Sarah Outen and Charlie Martell, who were separately crossing from Japan to America, made mayday distress calls when the tropical storm swept in early yesterday.
They had to wait many hours for Japanese coastguards to pick them up and Ms Outen wrapped herself in her boat's union flag because her sleeping bag was soaking wet.
Ms Outen, 26, from Rutland, who is doing a round-the-world bike and boat expedition, sent a distress signal in the early hours of the morning from her boat Gulliver.
Her support team said the sailor was 'in good spirits' shortly before rescue.
In a satellite phone message meanwhile Ms Outen said the storm had created the 'roughest and most frightening conditions I have ever been in'.
Seven hours later after Ms Outen's original distress call, Territorial Army Lieutenant Martell, 41, from Dymock, Gloucestershire, made a distress call when winds of up to 50 knots and waves of more than 15.25m (50ft) capsized his boat causing serious damage.
So the headline and byline of this report "Tropical storm Mawar scuttles British ocean rowing dreams -- Tropical storm Mawar has forced two British sailors to abandon their attempts to row across the Pacific Ocean" crisply told the whole story! More detailed reports of the cases can be found here and here. Clearly both rowers missed their opportunity to set some world records at this time, but as this article indicated that they are both "lucky to be alive" and being young and healthy they are certainly both have plenty of opportunities in the days to come! Better luck next time! By the way Miss Outen has recorded her adventures in her interesting blog where she called her boat "Gulliver"and described that she's been informed and prepared for the oncoming storm which she chose to call it "Rosie" in the hope of "befriend" with the storm.
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