After 6-weeks of final preparations to Moksha and infiltrating the local nightlife Steve and Jason departed Lagos on Oct 13th 1994. However, a week out to sea the borrowed video camera - the primary means of documenting the voyage - proved faulty. This precipitated stopping into the town of Funchal on the island of Madeira to make emergency repairs.

Next stop was Miami, Florida. The Atlantic had never been pedaled from East to West and Steve and Jason had a combined total of around 10-days of sea experience between them. Luck was their best friend: in the first month they had a near miss with a shrimping trawler and a nightime visit from an invisible sea-monster (probably a whale) that threatened to capsize the boat by using the centreboard as a scratching post.

Steve nearly lost his life after being washed over board by a rogue wave that capsized the boat mid-Atlantic. From that time on he and Jason's relationship deteriorated, illustrated by the number of words they would exchange in an average day: in one 24hr period the total was just 10 words!

Food supplies were started to get scarce by time they were nearing the Caribbean, prompting them to make landfall on the island of Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands on day 97. Disaster struck before they were able to reach shore in the form of Moksha grounding on the coral reef surrounding the island. Luck again came to their aid and washed Moksha over the rocks to safety.

The final stretch was a 500-mile pedal through the Bahamas to Miami. Click here to find out more about this section of the voyage.

Map courtesy of Map Resources

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