SWNS / Get Busy Rowing team
Incredible footage shows a team of rowers coming face to face with a whale in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The 4-man team encountered the animal midway through their 3,000-mile (4,800km) adventure to raise money for charity.
SWNS news reported that the men were suddenly surrounded by a pod of four or five whales surfacing and diving alongside their boat.
The video shows one of the mammals breaching right next to the side of their boat—and the ‘Get Busy Rowing’ team feared their vessel could be struck.
Three of the rowers, Will Towning, Greg Collins, and Chris Betts, are from England, and the fourth member, Elliot Collins, lives in Connecticut.
“It was the most surreal moment of my life,” Elliot exclaimed.
“It was unbelievable,” said one of the members. “All I just heard was ‘whale, whale, whale, whale’, and then I got out of the cabin just in time to see it.”
The team are competing in the World’s Toughest Row, which is a transatlantic unassisted rowing race from the Canary Islands (off the coast of Africa) to Antigua in the Caribbean.
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So far, the team has raised nearly £12,000 ($15,000) for the Matt Hampson Foundation, which inspires and supports young people seriously injured while playing sports. Their Get Busy Living center in rural Leicestershire was opened in 2018 by ex-rugby player Matt Hampson, who himself experienced a life-changing injury in 2005.
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