PHOTOS: Rowing boat lost during mid-Atlantic hurricane recovered off Cork coast

A British adventurer's transatlantic rowing boat, which was abandoned during a hurricane mid ocean almost two months ago, has been recovered just off the Cork coast.

Members of Castletownbere RNLI discovered the vessel drifting some 500-metres off Toor Pier on the Mizen peninsula yesterday after reports that a vessel was in apparent difficulty.

The lifeboat launched just before 3pm, expecting to begin a search operation, and arrived on scene just before 3.30pm.

But when it became clear that the vessel had been abandoned for some time, a decision was taken to stand down a search operation and take the vessel in tow back to Castletownbere.

Following further enquiries, the lifeboat crew established that the vessel had been part of British adventurer Sarah Outen’s ambitious bid to loop the planet as part of her London2London charity fundraiser.

She had planned to row, bike and kayak 25,000 kms around the Northern hemisphere.

She set off in 2011, had cycled from London eastwards across Europe, Russia and China, she had rowed across the northern Pacific and kayaked the final leg to Alaska, before cycling west across Canada and north America, to embark on the final leg of her epic journey - rowing across the Atlantic.

A spokesperson for Castletownbere RNLI confirmed last night that they had made contact with Ms Outen who told them that she had left Cape Cod in the rowing boat, and was in the mid Atlantic some 143 days into her transatlantic attempt, when she was hit by hurricane Juaquin.

She was forced to abandon her vessel and was picked up by a Canadian fishing vessel which brought her back to Canada.

She went on to complete her epic journey last November after over 1,676 days of travelling over four and a half years.

She is now back home in the UK and is writing a book about her adventure.

The discovery of her vessel, Happy Socks, could just be the perfect happy ending.