After more than two months alone at sea, Tim Crockett finished his 3,200-mile solo row across the Atlantic Ocean last Wednesday by making landfall in Antigua in the Caribbean.

Starting from the island of La Gomera off Africa’s northwestern coast on Dec. 12, Wednesday’s completion put his trek time at 63 days, 2 hours and 37 minutes.

A 48-year-old Royal Marine veteran, husband and father of two, Crockett had been one of only five solo rowers in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, an annual race across the Atlantic. Other participants in the challenge rowed in groups of two, three or four.

Crockett placed second out of the solo teams, beaten only by 18-year old Lukas Haitzmann, who completed the event in 59 days, 8 hours and 22 minutes.

Over the course of his excursion, Crockett celebrated Christmas and his birthday in his boat “Tame the Kraken,” a 24-foot, specially designed ocean rowboat specially designed to right itself if it capsizes in stormy weather.

In a video posted Wednesday morning on the “Tame the Kraken” Facebook page, Crockett had told followers he was just under 12 miles away from harbor.

“I may look like an Arctic explorer, but I’ve just been hit by some pretty nasty squalls,” Crockett said. “Hopefully we’re through the worst of that, we’ll get through these few final miles and it will be a fantastic welcome into Antigua.”

 

The trek was Crockett’s effort to raise money for U.S. and British veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. He served 12 years in the Royal Marines, seeing action in the first Iraq war and doing drug interdiction work in the seas as a member of the United Kingdom’s Special Boat Service. The motivation for his journey, he previously told the MDJ, came when an old military buddy committed suicide.

Crockett had initially set a goal of completing his trek in 50 days or less, but complicating the effort early on was an injury — he tweaked his knee on the second night of the marathon.

Other roadblocks on the sea included mechanical and equipment failure, sunburns and extreme heat.

Check out my interview with Tim from this past June and make sure you get over to his website (https://www.tamethekraken.com/) and donate some money.