Drowned US adventurer’s boat washes up on Pacific island

Pacific Ocean currents cause debris left at sea often washing ashore on Marshall Islands – such as boats and drug caches

An undated handout photo received from Benjamin Chutaro on November 9, 2021 shows a boat used by the late US Paralympian and ocean rower Angela Madsen found washed up on Mili Island (BENJAMIN CHUTARO/AFP via Getty I)

The boat of the US adventurer, Paralympian, and ocean rower Angela Madsen has washed up in the Marshall Islands 16 months after she drowned as she attempted to cross the Pacific.

Her body was discovered floating at sea in June 2020 – 59 days after she set off on her journey to try to become the first paralysed person to row from California to Hawaii alone.

The custom made boat, Rowoflife, floated in the ocean for more than a year before it was found.

Benjamin Chutaro of the Marshall Islands said the boat washed ashore late last month on Mili Island, around 75 miles (120km) east of Majuro, the capital.

Mr Chutaro is a Majuro resident but was visiting his home island when he heard that the boat had been found. He told AFP that he saw further evidence that the boat had belonged to the 60-year-old Ms Madsen.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the equipment was ransacked ... I did find the EPIRB (emergency beacon) with her NOAA (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) identification number,” he told the news agency.

The boat had been fitted with several cameras in an attempt to make a movie about the journey, but Mr Chutaro said they were gone and that he only found four or five GoPro camera mounts, but not the cameras themselves.

“I found out that people took the GoPros,” he said. “I was not able to locate any of them. Hopefully, none of the footage was erased.”

The US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands, Roxanne Cabral, and the Marshall Islands Police Department Deputy Commissioner, Eric Jorbon, said they had not been made aware that the boat had been found, but that they would investigate, according to AFP.

Ms Madsen was a former Marine who was paralysed following a failed spinal surgery in 1993. She competed in the Paralympics three times in rowing, shot put, and javelin.

She rowed across the Atlantic twice, and also journeyed around Britain, as well as from California to Hawaii. Those trips were made with partners but she drowned during her solo row in the Pacific.

Ms Madsen reportedly drowned when she went into the water to repair something on the boat. Relatives grew worried when they didn’t hear from her.

A commercial boat found her body floating in the water tied to her vessel. The boat picked up her body but left the vessel in the water.

The currents in the Pacific Ocean means that debris left at sea often wash ashore on the Marshall Islands, such as boats and drug caches.

There have been many occasions when fishermen or others who got lost during a short trip eventually washed ashore on the Marshall Islands after spending a long time at sea.

Jose Alvarenga, from El Salvador, received international attention in 2014 after he spent 14 months floating around the Pacific in a fishing boat, ending up in Ebon Atoll in the southern Marshall Islands after starting out in Mexico.

A boat with around 1,400 pounds (649kg) of cocaine washed up on northern Ailuk Atoll in December of 2020. The drugs were confiscated and destroyed by law enforcement.