THE adventurer who is attempting a record stay on the most westerly outpost of Rockall is set to achieve his goal today.
Nick Hancock will break the 42-day overall occupation record, set by members of Greenpeace in 1997, having been on the rock 260 miles out into the Atlantic for 43 days.
He broke the current 40-day solo occupation record set by Tom McClean on Tuesday.
He celebrated achieving that by popping a small bottle of champagne while also sending a tweet with a message to veteran adventurer Mr McClean, of Morar, who held the solo record for 29 years. Mr Hancock's message read simply: "Sorry Tom."
Mr McClean's wife Jill has since sent a message saying: "Tom is busy at present planning his ventures and has asked me to say 'well done' to Nick and to keep up the good work!" Cruise boat operator Kilda Cruises say expected favourable weather at the weekend mean they plan to take Mr Hancock off the rock on Saturday.
Last year Mr Hancock, a chartered surveyor from Ratho near Edinburgh, had planned to stay on the rock, which is 100ft wide and 70ft high, for 60 days. But he conceded defeat in face of the high seas that were running.
Two weeks ago he feared he may have to abandon his challenge early after losing vital supplies in a storm.
It was in 1997 that three Greenpeace activists set the 42-day-long occupation record, renaming Rockall the new micronation of Waveland in protest at oil exploration in the area.
Mr McClean, a former SAS soldier, went to the rock in 1985 and stayed for 40 days.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article