On the afternoon of 25 February, Richard Matthew’s Oyster 82 Zig Zag had a rendezvous at sea with transatlantic rower Charlie Pitcher from Burnham-on-Crouch. Taking part in the ‘Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Solo’, Charlie left La Gomera in the Canary Islands and met Zig Zag 12 miles off the coast of Antigua after 52 days at sea. Shattering the previous single-handed record by some 16 days, Charlie was the first boat home with the rest of the fleet several hundred miles astern.

Aboard Zig Zag were Charlie's wife Emma, his two youngest children and his sisters. It was a good East Coat welcome as also on board was current Dragon World Champion and multiple Olympic medalist Poul Hoj-Jensen and his wife Sophia from Burnham-on-Crouch, while halfway back to English Harbour Zig Zag was joined by the 70-foot cruiser racer Stay Calm and her lively crew, also from Burnham.

At the precise moment of crossing the finishing line off Shirley Heights, an hour before sunset, a large humpback whale breached within feet of the rower and did a lazy circle close alongside the spectator  
boats. A little more than a coincidence perhaps as it had been close by for the last two days.  Charlie rowed his two children in from the finishing line and stepped ashore in Nelson’s Dockyard as if he'd had  
an afternoon row on the Serpentine.

Charlie's late father, Dick Pitcher, was a formidable competitor on the East Anglian Offshore circuit and would have been justly proud of his son’s achievement.