The best part about the story is its happy ending.

Earlier this week, Emily Kohl, a former MSU novice women's rowing coach, and her friend Sarah Kessans were racing their way into the history books by rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. The two were to be the first all-female crew to complete the journey in fewer than 50 days.

Until the ocean disagreed.

On Sunday afternoon, the racers' 24-foot competition rowboat was smashed by a large wave and capsized, leaving the women scrambling to escape the water-filled vessel.

"Both of us went slamming into the port side," Kohl said in a radio interview with Spike O'Dell of WGN (720-AM) in Chicago.

The State News was unable to reach Kohl for comment Wednesday.

In one of the most harrowing moments of the ordeal, Kohl got tangled in a lifeline while escaping and spent precious seconds trapped in the flooded cabin.

"Luckily there was an air pocket underneath the footwell, and I was able to untangle myself," Kohl said in the interview. "All I could hear was Sarah yelling, 'Emily, Emily, where are you?'"

The two clung desperately to the hull of the ship for almost 16 hours as wave after wave smashed against them on the open ocean. Trying not to think about sharks or hypothermia, the two began to sing and joke with each other to stay in good spirits.

The race was the Atlantic Rowing Race 2005, and Kohl and Kessans were the only U.S. team in the competition. The women were in the 47th day of the more than 2,900-mile journey when the wave swamped the boat — leaving them adrift in the ocean.

On her way out of the cabin, Kessans had activated an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, a battery-powered device that emits an emergency signal transmitted by satellite. The signal was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard, which organized a search-and-rescue operation.

Only it wasn't the Coast Guard who picked them up. The British tall ship Stavros S Niarchos was sailing close by and detoured to save them. The ship is owned by the Tall Ships Youth Trust and is used to teach young people to sail.

"Sarah looked up at the many masts and rocking nature of the ship and realized it was no carrier," the team wrote in their blog detailing the trip. "Our minds conjured images of pirate ships, and we wondered what kind of rescue we could expect."

For Jenna Kollings, Kohl's older sister, the news of the rescue came in the form of a phone call from the saved racer.

"I was so elated," Kollings said. "I was like, 'Is it really you?'"

Kollings said the family had been up all night, after hearing only that the beacon had been triggered. She said it was Kohl and Kessans' cool and collected mentality that allowed them to escape what could have been a very traumatic event.

"And maybe a little guidance from above," Kollings said.

Bill Butler, the team's shore coach and Web master, had been in constant contact with the two and was one of the first to learn the emergency beacon had been activated.

"They're very lucky girls," Butler said from his home in Puerto Rico. "They were lucky there was a tall ship fairly close and the Coast Guard was able to divert them."

Butler had been giving the women daily weather updates via satellite phone and posting messages on the team's blog.

"Since I got mixed up in this, I've just been trying to get them back alive," Butler said. "I hope this trip on the tall ship gets this rowing out of their blood. Sailing is a lot more practical."

Butler said he got "mixed up" with the duo because more than 55 years ago, he helped start the Purdue rowing club. Some 50 years later, Kohl and Kessans went to college at Purdue and competed together.

"They rowed in the shell, William A. Butler," he said. "When I found out they didn't have anybody (to help during their trip), I decided to be their shore coach. I've enjoyed every day of it."

He wasn't the only person watching the group's progress. Through the blog posts, Kohl's family and friends shared the journey as well, including her former rowing team back in East Lansing.

Scott Menoch, MSU crew head coach, said the team had been following Kohl's adventure via the Web site. He said by the time they heard about any problems on the trip, the two had been rescued.

He said Kohl's dedication to the race was what had attracted the coaching staff to her in the first place.

"She was always going full force," Menoch said. "While they were training for this event, it wasn't to go out there and see what happens, it was to do it faster than any women had ever done it before. I think that speaks volumes about the way she approaches things — period."

Mallory Paynich, a chemistry sophomore, had rowed under Kohl's wing last year. She said her former coach was driven to excel and pushed the team relentlessly.

"It came off a hundredfold," Paynich said. "It really paid off in how our program performed in the end."

That determination might lead the two to disappoint Butler by taking to the waves again. During the radio interview, Kessans said they were already looking forward to joining the race when it returns in two years.

"We want to finish what we started," she said.

Josh Jarman can be reached at jarmanjo@msu.edu.