A MAN with Asperger’s Syndrome is set to put five years’ training to the test as he attempts to row across the Atlantic Ocean single-handed next month.
Buster Brown, 37, hopes to smash the current record by travelling 6,000km in busy shipping lanes, and enduring such obstacles as 40 degrees of heat, 40-foot swells, sharks and hurricanes from Lagos to Cayenne.
It is a perilous under- taking, but Mr Brown – from Logie Coldstone in Aberdeenshire – has spent the last five years preparing for the challenge.
Describing himself as a “fiancé, a father, a forces brat and a veteran, a conservationist, a lover of wild places, and a proven ocean rower”, he will set off at the end of next month and expects to be at sea for between 50 and 80 days.
He said: “I’ll be burning up to 10,000 calories a day and trying to consume up to 6,000 calories a day to prevent myself from wasting away, to keep my oars powered, and to help maintain my strength.
“The route is approximately 800 miles longer than that of the Talisker Atlantic [Yachting] Challenge, and will see me test myself against the existing mainland-to-mainland Atlantic solo record of 96 days.
“I will be navigating my way unsupported, and totally alone, to South America, eventually aiming for Cayenne in French Guinea.
“I am undertaking the journey in a Rannoch R10 rowing boat, which has been fully prepared to the highest specifications. This is a great opportunity to move forward in my life.”
Mr Brown admitted he had been in “dark hole of despair”, prior to being diagnosed with Asperger’s and praised the group Rock2Recovery for helping him emerge with renewed vigour.
He added: “I wanted an end to feeling scared of people and being confused about the world, but Rock2Recovery worked closely with me and they made a huge difference.
“They discovered that somehow, for the previous 37 years, I had managed to negotiate my way through challenging circumstances – not always well – with no clue I was a high-functioning Asperger’s.
“Now I am helping to run the biggest ocean rowing projects in the world in a way that creates opportunities for others to use adventure to change their own lives.”
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