TEN years ago, this week, a rower who had journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean in record time stunned his teammates by proposing to his waiting girlfriend.
Durham University graduate Chris Covey kept his proposal a secret for over a month from his five fellow rowers as they battled the waves.
But on their arrival in Barbados, he went down on one knee on the dockside to ask girlfriend Susie Easton to marry him, and the stunned teacher whispered “I do” before bursting into tears.
The oars on board Team Hallin did not stop rowing from their Tenerife departure until their revolutionary trimaran vessel passed the finishing line.
They rowed from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean in 31 days, 23 hours and 31 minutes.
Mr Covey rowed with Paddy Thomas, David Hosking, and Naomi Hoogesteger, also Durham graduates, and they were joined by Jack Stonehouse and Justin Johaneson.
During the 31-day ordeal, team members suffered acute seasickness, blistering to their hands and backsides, attacks from flying fish, and were almost run down by a Russian tanker.
Meanwhile, local protesters joined Middlesbrough’s fight against Government cuts.
More than 1,000 people signed a petition against the programme which would see £50m cut from local services over the four years that would follow.
The public sector union Unite presented the petition to the town’s Mayor Ray Mallon, along with a symbolic giant Valentine’s card showing the pride local people feel in their town.
Meanwhile, the director of the National Gallery urged the Church Commissioners to turn Auckland Castle into a major art attraction - with the threatened Zurbarans at its heart.
Nicholas Penny warned that an irreplaceable part of North-East history would be lost if the 8ft high 17th Century Spanish paintings were sold.
He suggested such an initiative could secure the future of the 13 paintings in the place where they have hung for the past 260 years.
Zurbaran painted the set of Jacob and his 12 sons in the 1640s. They were bought in 1756 by Bishop Richard Trevor, the Bishop of Durham, and have hung in Auckland Castle for 260 years after it was extended to house them.
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