Sarah Kessans and Emily Kohl’s dream of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean ended Jan. 15 when the two Purdue graduates were plucked from the sea, just past the halfway point of a 2,931-mile race.
Kessans, BS ’05, and Kohl were 46 days into the Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race, a competition that started Nov. 30 at the Canary Islands, off the western coast of Africa. They were attempting to become the youngest American women to row across the Atlantic — to Antigua in the Caribbean Sea — when a giant rogue wave overturned their boat, named American Fire.

Their Web site, www.americanfirerowing.com, reports that both women were inside their cabin waiting out a storm when the wave hit.

“Watertight compartments under the deck and the watertight integrity of the main cabin are the key design factors that allow, in theory, the boats to self right during a roll over,” said their coach, Bill Butler.

“In the case of American Fire, when the boat rolled, Sarah and Emily, tucked securely inside their cabin, ended up on its roof, their weight preventing the boat from righting. As soon as they opened the hatch to escape, the cabin filled with water, ending all hope of righting the boat.”

Kessans and Kohl swam out of the cabin through the open hatch, only to find that their life raft had floated away. They activated an emergency radio beacon, crawled atop their overturned boat, and hung on for 16 hours, until a sailing ship arrived and rescued them.