JRC Old Boy crosses Atlantic in rowboat

Extreme adventurer, Riaan Manser, a John Ross College Old Boy, has just completed another daring feat.

This time it was an 8 000km Atlantic crossing in a specially built rowboat.

But he wasn’t alone.

Riaan shared the 6.9m kayak named ‘Spirit of Madiba’ with his girlfriend of 14 years, Vasti Geldenhuys.

The couple set off from Agadir, Morocco, in December and reached Miami on 7 May after 105 days at sea.

On making their landfall they shared a hug and a kiss before landing in the record books as the first couple to row from mainland Africa to mainland North America.

Riaan is an accomplished adventurer, having previously circumnavigated the African continent on a bicycle, as well as completing a 5 000km journey around Madagascar in a kayak and paddling 2 300km in Iceland with Dan Skinstad.

Vasti, on the other hand, has no previous experience with such extreme feats of endurance, but she has broken a world record as the first woman to cross any ocean in a kayak.

With no support staff and no rescue crew, blog entries along the way detailed what they said was the scariest moment of the trip and their lives:

‘The capsize on the 20th of February was without a doubt a wake-up call.

Vasti got stuck under the boat, and I was thrown out,’ Riaan said.

They say, however, the bulk of their journey was less harrowing and more life changing.

‘You get this quiet time, and the sun is setting, and there’s like pink and blue and white fluffy clouds, and it’s just so quiet,’ Vasti said in one entry.

Riaan had promised Vasti a trip to New York, and being a professional adventurer, rowing there seemed to be the only way to go.

That also means that their trip is not yet over.

The last leg between Miami and The Big Apple will see the couple taking to the water for another three weeks.