Former Royal Marines rescued just days into their attempted Atlantic Ocean row
A team of Royal Marines who were attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean have had to be rescued just days into the challenge due to issues with their boat.
The Row4Ukraine team shared an update on their Facebook page outlining to those who were following the boat's progress that they had not made much headway due to technical issues.
Just two days later, the team said they had returned to land in Gran Canaria.
The team then shared a video of the Coast Guard rescuing them.
"We cannot thank them enough for their incredible efforts and care. Safety is always the top priority, and we're so grateful for their help in what could have been a much more dangerous situation," the team said.
Accompanying the post was a video showing the team being winched to safety by a Coast Guard helicopter.
Attempting to row to Barbados from Gran Canaria in just six weeks, the team started drifting for hours following steering problems with the boat.
Lee Spencer, who was leading Row4Ukraine, told BFBS Forces News how to carry on would have been "stupid and dangerous" as they would have moved out of range of ocean rescue.
"The decision to abandon the ship was very, very easy," he said.
"It was really [a] black and white decision. You just can't carry on an ocean row on a boat you can't steer."
Mr Spencer said he was told by Gran Canaria's search and rescue that the team was on the edge of the "bubble" from which they could be saved and was told he needed to make a call "now or not at all".
"There wasn't an imminent danger to life, but that situation changes the moment you get out of range of search and rescue," he said.
"The priority is always the care and the crew's safety, and as disappointed as I am with how things turned out, you've always got to think in terms of [things] could've been a hell of a lot worse."
Coupled with a deteriorating deck, the decision was made to get them out of harm's way and they were rescued by a search and rescue helicopter.
Andy Merry, a former Royal Marine and Row4Ukraine team member, told BFBS Forces News the whole team were "very disappointed".
"We've invested a lot of ourselves into this whole project," he said.
"We really wanted to get out there and show the world what we can do and raise the awareness that we wanted to do.
"We are pretty gutted but we're very comfortable with the decisions that we made were the right ones and we live to fight another day."
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