They are usually used at the naming of a new ship.
But an enterprising transatlantic rowing crew told yesterday how they used an empty bottle of champagne to plug a hole in their ship – after it was attacked and pierced by a marlin.
The spear-nosed fish punctured the trio’s boat as they were halfway through a 3,000-mile challenge called ‘World’s Toughest Row’, puncturing the vessel three times and breaking an oar.
Crew member Maddie Difazio-Wright, from Bath, said the New Year’s Eve incident was ‘completely terrifying’.
“I saw the fish coming towards the boat and then we heard a crunching sound,” she said.
Crew member Maddie Difazio-Wright, from Bath, said the New Year’s Eve incident was ‘completely terrifying’
An enterprising transatlantic rowing crew used an empty bottle of champagne to plug a hole in their ship – after it was attacked and pierced by a marlin
The spear-nosed fish (pictured) punctured the trio’s boat as they were halfway through a 3,000-mile challenge dubbed ‘World’s Toughest Row’, puncturing the vessel three times and breaking an oar
“It happened so quickly and our training started. We tried to use what we had on board to save our trip.”
She said the champagne bottle was a leftover from Christmas Day “so it was pure instinct to use it to plug the hole.”
“The poor marlin fish must have had a huge headache,” she said.
Ms Difazio-Wright, a brand manager for a property company, and crew members Grace Gilbert, a surveyor from Oxford, and teacher Grace ‘G’ Pybus from Newport, had no previous rowing experience and met online to train and participate together in the challenge .
The annual race sees participants row more than 3,000 nautical miles from La Gomera in the Canary Islands across the Atlantic Ocean to Antigua, and typically draws 20 to 40 teams of up to five rowers from around the world.
The women, who entered under the name Vibe the Wave, left on December 12 and expected it to take up to 50 days to complete the crossing.
They made good progress until New Year’s Eve, when the trio realized they were rowing over a school of fish being chased by a 10-foot marlin.
In one incident captured on the crew’s GoPro camera, the fish rammed the boat with its pointed snout and then returned for another attack. A team spokesperson said it left “three notable gaps”: one in the hatch with direct exposure to the ocean.
The crew spent almost three hours repairing the damage and managed to repair the boat enough to continue rowing using ‘a combination of a bucket, a fender, part of an oar and waste bags’, but they are still taking on some water and are currently just under a month away from the finish in Antigua.
“We are fortunately still on track and making good progress on our journey,” said Ms Difazio-Wright.
Thinking quickly, the crew saw the gap closed with the only thing they had on hand: a bottle of champagne
The quick repair did its job and allowed the crew to safely continue their 3,000-mile line
The crew said the champagne bottle was a leftover from Christmas Day ‘so it was just an instinct to use it to plug the hole’
Ms Difazio-Wright, a brand manager for a real estate company, and crew members Grace Gilbert, a surveyor from Oxford, and teacher Grace ‘G’ Pybus from Newport, celebrate ‘the world’s most remote cocktail party’ while on the boat
The crew had no previous rowing experience and met online to train for and participate in the challenge together
The crew is equipped with dehydrated food rations and a water desalination unit, to make the seawater drinkable.
During the crossing, previously known as the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge, the women expected to row more than 1.5 million oars, brave waves up to nine meters high and deal with storms, blisters and buttocks.
The three women use the Atlantic Challenge to raise money for various charities.
Another last-minute drama saw doubts over whether Grace Pybus would be able to make the adventure due to problems with her eyesight.
‘Managing glasses or contact lenses on such a trip would have been unthinkable. With just a month to go for laser eye surgery before departure, the London Vision Clinic has created magic,” she said.
‘I cannot thank Prof. Reinstein and the entire team enough for this life-changing treatment. There were so many benefits, especially not having to stick contact lenses in my eyes while the waves bounced around the boat! You also never have to wear glasses again. They have gone above and beyond to support countless rowers and we are grateful.”
There are several species of marlin, the largest of which is the species that attacked the woman’s boat, the endangered Atlantic blue marlin.
It can grow up to 5 meters long and weigh three quarters of a ton.
Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is a story about an old fisherman’s struggle to catch and land an enormous marlin.
The tradition of breaking a bottle of champagne or wine over the bow of a new ship for good luck and safe travel dates back to the times of the Vikings, who poured a drop of blood from a sacrificed animal onto the bow of the ship for good luck.