Atlantic Challenge

On Sunday 22 June 1997, Alan Priddy, Vic Palmer, Jan Falkowski and Steve Lloyd set out to cross the Atlantic in Spirit of Portsmouth—a four-year-old 7.4 m (24 ft) Ribtec rigid inflatable with a single 165 hp Yamaha inboard diesel engine.

 

The journey took them from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA to Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, stopping on the way in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland and Northern Ireland.

 

The average leg was more than 500 nautical miles with the longest one planned to be nearly 700 nautical miles and scheduled to take 35 hours non-stop. However, the trip from Iceland to Weymouth took 100 hours with stops for fuel in Barra and Bangor.

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