2007-07-07 06:48:18 -

BOSTON (AP) - A French engineer who set out to row alone across the Atlantic Ocean was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard a day into his trip because the boat was being rocked by rough seas.
A helicopter hoisted Charlie Girard to safety Thursday night about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Cape Cod, the

Coast Guard said.
Girard told The Associated Press by e-mail that he had bruises and had to spend about three hours in a hospital recovering from dehydration and vertigo.
He had called a contact on land via satellite phone Thursday evening and asked to be taken off his specially designed, 23-foot (7-meter) boat. The Coast Guard said Girard was rowing through 5- to 8-foot (1.5 to 2.5-meter) seas and 15-knot (17.25 mph or 27.7 kph) winds.
«He was thrown around quite a bit and said he slammed into the side of the boat and that his lower back was bothering him,» Petty Officer 1st Class John Hughes said.
Girard had set out Wednesday on a nearly 3,500-mile (5,632-kilometer) voyage from Eastham, Massachusetts, to La Tranche sur Mer, France. He aborted the first try last Saturday because the boat's hull leaked. On Friday, he said, he wasn't sure if he would try again. «Not this year for sure,» he said.
The Coast Guard warned other mariners about his boat, which was still adrift. Girard said the vessel has minor damage, but his support team is tracking it and will try to salvage the boat.

Girard was trying to break a trans-Atlantic west-east solo rowing record of 62 days, 19 hours, set by countryman Emmanuel Coindre in 2004, according to Ocean Rowing Society International.
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