Victor Mooney is a man on a mission

Victor Mooney will let nothing stand in the way of his mission to bring awareness to HIV and AIDS.

He has endured near starvation, a shark attack, pirates, storms and weeks of isolation during an epic 1-1/2-year trans-Atlantic rowing odyssey. By the time he's finished, he will have rowed more than 5,000 miles.

Mooney, a college public affairs officer and consultant, has put his life on hold to spread the message of the importance of HIV testing. “It's the least I can do to get out the word. I pray for a cure in my lifetime,” he said, adding the virus is not the death sentence it once was if it's detected early on.

He's also rowing in memory of those who have died from AIDS. Mooney has firsthand knowledge; he lost one brother to AIDS in 1983 and another brother has the HIV virus.

Mooney, 49, docked in Lewes Oct. 18 as he prepared to make a crossing of Delaware Bay to New Jersey on the final 120-mile leg of his solo journey, eventually taking him back home to Flushing, N.Y. “Anywhere near the Brooklyn Bridge is fine with me,” he said with a huge smile.

Passersby stopped and asked questions, and Mooney was more than happy to answer each and every one from inside the 24-foot Spirit of Malabo, named after the capital of Equatorial Guinea, the country sponsoring his boat.

He plans to donate the boat to the United Nations in honor of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of Equatorial Guinea, when he arrives in New York. His journey began in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa.

Mooney rode out last week's powerful nor'easter at the White Marlin Marina in Ocean City and spent some time at Harpoon Hanna's marina near Fenwick Island before rowing the Inland Bays to the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal to Lewes.

Right now, he said, keeping focused on the final leg of his journey in the only thing on his mind. “I have to remain diligent. All waters have to be respected,” he said.

Mooney has been writing a blog that he will turn into a book. “The story will be told, but I want to be alive to tell the story,” he said. He's also been raising money devoted to AIDS research.

This is the fourth time – in his fourth boat – that Mooney has attempted the crossing, dating back to 2006. His first homemade boat sank off the coast of Senegal and in 2009 his boat's desalination system failed. Misfortune struck again in 2011 when his boat was dropped during transport. The damaged hull eventually started taking on water, and Mooney ended up in a life raft for 14 days before being rescued by a passing freighter.

During the 2014-15 crossing in his Brazilian-built boat, he ran out of food for nearly two months. The only thing that kept him alive were small fish he scooped from the side of his boat and fish that jumped in on their own.

“Because of what had attached to the bottom, my boat was like a Big Mac crossing the Atlantic; everyone wanted a bite,” Mooney said. “It was a good thing because of the fish around the boat, and a bad thing because that's what caused a shark to take a bite out of the hull.”

He ended up in St. Martin where he stayed for seven weeks to recuperate and make repairs to his boat. “I lost 80 pounds but was able to continue with help from the Father,” he said. His rosary is never far from him.

His profound faith has helped him through the tough times. The only reading material he has on board is a well-worn copy of The Bible.

He said he was boarded by pirates who ransacked his boat off the coast of Haiti.

Mooney said he has been rowing in the waters around New York for the past 20 years, encouraging people to get tested for HIV. One day, a New York Police Department Harbor Patrol officer told him he should get a bigger boat, row a little farther and row a little faster. “That started to percolate the pot,” Mooney said.

In addition, during an audience on World AIDS Day in 2004 with Pope John Paul II, he said the pope told him to row.

He said so many people have helped him during his journey he could never name them all. He was thankful that someone in Lewes gave him a new pair of shoes and others paid for some meals.

“A lot of people have heard my story and been following me,” he said, adding Sea Tow, the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy have all been in touch with him over the months he's been at sea.

See more about his journey at goreechallenge.com.