Thursday, 4:30 PM
Rower sets out on 3,600-mile North Atlantic crossing
By Claire Cummings, Globe Correspondent
Boy, are his arms going to be tired! Charlie Girard began his quest today to row from Cape Cod to France.
Girard, a French mechanical engineer, had been delayed one day due to poor weather. He was towed out of the Orleans Yacht Club after noon today.
Hundreds of people watched him go, with some shouting encouragement as the French national anthem played on loudspeakers. A flotilla of about a dozen boats followed Girard's boat, the Caliste, as it was towed by the Orleans harbormaster.
Girard was later released a couple of hundred yards off the coast of Eastham. With a wave of his hand, he bid his well-wishers goodbye.
Someone shouted, "It's that way, Charlie!" as he set out.
Girard, 26, is on a quest to beat a record set in 2004 of 62 days, 19 hours, and 48 minutes for the 3,600-mile trip across the North Atlantic.
He plans to row 10 hours a day in his 800-pound vessel, which was three years in the making. Girard designed the 23-foot boat, made of resin and synthetic fibers, and spent six months training his body for the two-month journey.
