The first recorded crossing of the North Atlantic from West to East by rowing boat was in 1896 when 2 Norwegian Americans, George Harbo and Frank Samuelson incredibly crossed from New York to the Scilly Isles in their open boat ‘Fox’ in just 55 days, being re-supplied by passing steamships. It would be another 70 years before anybody would complete a crossing unassisted and since then, only 27 other boats have succeeded in making the crossing.
What Mark is hoping to achieve during the summer of 2021 could be considered a holy grail in ocean rowing, linking two of the worlds most iconic cities, a feat that has never been achieved before.
Not only will he have to battle the North Atlantic, known as one of the most dangerous oceans to row boat but once he is ‘home’ he will have to fight his own instincts to simply pull in to the nearest harbor and return to everything that he loves. Instead he plans to continue the 300 miles along the South Coast of the UK to the Dover Straits before turning in to the Thames Estuary before reaching his final destination.