A former naval officer who is attempting to row solo from South Africa to South America has recently completed three-quarters of his epic journey.

Zirk Botha, 59, is attempting to row 7,200 kilometres (4,474 miles) unassisted from Cape Town in South Africa to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil onboard a solar-powered boat to promote renewable energies.

He embarked upon his epic feat in December last year and is averaging a distance of 58 nautical miles (67 miles) per day.

To give him the energy to keep rowing all day, Botha is currently consuming over three times an average adult male’s calorie intake, yet his constant exercise is predicted to make him lose 12 kilogrammes (26 lbs) over the course of his journey.

The South African is currently in good shape and has only suffered a strained knee, despite ploughing the South Atlantic solo every day.

Botha’s boat, named Ratel, is fitted with solar panels and a seawater desalination system, meanwhile, safety equipment and communications equipment are powered by solar-charged batteries.

He told South African media: “Renewable energies are essential to a sustainable future.”

On his journey, Botha sighted sunfish, dolphins and marlin. He told South African media: “My highlight was a pod of dolphins that played around Ratel for about 10 minutes.”

His next challenge as he approaches the Brazilian coast is to circumvent Trindade Island.

Botha’s journey can be tracked in real-time at: https://trackamap.com/row2rio2020/.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.