A racer who braved sharks, hurricanes, deep salt-water sores and 1,000-foot container ships in a two-month non-stop rowboat challenge across the Atlantic Ocean will talk in Bermuda on October 6.

New Englander Tom Mailhot set off with Jim Veigler in his 23-foot home-made plywood rowboat in a race across the world's second largest ocean on Sunday, October 7, 2001.

Mr. Mailhot was laid off from his job as a construction supervisor for putting too much energy into building the boat and ended up deeply in debt as a result of the race.

"We had a shark following us about three metres off the back of the boat," Mr. Mailhot said. "We just kept going and did not crawl over the side. That was always a concern because it was my job to clean the barnacles off the bottom of the boat. Whenever I jumped in I looked around to see who I was down there with."

Three days after he left Playa San Juan in the Canary Islands, his boat American Star hit a storm and as it was surfing down a wave he saw a shark following them above their heads.

"The sun was behind it but I could see its silhouette in the wave above us," he said.

He even braved Hurricane Olga and saw St. Elmo's Fire during the Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge. "We were on the outskirts of the hurricane but there were some micro-storms around," he said.

"Then all of the onboard lights lit up on their own even though they were unplugged. It was St. Elmo's Fire. It was a sizzling fright. We took our carbon fibre oars out of the water and bunkered down for the night."

Bermuda's own Teddy Tucker told Mr. Mailhot he had a similar experience.

However, he said his spirits were at their lowest when the sea was flat calm and there was no wind or shade for days. The founder of the race, Sir Chay Blyth, had outlawed canopies of any kind while the racers were rowing.

"There was no relief from 100 degree heat." Mr. Mailhot said.

To make matters worse, three weeks into the race, their electronic water maker, which turned salt water into fresh water malfunctioned so they could only produce enough water to cook and stay alive. "But all of the water was the temperature of the surface of the ocean at 85 degrees. We did not have a cool drink for two months. We were both dehydrated and we weren't able to clear urine," he said. "We were wet all the time, from sweat because it was so hot, or from seawater as the boat was only 14 inches above the water. We had deep salt-water sores all over our bodies from our necks to our feet."

They took turns rowing during the night.

"We would row together for 12 hours a day and do three hour shifts to get through the night. Someone always had to be on deck to look out for ships," he said.

Despite a radar-deflector equipped on board his rowboat, 1,000-foot-long container ships often did not see the tiny ship until it was right on top of them.

One night he said a container ship was on a collision course with the rowboat until they managed to hail it on a VHF radio.

When asked if he would repeat the experience, Mr. Mailhot said: "Only if I had to".

Mr. Mailhot's next adventure will be a return to South Georgia Island in Antarctica in November.

He said he met former Premier David Saul in the Antarctic in 2003 and looked forward to visiting Bermuda where he will be a guest speaker at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on October 6.