“Like being hit by a car”: Marlin spears hole in boat during Atlantic rowing challenge
A group of British rowers participating in The World’s Toughest Row faced a dramatic encounter when a 12ft marlin pierced a hole in their boat. The four-man team, known as the Mayflower crew, was competing in the 3,000-mile (4,828km) challenge from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua to raise funds for charity.
The marlin’s strike created a serious hole in one of the boat’s cabins, narrowly missing the leg of skipper Glynne Dunn. The crew—consisting of Dunn, Dan Lewis, Dan Wooler and Paul Adams, all from Devon in the UK—described the mid-afternoon incident as a “traumatic experience” that left them battling to repair their vessel while navigating 15-20ft (4-6m) waves, in an interview with the BBC.
The hole in the boat was eventually plugged. Image courtesy of The Mayflower Crew.
Wooler, who was seated just inches from where the marlin struck, gave an interview to BBC Radio Devon from the Atlantic. “It was a crunching, grinding motion accompanied with the biggest thud in the world,” he says. “We actually thought we’d been hit by another boat, how that would have happened I don’t know because there was nothing around us. I looked down and it was only a foot away from me, the water was bubbling up and suddenly there was blood everywhere.”
Wooler adds, “It was like being hit by a car—I’ll never forget that crunching sound! The water seemed to bubble and then was filled with the deep red blood of the marlin, presumably injured by the strike.”
The crew quickly sprang into action to manage the damage. Dunn evacuated electronics, personal items and bedding from the cabin as water began flooding in. The marlin’s spike had not only penetrated the fibreglass hull but also several layers of the deck. A bung was hammered in to plug the hole, but the first attempt failed. A larger bung, nearly two inches across, was successfully secured with water-resistant putty, allowing the team to stabilise the boat.
An Atlantic blue marlin. Image courtesy of NOAA – Gardieff S, via Wikimedia.
Wooler recounts their rapid recovery: “Kit dried on deck, hot tea all round, and back on the oars within the hour!”
He adds: “You are very vulnerable when you’re out here. We’re stripped bare, and in many regards, the challenge is your capacity to keep going, keep pulling the oars, keep driving yourself forward when all these things go on. That has been the test. You learn an awful lot about yourselves and about each other. It was very humbling.”
The incident is eerily reminiscent of one that occurred in The World’s Toughest Row in January 2024, when a three-strong crew patched up their boat with an empty champagne bottle and a broken oar after encountering a marlin at sea.
The Mayflower crew, who describe themselves as a “tight-knit group of friends united by a shared spirit of adventure,” has already raised over £165,000 towards their £200,000 target for the Mustard Tree Cancer Support Centre and Star Scheme.
You can follow their journey and support the fundraiser online.
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