| After rowing 5,000km
across the roiling Atlantic Ocean with buttocks
full of boils and a former PLA soldier who
had never been to sea, Hong Kong¡¯s Christian
Havrehed has a kind of story that drops jaws.
The beauty of the his book is that he knows
the story will tell itself ¨C and, by selling
copies, raise money to send mainland students
to the United World College of the Atlantic.
The Danish management consultant
navigates readers lacking sea legs through
near-collisions with passing ships, pods
of whales and the kind of exhaustion that
produces out-of-body experiences while thrashing
through the high seas. He occasionally breaks
from a loose, chatty tone to help those
interested in paddling an ocean as part
of the Atlantic Rowing Challenge.
The short-term goal of Beijing
to Barbados is charity fund-raising. But
before long the book will become a manual
for adventurers. Havrehed devotes large
sections to the intricacies of Chinese bureaucracy,
the 18 months of planning that went into
his race, the technical skills required
and the moxie needed to attract media and
sponsors. He lists the finances that went
into his boat, race strategies and team-bonding
exercises that allow two people to spend
months together in a confined space while
rowing naked ¨C to spare the buttocks.
After living and working in
China since 1989, Havrehed wanted a Chinese
rowing partner. In Sun Haibin he found a
fit long-distance runner who¡¯d spent much
of his adult life in Xinjiang ¨C about as
far from the ocean as it¡¯s possible to get.
Havrehed himself had little rowing experience.
The pair started the race
wearing the hats of a coolie and a Viking,
to spell out their Sino-Danish objectives.
About 56 days later they finished eighth
in a field of 36, many of whom had corporate
backing and more experience. Havrehed says
one of the keys to their success was remaining
friends. Even with his experience in China
and his fluency in Putonghua, he became
exasperated by Sun¡¯s Chinese habit of demonstrating
affection by fussing over whether his partner
was eating well, wearing enough or using
sunscreen. Sun snapped over Havrehed¡¯s
constant understatement ¨C the Danish fear
that being too positive will bring bad luck.
Both arguments were settled quickly.
Sun became the first Asian
to row an ocean and was nominated as Chinese
Sportsman of the Year. Two years after Havrehed
also became the first from his homeland
to achieve the feat, he is still exploiting
it to raise money. Two hours after this
reviewer suggested he didn¡¯t have to appraise
the book, Havrehed was at the Post¡¯s reception
desk with a signed copy. Even with a story
that narrates itself, he is eager to tell
and sell it well.
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