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The owl and the pussycat had it easy
"Build a small ocean-going
rowboat, find a rowing partner and then
row unsupported 3,000 miles from Tenerife
to Barbados. How difficult can that be?"
wondered Hong Kong sailor Christian Havrehed,
leafing through a brochure for the 2001
Ward Evans Cross Atlantic Rowing Race.
Three years later the young
Dane had his boat, his partner and his answer.
Experienced and armchair adventurers alike
will enjoy accompanying the pair through
travail to triumph in BEIJING TO BARBADOS
IN A ROWBOAT: HOW CHINA AND THE WEST PULLED
TOGETHER TO ROW ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.
Killer whales, wayward ships,
tropical storms and festering boils -- these
are just some of the troubles encountered
once the Yantu (Mandarin for "underway")
and 35 identical boats finally cross the
starting line.
By then Havrehed has considerably
complicated the challenge in his determination
to make it about more than personal achievement.
His idea is to cross the Atlantic with a
mainland Chinese rowing partner and raise
scholarship funds for mainland students
at his alma mater, the United World College
of the Atlantic in Wales. In so doing he
hopes to promote the school's ideals of
"international understanding and cooperation,"
provide encouragement "for all the
struggling joint ventures in China"
and help the mainland establish a tradition
of sports-based charity. "Work as a
team and you will achieve more" is
scrawled in Chinese characters above the
entrance to the boat's tiny cabin.
This interesting cross-cultural
aspect is at the heart of From Beijing
to Barbados, both in the complex race
preparation phase, which fills half the
book, and during the gruelling 56-day journey
itself. The Mandarin-speaking Havrehed and
his partner Sun Haibin -- a former PLA triathlete
-- contend with a disgruntled Guangdong
boat-builder, puzzled mainland journalists,
reluctant sponsors and a Chinese sports
bureaucracy wary of the blame that would
attach to any disaster. "This is not
the way things are done in China" becomes
a familiar refrain.
That the attempt is ultimately
given a tacit official go-ahead and Sun
returns home a national hero is encouraging.
That not a single dollar of the sponsorship
money raised comes from the mainland indicates
how much further the concept of sports-based
fundraising has to go.
While the pair plan and train
from the Yantu's base at the Royal
Hong Kong Yacht Club, another crucial question
looms. Can two near-strangers from vastly
different cultural backgrounds, neither
of whom have ever rowed before, nor speak
the other's native language, summon the
common understanding needed to survive two
months of isolation at sea? Relationships,
even marriages, have come spectacularly
unstuck during the race -- that proves to
be the fate of the other Hong Kong entry
in the 2001 event.
"GreatĄIf we get into
a fight at sea he will be a trained killer
and I will have to improvise!" the
author jokes when the ex-soldier turns out
to be the only candidate qualified for the
job.
Once the Yantu takes
to the water, Havrehed describes all too
clearly what it is like to row and sleep
in a cramped, semi-open boat, alternating
two-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, for nearly
two months. Fear, worry, and both physical
and mental exhaustion are constant shipmates.
The excruciating butt-pain forewarned by
veteran rowers eventually necessitates a
near-religious, "princess-on-the-pea
padding" ritual at every shift change.
Yet through it all, regular
doses of gallows humour, mutual encouragement,
friendly competition and the odd burst of
euphoria keep the pair paddling steadily
westwards, and ready the crew of the Yantu
for a final, unexpected challenge as they
approach the coast of Barbados.
Illustrated with humorous
sketches and 16 pages of colour photos,
Beijing to Barbados in a Rowboat is an adventure
story with a contemporary Asian flavour,
and an entertaining addition to the carpe
diem genre.
* * *
Notes: Tim O'Connell
holds the record for rowing around Hong
Kong Island, approximately 1/110th of the
distance travelled by the Yantu.
To read the review on the
The Asia Review of Books website, click
here
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