SAN JUAN, puerto rico — Three times, Victor Mooney tried to row across the Atlantic. Three times, he failed.
One boat sank. Another lost its freshwater system. A third sprang a leak and left him drifting on a life raft for two weeks. When he planned for a fourth attempt, his wife made it clear it would be the last.
“I’m going to give you all the support you need, but this is it,” Mooney recalled her telling him.
Now the 48-year-old Brooklyn native has finally completed the roughly 3,000-mile journey.
Mooney was recovering Saturday in the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten, a day after reaching shore and ending a 128-day ordeal. The trip was fueled by his desire to bring attention to the need for HIV testing and to honor his brother, who died of AIDS in 1983.
