Rower halts bid to cross Atlantic (07/20/03)

Rower halts bid to cross Atlantic

by Andrew Nynka

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - After only eight days at sea, Ukrainian Teodor Rezvoy's historic bid to paddle alone from New York to France has ended abruptly. His $100,000 hi-tech rowboat, Ukraine, is unaccounted for, drifting somewhere in the Atlantic, while Mr. Rezvoy is on land in the United States.

The 35-year-old Ukrainian, who planned to row 3,354 miles from New York City to Brest, France, over the course of approximately 80 days, had been battling bad weather, rough seas and westward winds that pushed him off course and behind schedule.

According to the General Consulate of Ukraine in New York City, Mr. Rezvoy also began to feel ill, saying there was some problem with his liver. Mr. Rezvoy continued to row for several days as rough seas repeatedly capsized his 2,000-pound boat.

The consulate said Mr. Rezvoy did not send out the maritime distress signal SOS but that, after a U.S. Navy frigate appeared on his horizon, Mr. Rezvoy ended his quest for France on July 10 when he signaled for help.

The USS Doyle responded to the Ukrainian and approached his 23-foot yellow rowboat with caution. He was considered a possible terrorist, and both he and his boat were searched.

The Navy found no threat and released Mr. Rezvoy, but damaged his boat when they attempted, but failed, to hoist the rowboat onto the deck of the USS Doyle for a closer inspection. Without a boat to row, the U.S. Navy deposited Mr. Rezvoy in Salem, Mass., on July 11.

"They tried to check everything. They checked if I had explosive materials or some weapons," Mr. Rezvoy told the Reuters news service at the Ukrainian Consulate in New York City on July 14.

"They took my knife, some flares - anything they thought was dangerous - off my boat," Mr. Rezvoy said.

The Navy removed a tracking device on Mr. Rezvoy's boat which sent out a signal every 90 seconds so that his course could be followed. His boat remains adrift in the Atlantic Ocean and there is no search to recover it.

Ukraine's consul general in New York City, Serhiy Pohoreltzev, spoke with The Ukrainian Weekly by telephone on July 15 regarding the matter.

"The only hope of finding Mr. Rezvoy's boat is if its location is called in by other vessels in the Atlantic Ocean," Mr. Pohoreltzev said. Any search conducted by air would be too costly, the consul explained.

According to Mr. Pohoreltzev, who spoke with Mr. Rezvoy by telephone recently, the sailor is feeling healthy but disappointed that his boat is lost.

"It's a bad time for me because I lost my boat and everything on the boat, and time," Mr. Rezvoy told Reuters. "But I will try again. Maybe next year."

Mr. Rezvoy is planning a second attempt to reach Europe. At the moment he is hoping to depart New York City for France on June 6, 2004.

Mr. Rezvoy began his New York to France journey on July 2 and had hoped to become only the third person ever to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean and back. He completed the first part of the feat, having rowed from Spain to Barbados in just over 67 days, at the end of 2001.

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