Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Talk of CNN

Aired September 04, 2002 - 05:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The Talk of CNN is talking now.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, instead of echoing.

COSTELLO: That's right. So let's go to Hyannis, Massachusetts and talk with Matt Pitta at WQRC Radio.

Good morning, Matt.

MATT PITTA, WQRC CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

I just went for a quick swim, that's all.

COSTELLO: Speaking of swimming, tell us about this crazy French guy.

PITTA: I have to tell you something, for years and years, Carol, this part of Massachusetts out on the Cape has been the jumping off spot for these guys and women who like to try to row or paddle. They take these small crafts from here to Europe. And the latest is this gentleman who we've been following for a couple days. We were tracking him yesterday on the Web.

This guy's name is Emanuel Condre (ph). He left from Cape Cod out at Stage Harbor, a little east of here, back late July.

Now, he's in, Carol, he's in a rowboat, believe it or not. Now, not exactly the typical rowboat, you know, you'd expect to see by the pond. It's a little, there it is. It's a little more technically advanced, as you can see.

However, he's been trying to get from here to France across the Atlantic, obviously.

Now, since July 29 he's rowed a total of 1,800 miles. But here's the problem, Carol. He's only 1,200 miles from Cape Cod.

COSTELLO: Oh, no.

MYERS: Oh, that's not good.

COSTELLO: And you know what? We have Chad here because we decided we'd given him a little weather forecast, although I don't know if he can hear us. Probably not in that little tiny boat.

MYERS: That boat looks like something out of "Baywatch," I mean, without the motors there, doesn't it? It looks like it should have some kind of thing on the side of it.

PITTA: You know what happened, Chad and Carol? He was, a couple of days ago, about a week ago he was literally rowing in circles. You can go online and track his progress and if you track the map that he is following, he was literally rowing in circles, caught up --

COSTELLO: Why, though?

PITTA: Well, he was caught up in a wind current that he couldn't get out of.

MYERS: Yes. Well, wait until you see what he's getting caught up in now. We have the radar popped up here for Massachusetts. Obviously, now this storm has a long way to go before it hits him, but you guys, you've got some big storms to your west here this morning.

PITTA: Yes, it's coming our way and we've been tracking a lot of these ocean storms to see if they're going to affect Emanuel has he makes his way to France. Now, you know, he's doing this for a great cause. He's trying to raise a lot of money for a Parisian children's hospital and he's doing his best to get there. And he, you know, when he left here on the Cape many weeks ago, he said he was going to make it in record time and obviously he's having some difficulty.

But, you know, for years this has been the jumping off spot and I have to tell you, unfortunately we had one gentleman last year who left from Cape Cod, he never made it, in fact. They found his boat off the coast of Europe but he was never found.

So this is a really treacherous...

COSTELLO: Oh, my god.

PITTA: This is a really treacherous activity.

COSTELLO: How long does it take usually for those that do make it?

PITTA: Well, it takes them several weeks, you know, four or five, five to six weeks. He's trying to get there, I believe, in probably about seven weeks or so, seven or so weeks. And he's trying to break a record to get there.

So, I mean, everyone's wishing him luck here. And whenever one of these rowers heads out from our area, everyone goes down to the beach or down to the docks, wherever that person's leaving from, and they want to wish him well as they head out. And unfortunately for the last guy -- not Emanuel, he's still OK -- but for the last guy, we never saw him again after he left the Cape. They just found remnants of his boat. But everyone...

MYERS: But this, but someone has been successful before, right? This isn't the first time anybody's done this?

PITTA: Yes, people have been successful before. And, again, they've taken all kinds of crafts across the ocean before, various types of rowboats and small sailboats and paddle boats, etc. But as you could see, as you had up on the screen a little while ago, Emanuel's boat, his row boat's a little bit more advanced.

Now, he ran into some trouble back on Saturday night, in fact. Apparently, from what we understand from reading some of his correspondence that he's e-mailing from the middle of the Atlantic he took a rogue wave in the middle of the night. It turned the boat completely upside down and he was injured when the boat flipped over.

Now, this boat was able to self-right itself. But apparently he injured a shoulder and his collar bone. He's apparently OK but, you know, this is not an easy trek. This is not a...

COSTELLO: No, not at all.

PITTA: It's not just a quick fishing trip, you know, out to shoals here. He's out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and he's rowing away.

COSTELLO: Yes, well, he's a braver guy than either one of us.

Matt Pitta, thank you very much for filling us in from WQRC Radio in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com