Ocean Rowing Society News

Cincinnati schoolteacher Bryce Carlson set a record for the fastest solo unsupported west-east row across the North Atlantic ocean on Saturday and also became the first U.S. citizen to complete the feat.The 37-year-old landed at the port of St Mary's in the Scilly Isles, off the coast of south-west England, some 38 days six hours and 49 minutes after he set off from St John's in Newfoundland.The previous record for the solo west-east crossing was 53 days eight hours and 26 minutes set by Canadian Laval St.

A lone British rower on a cross-Pacific odyssey who had eaten nothing for two weeks but a flying fish was rescued from his boat after a Coast Guard search plane found him, officials said. Andrew Halsey, a 42-year-old bricklayer from Croydon, South London, was picked up by a Korean fishing vessel after a C-130 Hercules long-range aircraft out of Honolulu found the rower 1,200 miles (1,920 km) southeast of Hawaii. The rescue plane left Honolulu Wednesday morning after receiving an emergency signal from Halsey. The search plane coordinated the pickup while circling Halsey and he was plucked safely from his rowboat. "He was very weak," said Lt. Mark Harrison, commander of the C-130.