PROVINCETOWN – The couple who tried to row across the Northern Atlantic Ocean before being rescued off the coast of Provincetown are detailing what went wrong on their three-day journey.
Tabor Academy graduate Cindy Way and her boyfriend James Caple departed from Scituate two weeks ago, enjoying smooth seas for the first day and a half of their journey. But rough seas and a storm struck at the end of their second night at sea, putting the couple in trouble.
According to a blog posting on the couple’s website, storm waves broke over the stern cabin, leaking through the stern hatch of the Nautilus, their specially designed ocean row boat. Caple attempted to fix the leak, to no avail.
During the storm, the couple’s VHF radio was damaged, rending it useless. Without proper radio communication equipment, Nautilus nearly had a run-in with a passing shipping vessel following the storm.
The couple then discovered that the boat had taken on water on the starboard side and had sprung a leak into the cabin from the starboard hatch. Additional leaks were beginning to sprout up as well.
On the morning of their third day at sea, just north of Provincetown, Way and Caple decided to call for help.
“We couldn’t totally stop nor find the internal leaks,” Caple said in the posting. “We felt that the odds of our success had greatly diminished as a result of the storm. Using our Satellite Phone, we called our shore support to arrange a tow back into the nearest port while we were still in control of the situation and close to shore.”
The couple were safely towed in to Provincetown by TowboatUS.
The couple told Cape Wide News that they do not plan on attempting the journey again.
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