Chris Duff has called it off.
The 54-year-old adventurer and author had hoped to be the first person in modern times to row solo from Scotland to Iceland. He’d made it halfway, landing in the Faroe Islands after five days of paddling in late May. Now, after six frustrating weeks of waiting for good conditions in those windswept, godforsaken islands—a feat on endurance almost as heroic as the rowing that got him there—he’s packing it in.
A man waiting for agreeable weather in the Faroe Islands can wile away decades, tapping his barometer and reading omens in the sky. A 54-year-old doesn’t have that kind of time. So it’s smart for Duff to cut his losses and head back home to Port Angeles, Washington. Still, our hearts go out to him.
His blog entries for July 15 give a window into the difficult decision-making behind these runs at glory. One minute, he’s calculating the six days of back-breaking effort he’ll need to cover the 300 miles; the next, he’s hatching a strategy that calls for a 4 a.m. launch that will get him outside the pull of the tide; and then he’s somehow figuring that rowing the first 30 miles into the wind will constitute a “bonus” when it shifts around to his favor. Then, words comes that the weather pattern has changed. He realizes he won’t be able to outrun a low pressure system building up over eastern Iceland.
And then this: “It is time for me to put the boat away and just go home. It is a huge disappointment. And it is.”
