Descendant of Columbus plans oar-inspiring Atlantic journey

HIS ancestor Christopher Columbus needed three ships and 90 men to become one of the first adventurers to cross the Atlantic.

Now, 500 years on, Leven Brown, whose great-grandmother is a direct descendant of Columbus, is planning the same journey single-handed. The Edinburgh stockbroker is swapping his suit and briefcase for a pair of oars to embark on the trip of a lifetime.

Mr Brown, 32, will brave rough seas, high winds and territorial whales in his bid to become the first man to complete the feat between Cadiz in Spain and Port of Spain in Trinidad.

From August 14, Mr Leven will face up to five months of solitude with only fish and birds for company, gruelling 18-hour rowing stints and the loss of about three stones in weight.

He will have a 24-hour emergency medical team just a satellite call away in case of injury.

But far from bring daunted by the size of task at hand, Mr Brown, who hopes to raise 100,000 in sponsorship for the Sportsman's Charity and the One City Trust, is relishing the challenge.

Mr Brown, of Montgomery Street, in Restalrig, said: "I've always wanted to take on a challenge of this magnitude. Hopefully, it will be the first of many."

Apart from rower's claw - the tightening of tendons in the hand from too long spent clutching a pair of oars - cramp and the inability to have a shower for almost half a year, he faces three major problems.

Mr Brown said: "The first problem is escaping the landmass of Spain. I'll wait for a good offshore breeze and high tide to get 20 miles away from Cadiz.

"The second is that I'll be leaving in a shipping lane in a tiny boat which will be hard to see. I will have to keep my eyes peeled for oil tankers. I have a transponder on board which should come up on their radar, and an alarm will go off on my boat, so I should get plenty of notice. Then you just get out of the way as fast as you can - row like fury."

The good news is that as long as he stays in the boat he should stay safe from sharks. The bad news is that won't protect him from the third problem - whales.

Mr Brown said: "Whales are a big problem. They are lovely creatures, but they do have a propensity to play with small boats.

"A lot of small yachts - even large yachts - have been rammed to bits. A boat like mine would be made into matchsticks by a territorial whale or a mother protecting her baby. I've been told singing calms them down but my voice is terrible and would probably agitate them even more."

And he is already looking ahead to future challenges. He said: "There's talk about starting at the North Pole, walking to a point where we can set sail from, heading to the coast of the South Pole and then walking to the Pole itself. In 2007 I want to row the Pacific."

THE FACTS

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS was trying to find a westward sea passage to the Orient when his fleet stumbled upon the New World in 1492.

The unintentional discovery changed the course of history and made him the most famed seafarer of all time.

Columbus, who was born in Genoa in 1451, went to sea as a teenager and travelled extensively before eventually making Portugal his home.

He attempted to get Portuguese, French and English backing for an expedition but finally it was King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain who agreed to sponsor his voyage. After ten weeks at sea land was sighted and on October 12, Columbus and his men set foot on what was later to be known as the Bahamas, in the West Indies.

Columbus landed on a number of other islands in the Caribbean, including Cuba and Hispanola, before returning to Spain.