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Commandos set to row across the Atlantic
Mark Branagan Members of a rowing team about to make an epic crossing of the Atlantic have arrived in New York to put the finishing touches to the expedition, during which they will have to survive for two months on dried rations and one boil-in-the-bag meal a week.
In less than a week two Yorkshiremen will join their colleagues in a rowing boat for a 3,318-mile race from the Statue of Liberty to Falmouth in the Woodvale Ocean Fours Atlantic Challenge.
Captain Pete Rowlands, of Long Riston in East Yorkshire, is taking on the challenge in memory of his teenage son, Gareth, who died of meningitis two years ago. He said: "There is the physical training but we believe half the battle is mental: the ability to sit on the seat every day for two months. We have dried rations for six days and every seventh day they have wet rations – bacon and beans and beef stew – though it will be boil-in-the-bag, not like mother makes."
Capt Rowlands will be joined by three fellow commandos – long-time friend and Long Riston neighbour Capt Mark Waterson, mine disposal expert Charlie Martell, of Gloucestershire, and Staff Sergeant Ben Fouracre, of Wiltshire.
Up against them are two American teams, another from Yorkshire called Yorkshire Warrior, and a fourth from Kent.
The team has raised 100,000 sponsorship, provided by Leeds-based Hesco Bastion, supplier of force protection equipment to the military, and another 50,000 for the Meningitis Trust. However, it still wants to raise a further 50,000.
Capt Waterson, skipper of the boat, added: "We are doing last-minute jobs. We have been doing safety training and having meetings on tactics and weather before we start the race next Saturday.
"It has been three years since we started the project and everyone is completely committed. We just want to get started."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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