JAMES CRACKNELL and Ben Fogle have spoken for the first time of a brush with death as they competed in the gruelling Atlantic Rowing Race.
Mr Cracknell, a double Olympic gold medallist and Mr Fogle, a television wildlife presenter, won the two-man race after going 2,937 miles across the Atlantic from La Gomera, in the Canaries.
After arriving at English Harbour, in Antigua, yesterday, 49 days after setting off, Mr Fogle said that at about midday on January 10 their boat was flipped over after being hit by a wave from behind.
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“Suddenly I had this sensation of being lifted out of my shoes,” he said. “I remember holding on to an oar for dear life, but letting it slip. The next thing I knew I was under water. There was no sign of James and I had no line to the boat. I thought: ‘That’s it, I’ve had it.’ ”
Mr Cracknell said that he had woken to find himself upside-down in his cabin. He told The Daily Telegraph: “I felt the boat turn over again and there was Ben clinging to the side screaming: ‘I’m here, I’m here’.”