A South African couple rowed to cross the Atlantic from Africa to the U.S.

 

 

A South African couple rowed into the record books on Friday after becoming the first team to cross the Atlantic from Africa to the U.S. It took Riaan Manser and his girlfriend Vasti Geldenhuys 153-days to make the journey in their custom-built 23ft row boat. The couple celebrated their accomplishment with a kiss as they passed the Statue of Liberty, after enduring a 6,500-mile journey with no support crew and limited supplies. Scroll down for video +12 'We made it': Riaan Manser kisses his girlfriend Vasti Geldenhuys as they arrive in New York after rowing across the Atlantic +12 Record: The South African couple became the first crew to ever row cross the Atlantic from mainland Africa to mainland North America South African couple rows from Morocco to New York City Manser and Geldenhuys, who started their journey on December 30, estimate that it took 3.6 million rows for them to make it to New York City. They carried only essentials on board, and kept themselves fed and watered by fishing and using a salt-water convertor. A GPS system helped them - and their friends and family - keep track of their progress as they crossed the Atlantic, and made their way up from the Bahamas and Miami, to New York. When they reached Manhattan the couple became the first crew to have rowed from mainland Africa to the mainland of North America. 'Making history in the 21st century? Where do you do that,' Manser said, adding that their crossing was the 'biggest romantic story to be told.' 'Done! Emotional all round!' the couple posted to their Facebook page Friday afternoon, after mooring in Manhattan. +12 Nearly there: The couple make their way towards Manhattan as they complete their 6,500-mile journey +12 Close quarters: The couple made the journey in a 23ft rowboat, and had no back up crew and few amenities +12 Adventure: The couple had hoped for calm seas but at times their 23ft boat was faced with challenging conditions Manser, 40, said they had expected the crossing to be smoother, but their boat was tossed about on rough seas and at one point capsized. 'We were naïve. We thought the Atlantic would be this calm little pond that you just row across,' he told the New York Post. 'By the fifth day, we were saying to each other, what is going on? Goodness gracious. It should be a lot calmer. The sea was very, very, very angry.' In February a huge swell knocked Manser from the boat, the Spirit of Madiba, which capsized with Geldenhuys still on board. Fortunately, when it righted itself, she was still in her seat and, although they lost everything on deck, both escaped without injury. On another occasion, Geldenhuys had to rescue her boyfriend of 15 years using their fishing line, after he fell from the boat while trying to take a photo. +12 Awe-inspiring: Manser holds up a flying fish he caught while crossing the Atlantic Ready to go: Manser used Twitter to log their journey, which they began on December 30 'I couldn’t turn the boat around and I couldn’t stop the boat. But what saved him was the fishing line. He grabbed onto the fishing line that was behind the boat and I reeled him in,' she told CBS. The couple also had to flag down a large ship for help when their salt-water convertor broke, leaving them with no fresh water supplies. Manser documented their journey on Twitter, opening the account of their adventure on December 30 with the tweet: 'It's all go for Atlantic Ocean rowing Monday 9am. 90% done.100% impossible I think. I've never been this prepped in last 12 years of journeys.' The couple described their boat capsizing in February as a wake up call, but said despite the danger, the journey was worth it. 'You get this quiet time, and the sun is setting, and there's like pink and blue and white fluffy clouds, and it's just so quiet,' Geldenhuys said. +12 First leg: Vasti points to Lanzarote as the couple pass the Canary Islands in January +12 Catch of the day: The couple supplemented their freeze-dried food supplies with freshly caught fish +12 Explorers: The couple, who have been together for 15 years, took 153 days to cross the Atlantic Endurance and adventures are nothing new to the 40-year-old who in 2006 became the first person to cycle the perimeter of Africa. It took him two years to make his way through 35 countries, and his achievement was acknowledged by Nelson Mandela who described Manser as 'a performance that will inspire the youth of the continent'. Although most of the couple's latest adventure was spent at sea, they stopped off for a welcome break in the Bahamas in April and arrived in Florida just in time to watch a Miami Heat game. The stops on dry land gave the couple a break from their rigorous eight-hour-a-day rowing schedule, as well as from their limited food supply. +12 Welcome break: The couple broke up their journey with a stop in the Bahamas +12 Achievement: The couple congratulate each other after reaching New York City +12 Arrivals: Manser and Geldenhuys row past the Statue of Liberty on Friday afternoon They had packed freeze dried food, but supplemented that with whatever fish they could catch, meaning that on some days they had the freshest food available, as they feasted on huge sea bass that had been hooked out the Atlantic just moments earlier. After reaching their destination yesterday, the couple seemed keen to take a break from the sea, and posted a fun message on Twitter offering to sell their boat.

The storm has sustained winds of 108mph per hour and gusts up to 154mph, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.   +10 From above: Typhoon Neoguri is seen from the International Space Station. The storm has sustained winds of 108mph per hour and gusts up to 154mph as it passed through the islands comprising the southern Okinawa prefecture +10 Approaching storm: This satellite image, from July 7, shows Typhoon Neoguri whirling towards the Japanese coast +10 Shaken: Ships were lashed to the shore for safety at Itoman, on the Okinawa island, in preparation for the violent weather formation to come     +10 Approach: Huge waves are seen battering the coast of Korea, as the storm veers round towards the southern-most island of Japan +10 Dangerous: A man can be seen taking a swim ahead of the dangerous storm. It emerged today that one man had been swept out to sea by the after being knocked off of his boat +10 Rough seas: The Yuhzan Maru, a Japanese fishing boat, is tossed by strong waves as the typhoon passes over Itoman, on the island of Okinawa Forecasts show the storm tracking towards Kyushu island and then across Japan's main island of Honshu. It is forecast to lose more of its power over land, but much of the damage from such storms comes from downpours that cause landslides and flooding. Such risks are elevated by the storm's timing, at the tail end of Japan's summer rainy season. The Philippines, which suffered the strongest typhoon to ever hit land when Haiyan struck six months ago, was spared the ferocious winds of Neoguri. The storm did not make land fall and remained about 480 kilometres (300 miles) east of the northern-most province of Batanes, when it roared past on Sunday. The typhoon did intensify the country's south-west monsoon, dumping heavy rains on some western Philippine provinces.         Breathtaking photographs capture Mother Nature at her most ferocious, depicting the powerful churn of the ocean during a violent thunderstorm. With a single snap of the shutter, New York photographer captures the moment sea and sky meet in an incredible splash of color. Enlarge +6 'I portray the broad range of the human experience': Dalton Portella dramatic seascapes captures the striking power of nature as a thunderstorm churns the ocean +6 Ominous: Dalton Portella's striking ocean photographs almost look like paintings, with streaks of lightning illuminating dark clouds over a thrashing ocean Portella snapped his 'Perfect Storm Series' in Montauk, New York, during the violent storm which hit the US east coast on July 4. The seascapes show lightning streaking through dark, ominous clouds over a thrashing ocean swell.   'With my art, I capture essence; the essence of places I've been, emotions I've felt, and the subjects I paint and photograph,' Portella said, according to My Modern Met. 'I portray the broad range of the human experience.' +6 Inspired: New York snapper Dalton Portella says his breathtaking photographs capture 'the essence of places I've been, emotions I've felt, and the subjects I paint and photograph' +6 'With my art, I capture essence': Photographer Dalton Portella captured the ocean frothing and churning during a violent thunderstorm +6 Hypnotizing: Musician and photographer Dalton Portello captured the turbulent ocean in his home of Montauk, New York during a storm +6 Tempest: Waves crash as the ocean swells during a storm in Montauk, New York