DAN'S PAPERS, September 3, 2010 Page 84 www.danshamptons.com
Big Row
(continued from page 39)
home. The plan was to always have two crew members rowing. After leaving Huntington Harbor and traveling down the Long Island Sound toward the City, the crew was managing around 2.5 mph due to winds and currents. However, when they entered the East River, the changing currents propelled them to a speed of 9.5 mph, or 5-7 knots. But then the weather took a change for the worse, putting the crew in the precarious position of dodging fleet Staten Island ferry vessels in a very thick fog. “You could barely see 60 feet in front of you,” recalled Cuddihy. “The water became very choppy and unruly.” It was the first punch of a two storm system that paralyzed most of the New York area that evening with high winds, driving rains, and a display of lightning that drives dogs under beds, but the crew was unwavering. “It cleared up at the Verrazano Bridge. It was quite a sight emerging from the fog. Visibility was now two miles, it was there that the NYPD Harbor Patrol came to caution us about the coming bad weather and to do a safety check. When they saw we were properly prepared with beacons, etc,. they wished us well and off we rowed, entering the early evening.” Cuddihy admitted they were taken aback by the sudden virtual absence of light caused by the second storm system. “It was so dark, the clouds blocked the moon and stars, and the coast,” he
Under the bridge we go!
said. “The water was hitting us—we really couldn’t read the waves caused by the winds and the approaching storm. With the tide turning, at times while rowing intensely, it seemed we were not moving at all.” Things took another bad turn at the Rockaway Jetty area, when the lightning really was full sky. The men couldn’t see the breakers; they were barely moving at 1 mph, even with three men rowing. Due to extraordinary exertion, perhaps excitement, two members of the crew became ill. Cuddihy decided he would not put “anyone’s life in peril.” The plan was to row ashore in the Rockaway area at about 10:3011:00 p.m. Sunday night, discharge the sick crewmembers, and then head out and anchor off
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shore and wait it out. However only one of the two sick crewmembers, Chris Rizopoulos disembarked; Rick Shalvoy felt as though he could go on. So the three remaining crewmembers rowed out, dropped anchor and waited for the storm to pass—which it did around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning. The group was now 17 hours into the row. Somewhere around 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, after some intermittent sleep, the voyagers continued. But off Long Beach between 9-10 a.m. it became prudent to bring Shalvoy ashore because his valiant efforts had caused him to become very dehydrated and he needed professional medical attention. When the crew of now only two healthy rowers reached the Jones Beach area it was now about 5 p.m. Tuesday, and things were not looking good for completing the row. Jones Beach Life Guard Brian Banks kayaked out and ferried Shalvoy ashore, where he was attended to by the Life Guard staff. Then Banks returned to join the crew. Banks in his early 20s, had recently completed the Appalachian Trail—a feat also accomplished by Cuddihy’s son Ryan. With this bond being a drawing card, Banks joined the crew, but only after calling his girlfriend and telling her he wouldn’t be picking her up that night. So into the night the new crew rolled on until they reached Center Moriches Inlet sometime around 4:30 Wednesday morning. With Banks’s aid, the makeshift crew had traveled another 50 miles east from Jones Beach, choosing to take the ocean route around beautiful Fire Island. Now all the while, during this odyssey, there were cell phone issues. Due to the weather, moisture and other factors service was spotty. Via the erratic phone calls it seemed that the beached Chris Rizopoulos was lobbying to rejoin the crew, more on heart then on logic. At the same time Banks was facing the demands of his job, personal life and other responsibilities. He informed the Cuddihys that he had to go ashore sooner than later. It was at this juncture, before noon on Wednesday, that Cuddihy made the decision to stop the row—he had to let Banks go. He chose not to let Rizopoulos rejoin the crew, feeling that he needed more recuperating time. And lastly, he knew he could not go on safely with just him and his son rowing it alone. So, 147 miles and two days later into the voyage, it ended—but with a vow: Most likely, some time in the next year, Ryan Cuddihy will become the first man to row unsupported, (no boat following with supplies etc.) around Long Island. The good news is that the efforts of the crew helped raise $4,000 for the Wounded Warriors charity and Cuddihy has helped raise over $12,000 in the last four years. No one sustained major injuries, and Cuddihy now believes he has acquired the strategy and knowledge, through experience, to assure that the next attempt will succeed. But the man who rowed the Atlantic was all twinkles, saying he wasn’t sure if he would be part of the next crew to attempt the row. “Ryan’s up for it,” he said. “But as for me, it’s open ended at this time.”