Ocean Rowing

Rowing twelve hours a day Mateu estimates he can make the 4,720 kilometer journey in about two and a half months. He plans to leave December 2nd, 2006 and hopes to arrive in Antigua in the middle of February of 2007.

He will be taking no partner to help him if he is injured, and no rescue boat trailing behind to save his life. If Andreu Mateu succeeds he will be the first Spaniard to row an ocean solo and the newest participant in an extreme sport that pushes the limits of human endurance.

The first ocean was rowed over a hundred years ago. In 1896 a pair of Norwegians, George Harbo and Gabriel Samuelsen, made history successfully rowing the Atlantic from New York City to France in 53 days.

It took seventy years before anyone worked up the courage to try again. In 1966 two Englishmen attempted the trans-Atlantic crossing. They were lost at sea and their boat never recovered.

But one month later another couple of Brits made it. Three years after, four teams succeeded. Every year since another handful of hardy souls have attempted an ocean. The sport of ocean rowing was born.

But, it has remained a small extreme sport with only a few crossings attempted each year, and even less accomplished successfully. Danger and fatigue scare most away.

In other extreme sports the risk is intense but brief. Skydiving lasts moments, snowboarding an afternoon, and mountain climbing maybe a few weeks – but in ocean rowing the perils last for months on end.

Andreu’s mother is right, the odds don’t look good. “Out of every hundred people who try to row an ocean only 60% succeed,” says Andreu, “38% have to be rescued, and 2% are lost at sea.”

While the danger seems to be part of the appeal for the adventurous Spaniard, he does have some concerns. “One is being run over by a ship. My boat is only seven meters long. No one expects such a small boat out in the middle of the ocean. Big ships just put on their auto-pilot at night. If you get run over, you’re finished.”

To help his chances, Andreu has installed a special device called Sea-me which makes his tiny boat look bigger on radar. It also alerts him to radar-using ships within three miles – enough warning to move if there is a boat heading towards him while he is sleeping.

But all man-made problems are nothing compared to the fury of storms on the open sea. Says Mateu. “I can prepare the boat, I can prepare myself physically and mentally. But, I cannot control the weather. If I hit a hurricane and suddenly have fifty foot waves, then I could be in real trouble. So that worries me a little.”

In a storm, Andreu must climb into the tiny sleeping cabin, lock the hatch and wait it out for hours or even days.

The “cabin” is really more like a double sized coffin with just enough room to fit one man lying down, a little food, and enough air to last out a storm.

In a really big storm the little boat will be tossed around like a toy, a beating that would sink any normal vessel. “But this boat is unsinkable,” insists Andreu.

The boat is made of extremely thick plywood able to withstand the crashing of huge waves. The haul is divided into ten independent sections; some filled with Styrofoam, others with air. If a hole flooded several sections with water, the others would keep the boat afloat.

Even being flipped by large waves is no problem, says Andreu. “When the boat capsizes, it turns again upright.” This miracle is accomplished with special weights in the center of the boat – the ballast.

But there is a catch. “If you have the hatches open and you capsize, the boat does not self-right,” says Andreu. It can go down. That means for the entire storm you have to lie locked within the tiny sleeping space while the boat rolls and rolls down the sides of waves as tall as hills.

Even in calm seas it is best to leave the hatch closed. “A rogue wave could come at any time and sink you,” he admits. But it is a constant psychological battle between keeping the hatch closed for safety and the need for air. It feels like being buried alive. “I know I will sometimes sleep with it open. It will be a gamble every time.”

Even though the boat won’t sink in a storm, Andreu could be thrown around so much that his bones break. To help avoid injury, he has lined the inside of his tiny cabin in foam, making a kind of snug cocoon. “But if I break an arm or my nose and cannot continue, then I’ll have to radio for help and wait to be rescued.”

It could be a long wait. In a disaster where his boat sinks, a radio in Andreu’s life-preserver will continue an S.O.S beacon. But he says “It could take as long as four days if no ship is nearby.” This could be a real problem because the icy cold water of the Atlantic in the winter kills in six or seven hours.

What about sharks?

“I’ll tell you, man, the sharks are on land, I’m safer in the water!” On the way to our interview an angry Spanish motorist got out at a stop light and started attacking Andreu’s car.

To Andreu three months alone at sea are attractive. “We live in a crazy world. I want a break from my hectic life running from one place to another, cell phones, bills, taxes – I just need to get away.”

In 1992 Andre Mateu had been working for five years in New York City at the commercial office of the Embassy of Spain. “One day I decided to change my life. I wrote something I called ‘Where the Hell I come from, Where the Hell I Am, and Where the Hell I Want To Be.’ I listed my dreams: flying planes, traveling in a hot air balloon, SCUBA diving, sailing an ocean, seeing the world. I realized that the common denominator was traveling by different modes of transportation.”

Andreu immediately disconnected his phone and sold all he owned. Then he set out on what he called “The Transcovery Project.”

Andre Mateu spent three years traveling through 120 countries using more than a 130 modes of transportation. “I put all my dreams in one basket and did them. I bicycled across Europe, swam the Straits of Gibraltar, motorcycled through Africa, flew by a hot air balloon, and many others.”

When Andreu returned to Spain he drew upon his remarkable journey to create his company, Dreams and Adventures. “We organize team building activities for most of the Fortune 500 companies,” he says.

But after ten years of creating adventures for others, Andreu is ready for his own. In three years roaming the world, one experience above all others stood out. “I would always say the best was when I sailed alone across the Atlantic. Being alone in the middle of the ocean is an amazing sensation.”

“One day I read someone had done it rowing. I said, ‘Wow! That is something!’ For the last ten years I kept thinking one day I should row the Atlantic. On January 1st I was taking a vacation in Rio de Janeiro with a very sweet Brazilian girl. I thought about my goals and said, “OK, this year I will row the Atlantic.”

“I went to an Internet Café and searched for “ocean rowing.” The first page to come up was the Ocean Rowing Society. In the whole world there are about a hundred people interested in this extreme sport – maybe less now because some died.”

“I have been talking with fifteen people who have rowed an ocean, and I have learned all the tricks,” says Mateu, “so now to me it is a piece of cake.”

So what are the tricks? How do you prepare for such a brutal challenge?

“Making the decision is the hardest part. But once you decide you are 50% there. All you need then is the will to do it and the enthusiasm.”

Next is information. Andreu started reading about boats and oars, how to avoid storms, safe routes, navigating by the stars in case his electronics break down. “There is so much you need to know,” says Andreu.

“But most importantly, you need the right tool. The tool to row an ocean is your boat.” Mateu decided to build his own. “Making a new boat is just a bit more expensive than buying it second-hand, but a lot safer. Like a used car, you never know what a second-hand boat has been through.”

“I also thought that if I build my boat with my own hands I will be able to fix it if I have trouble in the middle of the ocean.” Andreu spent $60,000 dollars on materials and even brought in a master boat builder from the Ukraine to live with him for six weeks and make sure the boat is perfect. Andreu named his boat the “Isidoro Arias” after a dear friend and fellow adventurer who disappeared at sea.

Andreu’s boat is fitted with the very best in navigation equipment. GPS, radar, a satellite phone, and even a laptop computer are aboard and powered by solar panels.

“Now I only have the last part, which is rowing,” says Mateu. For almost three months Andreu will be rowing 12 hours a day, seven days a week. “You end up with big blisters. So that is going to be one of the hard things I am going to face - pain in my ass and pain in my hands.”

Food shouldn’t be a problem. “I am going to take a rod and fish a lot, I’ll have canned food, and I’m also going to take freeze dried food – the kind astronauts have or people climbing Mount Everest.”

Andreu will be taking a total of 400 kilos of supplies. This includes a special medical kit prepared by a doctor to give him access to any medicines he might need in an emergency during his almost three months at Sea and advanced super light fiber clothes that are water-resistant and keep him warm in cold or cool in heat.

Water will come from an advanced desalination machine that makes fresh water from the ocean. “Water is very important. Most people who don’t make it fail because they have a problem with their water maker.”

What about physical conditioning?

“I’m not really concerned about training,” says Mateu. “All my friends keep asking me why I don’t workout more. They think you have to be a big muscled guerilla to row an ocean. If I start with a very fit body it might be a little easier. But, other rowers tell me once you start you get in shape in about fourteen days of rowing. So my training will be during the first weeks of the crossing.”

Ocean rowers say nothing can really prepare you for having to row twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for almost three months. “It isn’t a race, if I get tired I can take a rest. But I know that if I don’t row an average of twelve hours each day I will never make it to Antigua before my food runs out,” says Andreu.

Why would anyone want to go through such torture?

“Certainly there are storms and hardships, but also moments of incredible beauty. We always have walls around us,” explains Mateu, “too many problems, too many phone calls. But on the ocean you pay attention to things you normally miss. You watch the sea, you watch the sky, at night you see the stars clearly. It is a great feeling.”

Andreu confided the greatest orgasm he ever had was alone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on his trip around the world. “Normally, people use the word orgasm only for sex, but sometimes I have what I call ‘orgasms of happiness’,” he explains. “Out there I had the highest percentage of orgasms of happiness per week. I was so happy I started screaming like a crazy person.”

“It is a strange feeling. You feel so small, alone in Nature for so many miles. But, you also feel a bit of a hero because you are risking your life for a big challenge,” explains Mateu. “You feel you are emulating Christopher Columbus and are on a great adventure.”

It is addictive. “People who have finished the Atlantic think, now I should do the Pacific or the Indian oceans,” says Andreu. “I will probably want to do the Pacific next.”

How will the journey change you? What will you look like on the other side of the challenge?

“I think it will give me a kind of cool attitude towards some things that now worry me,” says Andreu, “After this experience I will realize they are not so important. I feel I am going to come back in two months renewed.”

And he will return with greater health. “Spending so much time in an office, I have gained weight,” says Mateu. “Now I will be forced to row 12 hours a day, otherwise I will never get to Antigua. I expect to lose 15 kilos.”

This is typical for Andreu Mateu. Most people who gain weight go on a diet, he rows an ocean. “One day I got a fortune cookie. It said, ‘you will never know what you can do until you try it.’ This is the mentality I applied in all my challenges around the world.”

Always pushing himself, Andreu decided to go solo – something few ocean rowers dare. “Solo is the top of this extreme sport, most rowers do it with two people in the boat,” says Andreu. “Doing it solo the reward in happiness and self-esteem is going to be bigger.”

One of Andreu Mateu’s challenges in his trip around the world was swimming the Straits of Gibraltar. “After, people came up to me and touched my arm. They said, “‘Wow! You must be very strong’,” he recalls. “I told them, ‘Don’t touch my arm. The muscle is not in my arm, the muscle is in my mind.’”.

Andreu hopes some friends will come to greet him as he rows into the harbor on the Western side of the Atlantic. He hopes to toast his success with dear friends.

But, the possibility of another toast remains for Andreu Mateu. Of those killed by wind and wave thousands of miles from shore, almost always the body is never recovered. For this reason, the Ocean Rowing Society has a toast they say at every meeting. They lift their glasses high and remember, “To those still at sea.”

By Lance Laytner
Copyright 2008
Meritum Media