Dutchman Ralph Tuijn, 45, was due to set off Thursday lunchtime but last-minute calculations were being made because of huge waves that were pounding Portugal’s west coast.
Tuijn is no stranger to rowing oceans. With five ocean crossings and over 500 ocean-rowing days under his belt, he is part of a select group of six rowers to boast that achievement and hence one of the most experienced ocean rowers in the world.
His claim to fame came in 2013 when he had to be rescued after 98 days while attempting to cross the Indian Ocean, having been run over by a tanker; twice.
In 2015, he and a crew of five rowers set a new world record by rowing across the Atlantic Ocean in 51 days and 19 hours.
The endurance sports enthusiast has also cycled across the hottest deserts on earth, at temperatures of over 50 degrees, and across frozen lakes and rivers in Arctic Siberia at -55 degrees.
Ralph, a registered nurse, is now looking to break the present world record of rowing the Atlantic Ocean solo, which stands at 95 days from Continental Europe to Continental South America. The Dutch daredevil hopes to complete the expedition in around 55 days.
“I did my first ocean crossing ten years ago and I liked it so much I just want to keep repeating it”, he tells The Portugal News ahead of his crossing, elaborating: “At the beginning of the 1990s I was in university and we had a rowing team, so I started there. I rowed for years. Then, in 1994, we decided to cross the North Sea in a rowing boat, non-stop, and I thought ‘Wow, this is terrific. What else can we do?’ And after a sea comes an ocean, so the whole thing started there.”
Ralph chose this time of year for his latest challenge due to calmer weather conditions and favourable winds, but it does mean that he will be spending Christmas and New Year alone, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
“I’m not too bothered about Christmas”, he says, adding, “I’ll just eat the ordinary things I eat every other day on the ocean. But I will be taking a bottle of champagne to celebrate the New Year.”
Follow Ralph’s progress on his website: www.oceanrower.eu.