The Story so far
This will be my sixth and penultimate installment about this epic Atlantic Crossing attempt by two of my fellow Galwaymen. I hope you enjoy it.
I know that some of you will have read my other five posts about the lads and of course some of won't have read them and that's no problem. I'll include the links to them below just in case anybody wants to read them first, but I know how precious people's time is and this post is just one of many that you will be trying to read within a likely short window, so with that in mind, I'll quickly paraphrase what happened in the lead up to week 5 and continue from there afterwards. I am going to close it out with this post too, so by the end of this you will know if Cushlamachree made it to Galway.
This series brings tales of exploration and woe from two Irishmen who embarked on one of the hardest challenges imaginable. Damien Browne and Fergus Farrell who are fellow Galwaymen set out to row across the Atlantic ocean from New York to Galway on Ireland's West coast unsupported, which means that there is no safety boat alongside them for emergencies, it's just them their oars and the roaring waves.
The lads set out to make history and aim to be the first crew to successfully row from New York to Galway, unsupported. Following some last-minute scrambling to locate a Sat phone, and loading up some last provisions, including jelly babies and chocolate bars (seriously) they final set sail, well now, as there are no sails! They set off from New York on June 13th on their 6.2 metre rowing boat called Cushlamachree, next stop Galway and the "Bonfires of Aran" as Damian often says.
The two guys know each other from playing rugby in Galway and both represented Ireland at Junior level and have remained friends ever since. Damien had a very successful rugby career, having played for Connacht, Northampton Saints and Leinster over the years. When his career ended, Damian had to find new challenges to fill his days and find them he did. Everest basecamp and other mountaineering expeditions, ultra marathons, oh and he rowed an ocean! Yep, this is going to be his second ocean rowed if he gets over the line.
Fergus then had a near death experience a few years ago, which left him over 95% certain to be paralysed and unable to walk again, and after making a miraculous recovery, he too craved challenge and when the lifelong friends met up a few years ago, project Empower and rowing an ocean together while raising money for charities was born. Those charities are Ability West, the Galway Simon Community, Madra animal rescue and the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) foundation, all very worthy recipients.
In the most recent post I talked about Gussy having to get rescued after 13 days on the Ocean, and how he was rescued and why he was rescued. I delved into how Damian had to adjust and reset following Gussy's departure. I talked about the different types of wildlife the lads encountered along the way from whales to dolphins, turtles to porpoises, and not forgetting the little blackbird Lass, who was Damian's unexpected guest and pet for a few days.
I covered the ups and downs of the first sixty days or so in these posts in case you want to catch up, otherwise let's crack on and finish this thing off. I'm tired writing about it, so I can only imagine what it was like for Damian!
@ablaze/two-irishmen-to-row-across-the-atlantic-part-1
@ablaze/two-irishmen-to-row-across-the-atlantic-part-2
@ablaze/two-irishmen-to-row-across-the-atlantic-part-3
@ablaze/two-irishmen-to-row-across-the-atlantic-part-4
@ablaze/two-irishmen-to-row-across-the-atlantic-part-5
Powering on
We got as far as day 43 and the half way mark in the last post, and one would hope that this would mean that the endevour would be done and dusted by day 86, but rarely are things as straight forward as that, it would be ten days more, 2o days more, would it be 30 days more? Read on to find out. Let's rejoin Damian after he passes the halfway point of this Herculean adventure.
It is worth calling out Galway Bay Brewing Company who were one of the sponsors for this event and have sponsored €2 per mile rowed on this expedition which is an extremely generous thing to have done, as the overall distance covered will be 3500 nautical miles. The guys from Galway Bay brewing gave the lads a few 6 packs of IPAs before they set out and Damian had one set aside to celebrate reaching the halfway point, which he cracked open and quickly downed soon after passing the halfway mark of the journey.
Day 50
I remember Day 50, as I remember that Damian shared a list of things that he had gone without for fifty days, and some other things were 37 days ago (when Gussy left). Here are some of those things.
- 50 days without a shower.
- 50 days shitting into a bucket.
- 50 days without a coffee.
- 50 days without sitting on a toilet.
- 50 days of eating out of a bag with a spoon.
- 50 days sleeping on a moving ‘bed’.
- 37 days without seeing another human.
- 37 days without touching another human.
- 26 days without a hot meal.
- Over 2000 nautical miles rowed in 50 days.
- Over 200 nautical miles pushed backwards over 50 days.
Fifty days. It is easy to say isn't it. Fifty days, yep easy to say, but now think about the gravity of that amount of time. Think of a great 2 week holiday that you had in your past and now double it and add a week and instead of chilling in the sun, having a few beers and whatever you are having yourself, you are working day after day twelve hours a day. It's crazy stuff really when you break it down.
Motivation
Motivation is not something that Damian struggles with I imagine in everyday life, but put a man on an Ocean alone for these long periods of time, and I can well imagine that motivation may sometimes be harm to muster, but I am sure video calls like this one with his wife and daughter must have been a recurring mental image for him to help battling on and on and on towards Galway.
While we are on the subject as well, I have to say hats off to his wife who honestly must be one of the most understanding and altruistic people on the planet. There are plenty of lads who will struggle to get away for a long weekend, because of commitments at home, so to give this mission the green light, while she stays at home minding, caring for and mothering their daughter deserves a huge amount of respect in my opinion.
Nearing the finish line
After 62 days Damian and Cushlamachree were 816 nautical miles from Galway and in terms of the overall journey, he was inching closer to Galway, but the last 800 miles was going to prove to be the most arduous and difficult by far. Damian tells us
that "In 7 hours of rowing, I’ve covered 8 miles; not all in the direction of Galway either I should add."
That has to be crushing to be absolutely busting a gut and hardly making any dent in the mileage, although to be fair at least he wasn't going backwards. Sixty three days was a significant day as well, as that is how long it took him to cross the Atlantic on his last endeavor in 2018. Little did Damian know that it would be close enough to double that number of days until he finished and where would that be? Would he reach Galway or would he need to be rescued? Read on to find out.
Powering on and powering through
Brute force, strength of body and mind pushed Damian on over the next thirty days. It took those thirty days to cover around 600 miles, a distance covered in the early days inside 13 days. I can't even imagine the sweat and graft that went into pushing that boat forward through storms and currents and everything nature had to throw at him, but he persevered and made it safely to day 95 when he closed to within 350 miles of his beloved Galway.
100 Days of Ocean Rowing
There is absolutely no way that when the lads embarked on this mission that they thought that they or one of them would still be on the ocean for one hundred days straight just rowing. Damian says on the Podcast that sometimes it doesn't feel like one hundred days and other times it feels like one hundred times that. You would even wonder if he knew that it would take over one hundred days before he embarked, if he would have actually begun it at all?
By this stage Damian is within 200 miles of Galway, and the conditions for once are quite good and brining him in the direction that he wants to go in.
Another few days pass by and on day 103 he can see the lights of Ireland's coast for the first time, which is emotional and exciting for him. He soon encounters a new problem though and that is that because of wind and current conditions, he may not be able to finish in Galway and may actually have to finish in Limerick or Cork, which would break his heart as Galway and his hometown is where wants to finish this thing out.
The Bonfires of Aran
Many times along the way Damian mentioned the Bonfires of Aran and this image motivated him when he was amidst storms, currents and difficulty in the mid Atlantic. We have a tradition here in Ireland and most especially in more rural areas to light bon fires at the side of the road to welcome someone or send them off, so you might see them lit when a winning team returns from a match, when a couple marries, when some dies and many other occasions. The islanders did not let Damian down and when he finally crossed inside Foul Sound, the narrow neck of water between Inis Meain and Inis Óirr just off the coast of Galway, he saw those Bonfires of Aran which he has spoken about so warmly on his Podcasts. Someone even managed to catch a photo of it below which is very special and will be one he will keep and probably frame I would say.
Friendship and questions
Gussy left the crossing, as you will have read in my previous posts about this and he had not choice in the matter, health must always come first, but his departure did mean that Damian's chances of completing the crossing were much much harder and would require so much more determination and drive, as every time he stopped, the boat was likely to go backwards, so sleep and rest would come at a price.
He did not mention Gussy much in his Pod casts after he left, other than to explain the evacuation mission, but he opened up on his Facebook account in recent days and had this to say:
There was a huge unknown to this moment; the truth was, due to the nature of my crossing, I had developed negative emotions towards Gussy even if reason communicate their falsehood.
My frustrations, agitations and doubt were projected onto him. My mind started to create stories and those stories were added to as I suffered at the hands of the relentless beast that is the Atlantic.
Self awareness flagged these states and stories but the next mental step, the step to rid myself of the negative vibrations, was inaccessible to me no matter what I tried. I just couldn’t connect.
Then on Day 112, I cleared Foul Sound, the narrow neck of water between Inis Meain and Inis Óirr and was hit by what I can only describe as a “wash of forgiveness” (towards Gussy).
I remember floating on the strong wind and feeling this unexpected clearance. It was like a uncomfortable weight was lifted off me.
I was so relieved. One of my biggest fears had been, unexpectedly, lifted.
The next morning, on the harbour side in Galway, we met. 99 days after he’d been extracted from Cushlamachee. My immediate reaction, the one I’d feared for most of the second half of my expedition was; happiness.
Beautifully captured here by emjcamera. I was simply happy to see him. Two old friends reunited.
I was delighted to read this post, as even though the thought never occurred to me, I guess being left alone on an Ocean with twice the work to do is quite the place to find oneself, but to put the shoe on the other foot Gussy may have also felt pissed off that his friend left him to fend for himself when leaving via the Cargo ship - at the time Damian did not know how serious Gussy's condition was and whether he was going to be OK. Well all's well that ends well, isn't that what they say.
Thanks to everyone who read along with me over the past few weeks and I really hope that enjoyed reading and following along.
Want to know more?
I will do one more post next week about the end of the journey, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Did you enjoy the series of posts? If so, I implore you to check out Damian's various pages below. The main thrust behind this project was to raise money for four Irish charities and they are almost at their target of €75,000 so if you are feeling generous you can contribute to the cause here:
Damian's Various Social Media Pages:
https://www.facebook.com/gulliverstravels17
https://damianbrowne.com/
These are not original photos - source: https://www.facebook.com/gulliverstravels17
