It doesn’t affect the magnitude of kayaking alone across the Atlantic but it does put an asterisk on the achievement.
Two weeks ago, when Cyril Derreumaux approached the harbor of Le Marin in Martinique after kayaking 4,630km alone from the Canary Islands over the past two and a half months, he encountered strong winds and an unexpected northward current of almost two knots that he couldn’t fight against. At the time, he was 45km from finishing.
He had two options. Either continue drifting and attempt to land days later in Guadeloupe, near the Dominican Republic, or accept assistance. Since his entire support crew was already in Le Marin, and even his Airbnb accommodations were set up, he decided to accept a tow from a support vessel.
There’s no question that he had just kayaked alone across the Atlantic, but the short bit of assistance means that the journey no longer qualifies as unsupported. It also disqualified him from some of the Guinness records he might have wanted to claim.
“It doesn’t negate the scale of what was achieved,” he told ExplorersWeb after explaining what had happened.
First to kayak Atlantic and Pacific
Indeed, Derreumaux completed a human-powered east-to-west crossing of the Atlantic Ocean and was the first person to kayak alone across both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The Atlantic crossing took him 71 days, 14 hours, and 57 minutes.
The start of the tow to the finish line. Image: Cyril Derreumaux
The route. Image: Cyril Derreumaux
The crossing tested Derreumaux’s resilience to the extreme. In the first few days, he faced seasickness and sleep deprivation. Then there was the relentless toll of paddling for more than 10 hours a day.
Strong winds in the final few hours of the crossing. Image: Cyril Derreumaux
Strong winds and huge waves buffeted his small craft, and he spent several days on his para-anchor. Vast patches of seaweed also slowed him down. His water maker failed on day 55, and he had to desalinate his water manually, a slow process. The lack of abundant fresh water meant he couldn’t wash away the sea water, which left him with sores all over his body.
