A LATE start, frustrating technical hitches, a passing ship that was too close for comfort and a painful boiling water burn are some of the hurdles an Eastern Cape extreme adventurer has had to face since he set out to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean 19 days ago.

On the bright side, Peter van Kets said his trip so far has been something of a “game cruise”, with hundreds of dolphins, a couple of pilot whales and an albatross providing some much-needed company.

Van Kets was all set to row across the Atlantic with nothing but a small boat and a set of oars, so it came as a blow when the epic race was postponed by almost a month.

The Eastern Cape adventurer, who made South African sporting history when he and fellow East Londoner Bill Godfrey won the pairs category of the 2007 Woodvale Trans-Atlantic Race, was at peak physical and mental fitness following months of arduous training and meticulous preparation, when he and fellow competitors had to deal with the blow of a series of postponements to the start of the race.

Although Van Kets and his state-of- the-art custom-built boat Liberty Nyamezela were already at the starting point in the Canary Islands in time for the intended December 6 start, organisers were forced to delay the start – first because regulation onboard safety flares had not arrived and later because of adverse weather.

The gruelling 5500km race across the ocean finally began on January 4 and Van Kets is currently in tenth position overall and second in the solo category.

Speaking from her East London home, his wife Kim described the postponement, which saw Van Kets fly back to East London before Christmas, as “horrendous” both for her husband and for herself and their four-year-old daughter. “The build-up to the goodbye is horrible, but I had to do it three times,” she said.

“Also, it meant the competitors lost a level of fitness, but Peter never lost his focus.”

On a positive note, the frustrating delays gave the naturally lean Van Kets an opportunity to reach his goal weight of 92kg which he needed thanks to the inevitable weight loss which results from non-stop, calorie burning rowing.

Although Van Kets, who is aiming to beat the 2007 solo winner’s record of 78 days, is still determined to win, he had not bargained for competition in the form of British rower Charlie Pitcher, who has taken to the ocean in a “controversially” designed boat, according to Kim.

“Hats off to him for the design of his boat.

“The cabin is like a big sail and is highly effective so on a good easterly wind, he is clocking up more mileage than the 12-man boat taking part.”

Besides the irritation of the delayed start, Van Kets has also had to deal with technical failure once he had set off, prompting his wife to describe the first 10 days of the trip as “a complete nightmare”.

Glitches with his SAT phone, auto helm, a broken rudder cable and a fault with the sliding seat upon which he rows were sorted out, but then Van Kets spilt boiling water on his feet while preparing breakfast on Monday morning.

“Hot feet – eina!” he wrote on Twitter.

“Fortunately no one was around to hear what I said!”

Even more traumatic was his close shave with a passing ship.

“Near miss. Ship just passed at 50m while I was in cabin.

“Figuring out why I wasn’t alerted by my technology. Lucky daytime, and awake”, he Twittered on January 7.

And while Pitcher has proved to be an unexpectedly tough competitor, Van Kets clearly has his heart set on overtaking him. “Just as Charlie is covering me, so I’m waiting to make my move,” he said, referring to the coming weeks as “a dingdong battle” between them.