Little Lady, One Man, Big Ocean (Hardcover)

The tall, burly man asks: 'Can you row?' 'No, never before,' I answer, and mumble something about canoeing in school. 'Well get in the boat,' says Eamonn Kavanagh. That first day is hard. The hands begin to cramp, drops of blood start oozing through your fingertips… The inspirational and romantic story of two non-rowers who took on one of the great challenges: the Atlantic. Tori Holmes, a petite 21-year-old from Alberta, and Paul Gleeson, a 29-year-old financial adviser from Limerick, met in Australia when Holmes answered an advert to drive support for Gleeson's 5,000-km cycle across the continent. Gleeson fell: both off his bike and for the woman behind the wheel of his support car. Crossing a continent was not enough. Acting on self-belief alone, Gleeson and Holmes together then embraced the dream of rowing a tiny boat across the vastness of the Atlantic in the 2005/06 Trans-Atlantic Race. But first they had to learn to row. So they contacted the only Irishmen to have completed the same race, Eamonn and Peter Kavanagh. The tough seafarers gave their expertise, gave their blessing and even gave the boat called after their mother, the Christina. In November 2005, Paul and Tori left the Canary Islands to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic. In February 2006, they completed their epic journey after 86 days. It was always going to be a huge challenge. But the race of 2005-2006 turned into a terrifying ordeal of storms and capsizes. Six of the 20 doubles teams, including another Irish boat, had to be rescued. Paul and Tori were thrown around by huge seas. They saw whales and sharks up close. They suffered days of unbearable thirst when their watermaker broke down. They suffered hallucinations caused by chronic sleep deprivation. But they persisted: with stubbornness, humour and firm self-belief. Help came, bizarrely, during a strange episode on-board their rowing boat, which Paul & Tori to this day are not able to fully explain. It seems that at a crisis point in the journey, they had an encounter with a mysterious unseen, yet completely perceptible, presence. Old seafaring lore has several theories as to what this might have been, but both adventurers are keeping their minds open on it. Irish Times rowing correspondent Liam Gorman heard of this unusual couple, till then unknown on the rowing scene, and began to speak to them on a satellite phone during their journey. The resulting book contains maps of the journey and a colour photo section.

Paul Gleeson hails from Limerick and studied business. After time as a financial adviser, he craved adventure and packed his bags to go travelling with a group of friends. In July 2003 he cycled 5,000km across Australia.

Tori Holmes from Alberta, Canada, went to Bangladesh after school and did voluntary work on various projects. After travelling throughout Asia on her own she met Paul in Australia. In February 2006 she entered the record books as the youngest woman to row an ocean.

Liam Gorman is the rowing correspondent of the Irish Times.