Browse Sections

• Barlow's brief
• Education
• Special reports

Atlantic rower’s heroic return

by Chris Morris
30/ 4/2008

A DARING seafaring adventurer has battled with sharks, crashing waves and loneliness to enter into the history books.

Dave Clarke, 43, of Gonville Avenue, Macclesfield, has just completed a mammoth 3,000-mile row across the Atlantic, all by himself.

The dad of two first crossed the ocean in the early 1990s, making him the first person to sail and row single-handed across the vast expanse of sea.

The Sutton-based businessman set off on his 81-day gruelling solo mission from the Canary Islands in early January, and arrived in Carlisle Bay, Barbados, on Wednesday, April 2.

Crossing the route first undertaken by Christopher Columbus more than 400 years ago, Dave’s thoughts often drifted back home to his wife Elaine, 39, and sons Bradley, nine, and Joel, five, although he always had a bit of company.

He said: "You would get a bit lonely every now and then, and have some dark days. I missed my sons and wife, but I always had a school of dorado with the boat pretty much for the whole journey. We became friends in the end and I would feed them the flying fish that ended up in my boat and gave them names."

His new mates, however, attracted some unwanted attention. He added: "I could see this shadow and feel something hitting the boat – I feared it was a whale attack and thought that was it for me. It turned out to be a shark attacking the dorado – still quite scary."

After noticing his £60,000 specially built craft, dubbed ‘Positive Outcomes’, was slowing up a bit, Dave, who lost three stone in weight on his journey, jumped in to remove the thousands of barnacles who had made his hull their home.

"I had to get rid of them to reduce drag, but all of the time I was thinking about the shark, I couldn’t get the Jaws theme out of my head," added the intrepid rower.

After gorging on dried foods, sleeping in a tiny cabin and not being able to walk for more than three months, sheer relief was all Dave felt when he pulled into Carlisle Bay.

But he is planning even more ambitious trips, much like his hero Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

He said : "I might go to the North Pole with some sled dogs, but for now I just want to thank all my family and neighbours who made this possible."

A book about Dave’s solo sail is out now, entitled ‘An Ocean Away’.

Most recent 1 of 1 user comments