Submitted as a Press Release

[Port St. Charles Marina] It was a happy ending for six International rowers five men and one lady who docked safely in the calm waters of the Port St. Charles Marina in St. Peter at 10:30 on Wednesday night.

The joint Irish/British/Swedish/Canadian crew skippered by Matt Craughwell (an Englishman of Irish descent), Peter Williams (Ireland), Mylène Paquette (Canada), Mike Jones (Ireland), Pedro Cunha (Sweden) and James Kenworthy (England) departed from the Moroccan Port of Agadir on January 12, to row approximately 5.000 km to Barbados on their specially designed Ocean Rowing Boat called “Sara G” on a voyage which was estimated to take between 40 and 50 days. When the boat pulled into Port St. Charles there were shouts and screams from parents, girl friends, wives and other family members totalling just over 28 who flew into the Island in time to greet their loved ones on arrival. It was a very emotional time for most of them openly cried as they embraced and kissed their loved ones who they had not seen since January 12.

Speaking to the local press after the re-union, Captain of the vessel Matt Craughwell said it was an experience he would do again. “Me and Peter Williams were part of a record breaking attempt to cross the Atlantic that failed,was rescued at sea and after  that made it our solemn vow to get back out there with four of the finest crew members. We are very excited to have made it and extremely happy to be re united with our families. James Kentworthy said he first learned about the  ocean rowing about 2 years before and thought it sounded like a very interesting challenge,  it was different to climbing Mount Everest so I decided I would give it a go.

My inclusion was not just for the fun but in aid of  a worth while charity in the UK to help injured heroes from the arm forces whether they were British or American. Speaking about his personal experience, Kenthworthy made mention of  a period when he thought he had made a mistake in being part of the team.”Two weeks into the trip we  encountered waves and winds that was pushing against the boat and we began drifting back to Africa in big seas for 5 days. Most of us became sea sick and really bored, it was at that time I asked myself what I had gotten into, but once we got past that it went pretty well except on one occasion when we were not as vigilant as we should and we ended up about 200 meters from a very large tanker, that was scary. On another occasion we saw a very large whale not too far off from our boat. Apart from that we saw plenty dolphins a few sharks here and there.

On hand to offer a warm welcome to the crew on arrival, were Government Senator and Board member of the BTA Peter Gilkes, Deputy Chairman of the BTA Austin Husbands and President of the Barbados Sailing Association, Penny McIntyre. Husbands told members of the press that the BTA was always happy to be associated with events such as it was an added boost to the country’s sport tourism product. Sir Charles Williams took the opportunity to entertain the families of the team prior to the their arrival and also provided the team with their first taste of local beer and food