was also heading to Norway--and ended up in Portugal.

Across Atlantic in 26 foot outboard boat

During the first few days at sea, a northeast gale rolled through the Grand Banks area and washed the outboard with 20-foot seas and 40-knot winds. Grover said the boat floated like a piece of driftwood, riding the waves stern to the wind. In conditions like that, the pair found it impossible to make headway, and turned the engines off until the seas subsided.

The boat by then had drifted 150 miles off course. Grover had originally intended to take a route past Greenland to Norway. But with the storm, he was forced to head southeast to the Azores.Within 100 miles of the island of Flores, they were pounded by Hurricane Claudette. Although they were never sure exactly how severe it was, surrounding ships reported winds of 70 to 100 miles per hour.
Click to expand...

Last night Stein Hoff, was almost run down by a freighter, traveling at over 19 knots. He picked up that ships' ASI signal, but apparently Stein's AIS is not transmitting. The shim missed him on radar (despite some type of radar reflector), even though one of the ship's radar was set on 5 miles. Apparently the ship did see his white running light...and missed him. One of the risks in a small boat at sea. Being run down or close encounters happen far more than you would think...
 
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