OAR Northwest makes history, wins U.S.-to-U.K. race and sets record in process.

The best joys in life are often the simplest.

“Eating has been amazing,” Greg Spooner said during a phone interview from England. “You have the same diet for 70 days, so you have all this stuff that you dream about and all of a sudden it’s there and you eat so much, it hurts.”

He’s earned it.

The OAR Northwest team, made up of Bainbridge native Spooner, Brad Vickers, Dylan LeValley and Jordan Hanssen, officially crossed the finish line at the Bishop’s Rock Lighthouse in the Isles of Scilly in England Friday at 14:44 Greenwich Mean Time, or 7:44 a.m. local time, to win the 2006 Shepherds Ocean Four Race.

They set the United States record for an Ocean Fours rowing race with a mark of 68 days, 23 hours and 19 minutes.

They’re also the first Americans in history to successfully row from the U.S. to the U.K. mainland, as they continued rowing to Port Pendennis Marina in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, 84 miles from the lighthouse, for a total time of 71 days, three hours and 22 minutes at sea.

The total distance from point-to-point was 3,290 miles, the longest row recorded in the North Atlantic.

A representative from the Guinness Book of World Records met them upon their arrival in England. The crew will interview them later in the week to verify their record.

Spooner remembers the feeling that went through him when they reached the endpoint.

“Joy,” he said. “Pure joy. Crossing the finish line was an enormous accomplishment. You take four guys with an ambition to accomplish a goal, it’s hard to convince them that it couldn’t be done.

“Putting the boat in New York Harbor in June was the start, and to cross the line (at the end) was fantastic.”

Spooner said the crew had plenty of motivation.

“We wanted to not only do it for ourselves, but we also wanted to do it for everyone back home,” he said. “We wanted to represent for the Northwest and I wanted to for Bainbridge as well.

“Our satellite phone went out a week and a half before we finished, but we still got messages from the peninsula telling us jokes and keeping us happy.”

The crew hit a snag on their way to the finish in the past few days, rowing just 8.1 statute miles (sm) in the last 33 hours of the race.

Yet their vessel, dubbed the James Robert Hanssen to honor Jordan Hanssen’s deceased father, finished 350 sm ahead of the Yorkshire Warrior and 640 sm of Team Hesco.

The two other boats are struggling as well, as one lost ground from the finish line due to bad weather and its satellite phone. Another is in danger of running out of food.

Spooner said a subtle shift in the current and an abnormal high pressure system made things difficult as well.

“It definetly tested your mental toughness,” he said. “We’re working hard, but the ocean is going to allow us to pass or not.”

The foursome will be able to fly home with their boat. Lynden, Inc., a international transportation solutions company based out of Lynden, and Cargolux, a cargo airliner base in Luxembourg, will work together to get the boat home.

Spooner expects to have the boat back in a month or two. They’ll travel to Ireland to visit where James Hanssen’s ashes were spread, then take a flight back to New York by September 10.

From there, Hanssen and Vickers will fly back to Seattle by September 15, while LeValley and Spooner will drive the boat trailer home. They should be back in Seattle by September 17.