Andrew Halsey, who suffers from epilepsy, is attempting to become the first disabled person to row the Pacific but his voyage has been beset with difficulty.

The bad weather has blown him off course and of the 3,000 miles he has travelled so far, only 400 have been in the right direction.

The boat has solar panels so it can be tracked by satellite

When his emergency beacon, called an EPIRB, was accidentally activated it scrambled all shipping in the area and alerted the coastguard.

Mr Halsey said, in an e-mail to the Ocean Rowing Society on Sunday: "I did not set of the EPIRB. The seal of the switch is in place. The first I knew was by e-mail. The only reason I can think of is the damp conditions or a capsize set it off."

Under maritime law all shipping has to respond to an EPIRB alarm.

A Norweigan merchant vessel, the MV Balsford, came to the rower's rescue off the coast of Mexico.

The Ocean Rowing Society said Mr Halsey told the captain: "There is nothing wrong, I set the emergency beacon off by accident."

The captain offered to take him aboard his ship but Mr Halsey declined and remained in his 28ft craft.

'Keep on trying'

The former butcher, 41, from Camden, north London, is two months into an unprecedented trans-Pacific bid dubbed "the last great adventure of the millennium".

He set off in the Brittany Rose from San Diego, California, in July, aiming to reach Sydney, Australia, within seven months.

Mr Halsey sent only one distress signal, when the arrangement was that he would send two if he was in trouble.

Last week, Mr Halsey pledged to continue his journey against expert advice to turn back because of poor weather.

He said: "I wonder if I will ever get out of this section of ocean. I will just keep on trying."

Atlantic record

His vessel was packed with enough food for 250 days, a device to convert salt water to fresh water and a single-burner gas stove.

A global positioning system has also been fitted to the self-righting vessel to keep him headed in the right direction.

The trip is Mr Halsey's second major ocean row.

In 1997, he successfully completed a solo Atlantic crossing from Santa Cruz in Tenerife to St Lucia in the West Indies.

Five British rowers and a Russian have disappeared, presumed dead, on similar rowing challenges since 1966.

The last death was of British rower Peter Bird, 49, who was lost at sea on his fourth attempt to row single-handedly across the Pacific in 1996.