The two Irish rowers rescued last night after their boat capsized off the coast of Bermuda today thanked the US Coast Guard and the crew of a Spanish tanker for rescuing them.
Corkman Gearóid Towey (28) and Dubliner Ciarán Lewis (34), who were competing in the Atlantic Rowing Race, sent out a distress signal at 5.35 pm that was picked up at US Coast Guard base in Norfolk, Virginia.
Towey and Lewis had been competing in the race from the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean.
The pair's boat, the Digicel Atlantic Challenge, was located overturned in high seas some 1,400 nautical miles south-east of Bermuda. The crew were then found in a liferaft.
A Spanish-flagged supertanker was asked by the US Coast Guard to head for the area and rescued the pair from heavy seas late last night.
The team issued a statement thanking the US Coast Guard and the crew of the Hispania Spiritfor their "swift and professional response".
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Irelandprogramme, Towey said: "We came very close to dying yesterday so we're really happy to be alive but still very disappointed that the race is over for us."
Towey told how the pair came into difficulty after their steering mechanism snapped the previous day. The boat subsequently struggled through the high seas and large waves.
"The seas were high but we had seen bigger waves earlier in the race. Soon, though, they started getting very big and one freak wave came along," he said.
"I was on the oars at the time and Ciarán was in the cabin. I knew straight away we weren't going to make it and that it would roll us.
"I ended up in the water. For about 30 seconds I was in the middle of a wave and didn't know where I was. It was a case of swimming in one direction and just hoping it was the right one to the top," Towey said.
"The boat landed on me but I managed to swim up. Ciarán was still stuck in the cabin. When I got to the surface I managed to swim to the boat and he just popped up. The boat was completely destroyed. The wave had reduced it to match sticks."
After setting off the distress signal and "bobbing around" for some five hours in their liferaft, the pair were rescued by the Spanish tanker.
"We were in the middle of the Atlantic and we just tried to stay calm. We knew the worst of it was over and were ready for a long wait."
Because of the high winds and seas it took over an hour to rescue the men from the water. Both men are "sore" but suffered no serious injuries and were seen to by medical staff aboard the tanker. The vessel arrives in Spain this weekend.
Irish Water Safety chief executive John Leech has warned the public to familiarise themselves with all safety equipment before going to sea. "It was these simple skills that saved Ciarán and Gearoid's lives," he said.