Segment 1: With the mindset of a young Olympian, the honor and pleasure was all ours when we got to virtually meet and speak with the 19-year-old history maker, Oliver Crane. This conversation was a thrill beyond belief. The youngest of the remarkable Crane Dynasty of over achievers, Oliver set out to fulfill his gap year, a family tradition by doing something for our oceans, and he set out to prove he could do this task by taking on the Atlantic ocean off the coast the Canary Islands northern African shores and sailed for 44 days.
Segment 2: Something in the Crane family, I think in their DNA, has the Crane kiddos choosing some of life’s changing challenges when it comes to what others have done in traditional "gap" year takes, from community service, to Habitat for Humanity, to other paying it forward activities.
After training for the upcoming journey, and learning that this is not the kind of rowing done on lake or rivers, Crane launched on Dec. 14, 2017, from the Canary Islands off the coast of Northwestern Africa, and arrived on landfall Jan. 28, 2018. The crossing took 44 days, 16 hours and nine minutes and in completing the row, Crane became the youngest person ever to solo-row the Atlantic. What was it like? You have to hear what he says about living on boat that is ripping through 30 to 40 foots waves. Spending Christmas and New Years alone on a boat was a great story Oliver shares with us.
The Crane’s have a 4 amazing stories of their gap years: Oliver’s oldest brother, Cason and a past guest of Show Biz Weekly, completed his quest to be the first openly gay man to scale the Seven Summits, having started the quest as a high school freshman on Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money and awareness about suicide among LGBT youth. He completed the task by reaching the peak of Mount McKinley when he turned 20. His second oldest brother, David, spent his gap year biking across Africa to raise money and awareness for the nature conversation project, Conservation International.
And older sister Bella hiked the Pacific Crest trail from Mexico to Canada to raise money and bring attention to the plight of Syrian refugees.
The Crane’s story will continue and it might be OK for us to share this exclusive: a forthcoming book is in the works.!
Please go to www.homeward-bound.com to help continue the journey Oliver Crane has begun. Please help him raise awareness and money to help solve a problem that is destroying our oceans and ultimately our Earth. So far $63,000 of Oliver’s goal of $100,000 has been raised.
