June 26, 2009. Copyright 2009, Graphic News. All rights reserved

SAS rower's unfinished Atlantic business
By Simon Morgan

LONDON, June 26, Graphic News:  Since 1896 there have been 42 attempts to row across the Atlantic Ocean "the hard way" -- from west to east; 19 have been successful, 23 have failed and five men have died trying.
 
The toughest proposition of all is to tackle the route solo and unsupported, and Peter Bray, a 53-year-old former SAS sergeant and boat specialist, is about to set out from St John's, Newfoundland, to add his name to the roll call of 11 men who have achieved the feat since 1969.
 
He also aims to beat the record for a solo, unsupported, land-to-land crossing of 64 days, set in 2006 by Briton Rob Munslow, who also set out from St John's and was capsized twice before reaching Rosevear Island in the Scillies.
 
The solo crossing of the Atlantic, first achieved by another SAS man, Tom McClean, who rowed to Ireland in 70 days in 1969, is an ambition that has since claimed the lives of three rowers.
 
The most recent was Nenad Belic, a retired 62-year-old American cardiologist who disappeared more than 100 days after setting out from Cape Cod in May 2001. The waterlogged Lun, which he had designed himself, was later found off the coast of Ireland.
 
Bray, an outdoor pursuits instructor, is no stranger to the perils of the Atlantic. In 2001 he became the first person to kayak across, solo and unsupported, paddling from Newfoundland to Ireland in 76 days.
 
In 2004 he was part of a four-man team that was within a few days of setting a new record for the first four-man west-east crossing when their boat, Pink Lady, was struck and sunk off the southwest of Ireland by the tail end of an unseasonably early hurricane. For saving the life of a crewmate, who came close to drowning in the storm-tossed wreckage of the boat, Bray was later awarded a bronze medal by the Royal Humane Society.
 
Making last-minute preparations this week in Newfoundland as he waited for a suitable weather window, Bray said it was while he was in the liferaft with the other three that he starting planning to try again: "Even before our rescue was certain, I knew I'd have to go back and get the job done," he said. "We'd done everything right; it was the Atlantic that had pulled a fast one. I thought I ought to give her another chance to play nicely."
 
Bray, aiming for the Isles of Scilly off the southwest corner of England, will first head southeast across the notoriously unpredictable Grand Banks -- scene of The Perfect Storm -- to pick up the Gulf Stream. He plans to row up to 12 hours or more a day and, depending on wind and currents, faces a journey of anything between 1,750 and 2,000 miles (2,800-3,200km). He will receive daily tactical guidance from a shore-based weather router in the U.S.
 
When the wind blows against him he will have to deploy a sea anchor -- a parachute-like device that slows a vessel's drift through the water -- for hours or even days at a time. He will grab sleep in a small cabin, just large enough to accommodate one man lying down.
 
Four solar panels will generate electricity, stored in two gel batteries. These power his sea-water desalinator, which makes drinking water, his navigation lights, VHF ship-to-ship radio, GPS navigation system and Iridium satellite telephones -- he has two; one is for the one-man aviation liferaft. He will use a laptop to communicate with his weather-router and to send regular despatches to his support team and his website, peterbrayadventurer.com.
 
If necessary, Bray could make it across without power; he is carrying fresh water as ballast and, if rationed carefully, it could last the journey.
 
Using a specially adapted propane-fuelled cooker he will boil water to make hot drinks and rehydrate his freeze-dried meals -- a limited menu including beef curry, sweet and sour chicken, chili con carne and porridge with strawberries. Boat weight is all-important and he is carrying just enough food to last 70 days at full rations. Despite consuming up to 7,500 calories a day he could lose up to three stone (42-lbs, 19kg) during the crossing.
/ENDS