A 72-year-old man from Leicester has rowed solo across the Atlantic but may miss out on the record to become the oldest person to do so after he had to be towed in to port at the end of his journey.
Graham Walters was just six miles from the coast of Antigua, the end of his journey, when his boat was blown off course by strong winds, and he would have ended up past the island and facing days’ more rowing if he had not accepted the assistance of the local coastguard.
He was eventually towed in on Wednesday and greeted by a crowd of cheering supporters. It was unclear whether the incident would affect his world record attempt.
Walters’ wife, Jean O’Brien, said: “He may not have arrived in Antigua under his own steam, but there was still a hero’s welcome for him as there should be.
“He seems quite relaxed about things. I just hope he doesn’t want to go back and finish the last six miles the long way round!”
It was Graham Walters’ fifth journey across the ocean – his third solo – and relatively plain sailing despite a few scary moments.
Speaking via satellite phone off the coast of Antigua, Walters said: “I fell through the deck and had to repair it all, and there were four leaks I had to contain all the way along.
“I also didn’t realise how cold it is to start with. I got drenched in the first week and was quite cold.”
Walters also nearly faced catastrophe when his electronic water maker failed; luckily he found a manual water pump buried in his supplies, which was able to produce half a litre of water when pumped for 50 minutes.
But there were also moments of joy, such as when a curious youngster from a pod of minke whales played around the boat for hours. “It was jumping, twisting and turning, it was amazing,” Walters said.
A carpenter by trade, he made the crossing in a 22-year-old rowing boat he built in his front garden for the first ever Atlantic rowing race in 1997 and named it the George Geary after his late grandfather, a Test cricketer for England in the 1920s and 30s.
“I worried to start with when the waves were quite big; they were over 3 metres and he was being thrown around the boat,” said Jean. “And I worried whether the boat could handle it because it is old. But Graham was very upbeat, and he’s a very determined individual.”
The boat was able to house all the supplies needed for the journey of more than 3,000 miles, including dozens of boil-in-the-bag meals, a rubber dinghy for cleaning barnacles off the boat and collecting rainwater, and solar panels to generate electricity.
He used the journey to raise money for Help for Heroes, a cause close to his heart after he came to the aid of several veterans supported by the charity who were taking part in an Atlantic rowing race a few years ago.
“While I fixed their boat, I got to know them really well, and I was amazed how well they got on with things because they were all amputees,” he said. “That’s what started it off.”
Walters’ eventual landing is long-anticipated as he hasn’t seen another human in months, and the world is a very different place from the one he left behind in Gran Canaria on 25 January, when he set sail.
While Jean has been giving him updates on the coronavirus pandemic, Walters admits he doesn’t know what to expect. “It’s hard to comprehend for me out here what’s been happening,” he said. “Until I get back, I haven’t a clue what life is going to be like.”
But that in itself is going to be a challenge. Although boats are currently banned from docking on the island, a special dispensation has been made for Walters and he now faces a stint in quarantine and potentially a long wait before he can catch a flight home. “I’ve caused a bit of an international incident,” Walters said.
Once adjudicated by the Ocean Rowing Society, Walters was expected to claim the Guinness World Record for the oldest solo Atlantic rower, currently held by Gerard Marie of France who completed the solo challenge in 2015, aged 66.
After what Walters dubbed his “last voyage”, he plans to leave the George Geary in a museum in Antigua.
“It sounds like a sad occasion but I would say grand finale might be nearer the point, for me and for the boat,” he said. “For me it’s to show life has not passed me by.”
