Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Sarah Outen
Sarah Outen in the cabin of her rowing boat, Gulliver, before she set off from Japan. Photograph: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images
Sarah Outen in the cabin of her rowing boat, Gulliver, before she set off from Japan. Photograph: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images

Rescuers close in on British adventurer Sarah Outen in Pacific storm

This article is more than 11 years old
Coastguard expected to reach Outen soon, while another British rower, Charlie Martell hopes to be rescued on Saturday

Rescuers were closing in on one of two Britons waiting to be plucked from the sea hundreds of miles east of Japan on Friday, after a tropical storm wrecked their separate attempts to row solo across the northern Pacific Ocean, damaging their boats and capsizing them several times.

With heavy seas and wind speeds subsiding, a Japanese coastguard boat was expected to reach Sarah Outen in her seven-metre (23ft) boat Gulliver about 500 miles east off the coast imminently, two hours earlier than the expected 10am British time or 6pm Japanese time.

The support team for Charlie Martell hopes rescuers can reach him in his boat Blossom about 280 miles north of Outen at about 2am BST on Saturday (10am JST). Both rowers called for help on Thursday as they were hit by the tropical storm Mawar, capsizing and damaging their boats.

Japan rowingboat Outen
Japan rowingboat Outen

Outen, 27, who was attempting to row, kayak and cycle her way around the world, tweeted that the coastguard was now expected to arrive earlier than first thought. "Think ETA now earlier, Hooray 4 Japanese always being early," she reported as she waited in her survival suit, strapped into her sleeping cabin.

A cargo ship, Texas Highway, was standing close by until the coastguard arrived. "Reassuring," said Outen, who feared she would have to abandon her boat because the seas would still be too rough. Some water has entered her cabin but this is minimal, according to her support team.

"Sarah is bearing up well and demonstrating the strength and resolve that has brought her the huge distance on the journey so far. The request for her first meal back on land in Japan is 'Pancakes pls. Cold OJ. Grapes'," the team said.

A coastguard plane has also been flying over both Outen and Martell, 41, who was 700 miles off Japan when the storm hit his boat and turned it on its end before landing it upside down. They triggered the emergency signals with Falmouth coastguards within hours of each other. The UK signals were passed to Japanese authorities, which are co-ordinating the rescues.

Martell, a Territorial Army lieutenant attempting to row solo from Japan to San Francisco in the US, was hit by winds of up to 50 knots and waves up to 15 metres. He is strapped in the rear cabin on his seven-metre boat with winds and currents taking him further away from his rescuers. His support team have not heard from him since Thursday afternoon UK time but the watching plane managed to make radio contact overnight, according to his campaign manager, Adrian Bell.

"As far as we know he was fine. The main thing we are aware of, he is uninjured, but is still facing very heavy seas, which is a concern. We have not heard from him direct for about 18 hours.

"We believe that is because the electrical system failed. Obviously we do worry in these conditions but, like Falmouth coastguard, this is what [the Japanese coastguard] do day in, day out. The job they are doing is what they are trained to do. We have every confidence in their ability to do it."

Most viewed

Most viewed