Wow... that Sucks

Thu Jan 5, 2:33 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - An intrepid British oarsman's bid to row round Antarctica ended after just 30 kilometres (20 miles) when he unexpectedly collided with the Falkland Islands, British newspapers reported.
Colin Yeates was attempting to make history with the first solo unsupported rowing circumnagivation, expected to last 10 and a half months and cover 21,630-kilometres.
However, the "personal quest" to "push the boundaries of what is believed possible" hit the rocks after just 30 miles.
After four years of careful preparation, the 47-year-old father of seven fulfilled his prediction that his journey would "begin and end in the Falkland Islands".
But there was no predicting the strong currents which crashed his boat into the rocks so soon after leaving Port Stanley, the British territory's capital.
His state-of-the-art 30,000-pound (43,500-euro, 53,000-dollar) boat, Charlie Rossiter, was smashed to pieces.
He made a call by satellite phone to his support team from the shore, the police picked him up and were taking him to a local farm, according to the Ocean Rowing Society website.
"Unfortunately, Colin is back on dry land and his boat is wrecked," said project co-ordinator Simon Dyde.
"I took a call from him at 2330 GMT (Tuesday) to say he had abandoned ship on the northern part of East Falkland at Cow Bay. Colin had fought against the local currents but failed to escape for the last 30 hours.
"Strong local currents dragged him onto rocks and he spoke to me from the beach, watching his boat being wrecked by the waves."
"Colin is fine but the boat is wrecked."
Yeates had been planning to row round Antarctica clockwise and believed his experience in Britain's 1982 Falklands War against Argentina would be of enormous value.
His twin-cabin craft was packed with 200 kilogrammes of freeze-dried food to fuel him with the 6,000 calories per day he needed.
Yeates hoped the expedition would make a valuable contribution to the study of global warming.