“22nd February. Third day without water. Still no rain…
On the morning of the 22nd, Genders spotted a cargo ship on the same course as he, two miles away. He signalled by heliograph, fog horn, and oar waving, but got no response. Bitterly disappointed, he fell into another lethargic funk His sculling rate fell to a small fraction of his usual 23 strokes per minute. This went on for some time, until he was yanked from his abyss of self-pity by recalling the last words of his spiritual leader, Gautama Buddha: “Be islands unto yourselves. Be a refuge to yourselves, do not take to yourselves any other refuge. See truth as an island, see the truth as a refuge. Do not seek refuge in anyone but yourselves. It is they who do this who shall reach the further shore.”
Excerpt from a book by Kenneth Crutchlow and Steve Boga.
Sid Genders was a pioneer Atlantic Rower who did it at a time when there were no GPS’s, no Sat phones and no water-makers.
There is an amusing story here on the island that says on arriving in English Harbour in the middle of the night he tied up at the still present small wooden dock at Galleon Beach. At daybreak, the security guard for the hotel told him to move as it was a private dock to which it is said Gender’s answered, “But I’ve just rowed across from Falmouth!” The impatient security officer, thinking he was referring to Falmouth Harbour a mile west around the corner from English Harbour retorted, “Then bloody well row back to Falmouth!”