James Adair, right, after being rescued from a coral reef when the boat he rowed across the Indian Ocean from Australia to Mauritius with best friend Ben Stenning was capsized by a giant wave close to shore. 1170777

FORMER Alderney Journal editor James Adair faced death at the end of a record-breaking 3,200 nautical miles row across the Indian Ocean.

On the final night of the 116-day unsupported trip from Australia to Mauritius, as light fell and the shoreline beckoned, Mr Adair and Ben Stenning’s 23ft boat capsized in a massive wave.

It sparked a search and rescue operation, with the pair’s last blog entry on the Indian Ocean Rowing Race website saying: ‘a quick thank you to all the local people who kept looking for us when others had given up’.

Mr Adair, 30, told the BBC: ‘It was a wall of water. It just seemed to black out the sky. We knew we were going to get rolled. When it hit us it was a turmoil of white water. Our oars were gone, we were thrown overboard, everything was ripped apart. We just thought we were going to die.’

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