Rowing Through Hurricanes Across the Atlantic
Hurricane Vince, Hurricane Epsilon, Named Tropical Storms Hit Boat
Oct 22, 2008
Julie's book, Rowboat in a Hurricane (Greystone Books, 2008) is her account of the trip. She shared some of her story with Suite 101. In Julie Angus's own words, here is what it is like to survive a hurricane in a rowboat.
Calm on the Atlantic Before Hurricane Vince
The ocean moved like viscous swells of mercury with barely a breath of wind to ripple the surface, more like a pond in London’s Hyde Park than the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of kilometres from land. This was the first time since leaving Portugal sixteen days earlier that the wind was absent and the waves flattened. Our rowboat stopped rolling and my seasickness disappeared. Small fish appeared in the waters below and we joined them, swimming in the eerie blue depths to escape the hot sun. I revelled in our newfound serenity, but not wholly; the calm was too complete to be comforting. Clouds of teased cotton candy smeared the usually-clear sky, hinting that something unusual was afoot.
Unbeknownst to us, a hurricane had formed 600 km from our boat. While Colin and I nervously talked about our fortuitous luck with the weather, the vortex gained energy and began to move steadily towards us. The weather quickly deteriorated, but it wasn’t until I called my frantic father on the satellite phone that we understood the severity of our predicament.
Surviving Tropical Storms, Hurricane Vince and Hurricane Epsilon in a Rowboat
Hurricane Vince swallowed our wooden rowboat with five-story waves and 100 km/hr winds. We cowered in the miniscule cabin, braced against padded walls that did little to soften the impact, and prayed we wouldn’t hear a sickening splinter signalling the demise of our wooden rowboat. For three days the wind and waves battered us, leaving us terrified, sea-sick, and exhausted. The storm finally abated; our boat was in a state of disarray and our bodies covered with bruises, but we were able to continue. Sadly this was only the beginning of a disturbing theme, and we were steamrolled by two more named tropical storms and another hurricane before reaching the other side of the ocean.
Both hurricanes that hit us were abnormalities. Hurricane Vince formed further east than any other hurricane and in a part of the ocean thought to be too cold for the formation of cyclonic storms. Hurricane Epsilon came to life after the so-called end date of the annual hurricane season - November 30th - and became the longest lasting December hurricane. It seemed we were a magnet for anomalous storms, but the reality is our experiences are an indication of the change that is afoot.
There are More Hurricanes Now than Ever Before
There are now more than twice as many Atlantic hurricanes than a century earlier. In the early 1900s the average number of hurricanes each year was six, in the thirties it grew to ten, and for the last decade it has been fifteen. Some years are worse than others and the year we rowed across the Atlantic, 2005, was the worst hurricane season in history with 27 tropical storms (six more than the previous record).
Julie goes on to explain how hurricanes form, and to describe some of the human impact she and Colin observed as they rowed across the Atlantic, in Julie Angus Saw Man's Impact on Oceans Firsthand: Rowing Across the Atlantic Ocean Reveals Environmental Changes.
