Egyptian ocean rowers rescued after 11 hours missing in Atlantic

CAIRO – 23 December 2017: Two Egyptians, Omar Samra and Omar Nour were rescued, Friday evening after missing for 11 hours during an attempt to set the record in the Atlantic Challenge, an annual ocean rowing race in the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic Campaigns, a Spanish ocean rowing organizer said that the two Egyptian adventurers, who partnered up to create Team O2, activated the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) on their ocean rowing boat at 9:35 am Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), after they were unable to contact the Atlantic Campaigns’ Duty Officers. The Spanish company got its two Atlantic Campaigns Support Yachts to search for the Egyptian team.

The official Facebook page of the Atlantic Campaign announced at 21:30 GMT that Samra and Nour had been rescued. The company is expected to release more details about the rescue mission on Saturday.

In April, Samra, the first Egyptian to climb Everest, as well as go to Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean on Ski expeditions to, both, the South and North Poles, respectively, agreed with Nour, the fastest Arabic-speaking triathlete, to row 5,000 nautical kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean. The row was to take place from San Sebastian de la Gomera in the Canary Islands to Nelson’s Dockyard English Harbor in Antigua. The Egyptian team started their journey on December 12, along with 28 other teams from 17 countries in the race.

U.K. rowers Chay Blyth and John Ridgway were the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean successfully in 1996. It was a 92-day battle against hurricanes, 50 foot waves and near starvation.