‘The coastguard had a packet of face masks ready for me’: 72-year-old who rowed the Atlantic on coming back to coronavirus

Zoe Tidman speaks to a retired carpenter about arriving in Antigua to a locked-down world after four months alone at sea – and his quest to return to his Leicestershire home

Graham Walters, a 72-year-old British solo rower from Leicester, arrives into Antigua in late April (AFP/Getty)

Like millions of septuagenarians across the world, Graham Walters has spent a significant proportion of 2020 in isolation. However, unlike his peers, Graham’s was rather more self-imposed.

His feat would be remarkable even in more normal times. The 72-year-old set off from his home in Leicestershire on a four-month solo transatlantic voyage, his third such trip, in a rowing boat he made himself in his garden more than 20 years ago.

When Graham left in January, the coronavirus was still in its infancy. Two days before the voyage began, the Chinese city of Wuhan, home to more than 11m people, was locked down. At least 17 victims had died and more than 570 others had been infected, including in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the US.

When he next stepped on to dry land, he’d returned to a different world. Jean Walters, Graham’s wife of just one month when he set out, had kept him abreast of the latest developments as coronavirus spread around the world.

He tells The Independent he assumed the virus “would come and go” when his wife first told him about it.

“Obviously, as the time went on, speaking to Jean every week, she explained to me how it slowly got worse and worse,” he says.

“She had told me about the flights. I realised there would be no flights available when I arrived and it might be some time before we could arrange one.”

Jean, meanwhile, was getting used to a very different lifestyle as the UK lockdown was enforced. “I was reliant on a 10-minute conversation every six days,” she says. “That was the worst.”

During those long-distance phone calls, Jean – who could not meet her husband out in Antigua as planned due to Covid-19 – says she tried to make sure her husband would follow all the new anti-coronavirus rules that were alien to him.

She was concerned he would arrive at night, at a time when Antiguans had been told to stay at home in a national curfew, and without a mask, risking a fine or even being thrown in jail.

Graham Walters at the helm of the luxury yacht he sailed back to the UK after rowing solo to the Caribbean (Graham Walters)

Luckily, she needn’t have worried. “The coastguard had a packet of face masks ready for me,” says Graham, who arrived to a crowd of cheering supporters when he reached the island on 29 April.

But getting there was only half the battle. With no flights, Graham decided the quickest way to return was the way he came – by sea. However, this time it was not on a boat he had built himself, but on a luxury yacht.

The skipper had contacted Graham while he was several miles off shore and struggling with the wind to ask if he wanted a tow. The coastguard also came to help.

Graham later met the skipper on land, and they made an arrangement for the 72-year-old to catch a lift back to the UK on the yacht. 

“I was crewing on the boat,” he says. “I was doing night and day watches for three hours. I did a bit of cooking and cleaning. It was quite easy-going.”

After his first voyage, anything would have seemed easy-going. The retired carpenter spent much of his time at sea trying to fix his homemade vessel on his long journey, which has helped to raise thousands for Help for Heroes.

“At least it was something to think about, all the repairs on the boat,” he says. “At least it was a thing to do.”

Among the tasks were fixing various leaks, and even repairing the deck after he fell through it. “I realised how rotten the deck was,” he says.

Now, he is back home in Leicestershire after arriving in the UK around two weeks ago.

Jean says her husband has not yet been phased by the country’s new way of life – but refused to go to Tesco after seeing the queue.