Since our last ocean rowing roundup, the World’s Toughest Row has crowned its winner, one crew has started an Arctic row, and everyone else is still battling across the world’s oceans.
Pacific Ocean
World's Toughest Row: This year, four teams entered the World's Toughest Row, a 4,500km race across the mid-Pacific from Monterey, California, to Hanalei Bay, Hawaii. Teams set off on June 6, and two crews have crossed the finish line so far. After tricky conditions at the start of the race, and the expected issues with seasickness and fatigue, the four crews have settled into their rows.
After the first 10 days, the crews began to move quickly west, thanks to helpful waves and wind.
Four-person crew Swiss Raw aimed to set a new speed record. They succeeded. Jun Hurni, Samuel Widmer, Ingvar Groza, and Yassin Boussena completed the row in 25 days, 2 hours, and 21 minutes, shattering the previous record by four-and-a-half days. "We were told to push hard out of Monterey, and we just didn’t stop," Boussena said.
The next crew, Ocean5, came in seven days behind the winning team. Thomas Higham, Kevin Gaskell, Matt Gaskell, Stephen Greenan, and Patrick Deacon crossed the finish line after 32 days, 6 hours, and 51 minutes. They are the fastest five ever to complete the race, beating the previous record by almost 20 days.
The two remaining crews are drawing close to Hawaii and expect to land in the next few days.
Peru to Australia team making good progress
Seas the Day (UK): Jess Rowe and Miriam Payne are rowing from Peru to Australia. They first set off in April but had to abandon their attempt after 480km when their rudder broke.
In May, they restarted and have now covered 5,900km of the mammoth 14,000km journey. Originally, they were aiming for Sydney, but it is so busy during the months that they would likely finish that they have changed course for Brisbane.
A big milestone for the duo came on June 19, when they officially completed the first quarter of their journey. Now they are just weeks away from the halfway point, and are hoping to cross the imaginary line on July 25.
They have been incredibly upbeat since their first day, but even for the chirpiest of duos, months at sea can become monotonous. Nearing the halfway point has given them a huge boost. In the last few days, the weather had been on their stern, giving them some of their fastest days yet. Recently, they have clocked between 105km and 125km each day.
However, power remains an issue. Since the start of their row, their batteries have been playing up. Now, their electrical system has almost completely failed. The batteries drain every night, and they are unable to figure out what is causing the leak. They use all the power remaining solely for the autohelm. They have switched everything else off.
Self-imposed silence
MacLean Brothers (UK): Ewan, Jamie, and Lachlan McLean are also rowing from Peru to Australia. Three months after setting off, they had covered over half of the 14,000km.
They are hoping to set a new speed record, but unfavorable conditions are making that unlikely. In the last few weeks of June, they reported a "messy sea state with no regularity." Ocean swells combined with wind-driven waves. At one point, the squall was so strong they said it was like being "tossed around like a rubber duck in a wave pool." Constantly soaked, they ruefully remarked that they "yearn for the Edinburgh drizzle."
Conditions improved as they moved through to the end of June and the beginning of July. Deciding it felt a bit too easy, they decided to row in silence for three days. They did not speak to each other, turned off their Starlink, and went radio silent on all comms. Before starting, they made a plan for their silent days and came up with a few signals they could use for essential communication.
"Time moves differently when you’re completely silent," they wrote.
More speed record hopefuls
Tame the Kraken (US): Tim and Harrison Crockett are a father-and-son team taking on the Pacific. Their route is similar to the World’s Toughest Row, starting in California and rowing to Hawaii.
They are also hoping for a speed record, aiming to complete the row in 45 days. This is becoming less and less likely because of a difficult start, when they struggled with exhaustion and a broken autohelm.
It is hurricane season over the Pacific. Bizarrely, this is helpful (as long as you don’t get caught in one) because it creates quite reliable trade winds that can push you along. However, the downside is that for the first three weeks of June, they were almost always in full foul-weather gear. Cloud cover was near constant, alongside heavy rain and choppy seas.
As it stands, they have been rowing for over 10 weeks and have 1,100km to go. To finish the row within 45 days, they need to cover 125km per day, approximately double their average pace.
Around the world with human power
Louis Margot (CH): Louis Margot is making his way around the world by rowing and cycling. He started by cycling from his home country of Switzerland to Portugal. Then he hopped into his boat and rowed to Columbia in 115 days. From there, he once again began pedaling, this time to Peru.
Now he is on his second rowing section, from Peru to Indonesia. After rowing to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands, he stopped for a few months to rest, make repairs, and restock. He has been back on the water for just over a month and is chipping away at the 11,638km to Indonesia. So far, he has rowed approximately 2,300km.
Indian Ocean
Ocean Revival (UK): Matthew Mason, Jake Mattock, Matthew Inglesby, and Mathew Hemmings are rowing 8,500km from Australia to Kenya. Originally, they were rowing to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, but have decided to change course slightly and are now heading towards Kilifi, slightly north of the city of Mombasa. Mid-row, they discovered that the port in Dar es Salaam has no slipways, which would make getting the boat out of the water incredibly tricky.
Showing how close-knit the ocean rowing community can be, the team got in touch with the Seas the Day crew. Jess Rowe was quick to respond with some helpful information; her father lives in Kenya and knows the coastline well. A few phone calls later, and the boatyard in Kilifi is getting ready for their arrival.
After two months, they have covered 6,800km. In the last few weeks, conditions have been changeable. They had 24 hours on the para-anchor as a big weather system crossed their path. They almost capsized, and then panicked as a large ship passed too close for comfort. To try and conserve power, they have been switching their navigation on and off. While it was off, a ship suddenly appeared. At first, they thought it was a wave, but within 20 minutes, it was a few kilometers from them.
"Somewhere between survival and bliss, we’ve found a strange kind of peace out here," the crew wrote recently. "As a crew, we’ve laughed hard, rowed harder, and been broken and rebuilt more times than we can count."
The world's blue highway
Untamed (BG, NL, CN, UA): A second four-person crew is also trundling across the Indian Ocean from Australia to Kenya. Almost eight weeks into their row, Evgeny Sudyr, Liu Yong, Ralph Tuijn, and Stefan Ivanov have covered 7,100km of the 9,000km.
An ambitious crew with a wealth of ocean-rowing knowledge, they had hoped to make the crossing in 75 days. Despite their best efforts, they won't achieve this. Even for experienced rowers, the Indian Ocean is difficult. It is why so few ocean rowers tackle it.
The team has given few updates but noted the difficulties of rowing across the "world’s blue highway" after so many weeks of solitude: "We are right in the middle of the major shipping lanes connecting Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Seeing dozens of vessels appear on our tracker feels surreal after days alone with the waves, a reminder that this ocean is a global thoroughfare."
Around Britain
52 Degrees North (IE/UK): David Irving (IE), Rod Tredgett (UK), and Scott Brown (UK) are rowing 2,700km clockwise around Great Britain. Starting at Tower Bridge in London, they made their way down to the south coast and are now moving up the west coast through the Celtic Sea into the Irish Sea.
Slow progress has frustrated the trio. Conditions have forced them onto anchor at multiple points, sometimes for days at a time. "It is very hard to remain positive when momentum is so fragmented due to the adverse weather," they commented on social media.
Row with the Flow GB (UK): This six-man crew, originally called Counternavig8, had planned to row counterclockwise around mainland Britain in 2024. The weather at the time made it impossible, so they postponed the row for a year, only to face the same issues in 2025.
After waiting weeks for an appropriate weather window and running out of time to complete the row, they changed plans and rowed clockwise. They renamed themselves Row with the Flow.
Unlike most crews rowing around Britain, they did not start from Tower Bridge; they set off from Eyemouth on the east coast of Scotland. Having started three days ago, they are working their way down the east coast of Northumberland.
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Challenge 2025 (US): This four-person American crew is rowing 1,000km across the Arctic Ocean from Tromsø, Norway, to Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The speed record for a four-person team on that section of the Arctic Ocean was set in 2023 by Ocean Revival, which made the crossing in 15 days, 5 hours, and 32 minutes. This crew hopes to beat that time. If they complete the row, they will be the first all-American team to row the polar ocean.
They started on July 4 and are getting used to the icy conditions. The last 24 hours have been wet and cloudy, and they are in battery conservation mode. They are making excellent progress, having already completed 70% of the journey.
Since our last ocean rowing round-up, Louis Margot has restarted his round-the-world challenge, a father-son duo is aiming to break a world record, and the World’s Toughest Row is underway.
Pacific Ocean
The World’s Toughest Row race started on June 6, the counterpart to the company’s annual Atlantic Race. Compared to the more common Atlantic route (from the Canary Islands to Antigua), this route sees fewer rowers. Before the race's inception, only 33 crews had rowed from mainland America to Hawaii.
This year, four teams have entered and are battling 4,500km across the mid-Pacific from Monterey, California, to Hanalei Bay, Hawaii.
Organizers brought the race's start date forward by a day to take advantage of good weather and to give crews the best possible start. Despite this, the first few days are always tricky. Crews battled wind and currents that pinned them to the coastline.
The leading boat is the four-man Swiss Raw. They have covered 1,550km and pulled away from the other crews. Swiss Raw won the 2022 Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge (as it was then named), coming in a full day before any other boat. Ocean5, Oar the Rainbow, and RangeOars Row are much closer together, having covered 1,055km, 1,011km, and 900km, respectively.
Ten days into the row, the teams are coping well, despite some problems. The crew of Oar The Rainbow is suffering from knee and shoulder pains, but is pushing through. RangeOars Row is having power issues; it has been cloudy, which is affecting their batteries. Swiss Raw had broken seat bearings. Ocean5 has battled severe seasickness, which finally seems to be abating.
Around the world
Louis Margot (CH) - Swiss adventurer Louis Margot restarted his Human Impulse project on June 1. Margot is rowing across the Pacific Ocean as part of a human-powered, round-the-world expedition. On Sept. 3, 2023, he started cycling a 2,500km route from Switzerland to Portugal. From there, he rowed for 115 days to Colombia, then jumped back on his bike and cycled 4,030km to Peru in 62 days. There, he took a two-month break.
On November 12, Margot began rowing from Peru to Indonesia, with a planned pitstop in the Marquesas Islands to restock and make repairs. He landed on Hiva Oa (the second largest of the Marquesas Islands) on March 9. Margot later said that the row from Peru had been the most exhausting stage of his expedition.
He was in Hiva Oa slightly longer than expected, waiting for various deliveries and making boat repairs. To keep busy while waiting, he signed up for a marathon on the island.
After two-and-a-half months on Hiva Oa, he restarted his row to Indonesia. During the first few days, the waves threw him around, but conditions have settled. This is the final rowing section of the project, and one of the largest, with 11,638km to Indonesia. After 72 hours rowing, he could no longer see Hiva Oa and knew it would be a very long time until he saw land again. The prospect of five months on the ocean, completely alone, is a daunting one.
Peru to Sydney
Seas the Day (UK) - Jess Rowe and Miriam Payne are rowing from Peru to Sydney. They first set off in April but had to abandon their attempt after 480km when their rudder broke.
In May, they started again and have covered 3,550km of the 14,000km journey. Since restarting, there has been one big ongoing issue: power. Initially, they thought heavy cloud cover was affecting their solar-powered batteries, but even when the sun was out, they didn't work properly. They have tried tinkering with the batteries but without much luck, and are having to hand steer most of the time.
The pair is making great progress and staying upbeat despite five weeks of rowing, but the salt sores, blisters, and sleep deprivation are starting to take their toll. One thing keeping them going is the amazing sights, particularly a huge whale that surfaced just meters from the boat.
The Maclean Brothers (UK) - Ewan, Jamie, and Lachlan McLean are also rowing from Peru to Australia. Nine weeks into their journey, they have covered approximately 7,700km of the 14,000km. Crossing the halfway mark was a huge moment for the brothers.
They have rowed together before, breaking the trio speed record crossing the Atlantic in 2020.
At the start of May, they began having issues with their autopilot. Its compass kept forgetting which way was north. During this time, they manually steered the boat while the autopilot corrected itself. Then, at the end of May, they had trouble with their watermaker and storage tank.
The last few weeks have been frustrating with the boat "wiggling around like a worm in the ocean" because of changeable winds and currents. To keep them going, the brothers have surprise snack packs filled with sweets and chocolates that they crack open when they need a lift. They also had an unexpected video call from actor Mark Wahlberg, who has been following their row and wanted to spur them on.
Father and son duo
Tame the Kraken (US) - Father-and-son duo Tim and Harrison Crockett are rowing 3,700km across the Pacific from Sausalito, California, to Hilo, Hawaii. They hope to set a speed record by crossing in 45 days. Yet it could take them up to two months, depending on the weather conditions.
Tim Crockett has previously rowed the Atlantic as a soloist in the 2018 World’s Toughest Row (then the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge).
The pair started on June 3, and getting used to the exhaustion of rowing for hours at a time was a struggle. Exhaustion combined with strong winds forced them onto their para-anchor after just two days.
Their difficulties did not stop there. In the first week, their autohelm broke, but they were able to fix it. They also had hair-raising moments when, on back-to-back days, their AIS alarm signaled huge container ships on a collision course with them. Both ships eventually changed course once advised that they were heading for a tiny rowing boat.
Indian Ocean
Ocean Revival (UK) - Matthew Mason, Jake Mattock, Matthew Inglesby, and Mathew Hemmings are rowing 8,500km from Australia to Tanzania. After just over a month, they have covered 3,375km.
Trade winds have forced them on a more northerly route to avoid poor weather. It might not be the most direct route, but it seems to have worked. Other than trouble with the wind, the heat has been brutal, with consistent temperatures of around 35°C.
At the start of June, a storm forced them onto their para-anchor for a few days. This trapped them in their cabins in the sweltering heat. In case of a capsize, their hatches were closed, making the heat even worse.
Untamed (BG, NL, CN, UA) - A second independent foursome is attempting to row from Australia to mainland Africa. Evgeny Sudyr, Liu Yong, Ralph Tuijn, and Stefan Ivanov are rowing 9,000km from the west coast of Australia to Kenya.
They were aiming to finish in 75 days, but this seems unlikely. After 30 days, they have covered 3,120km. They are maintaining a good pace, but the Indian Ocean is notoriously tricky, even with their experienced team. Tujin has made 12 ocean crossings, Ivanov has made successful crossings of the Atlantic, Southern, and part of the Arctic Ocean, and Yong has rowed the Atlantic.
Technical problems are another reason for their slower-than-expected pace. First, their watermaker broke, though Sudyr and Ivanov fixed this after a few hours playing around with a tangle of cables. Then, just days later, they ran out of power. Every system went down, and steering and navigation became manual tasks. The power cut began at night, and fortunately, the problem rectified itself once the sun returned.
One day later, Yong broke out in a full-body rash. They have not disclosed what caused this or how it was rectified, but did say Yong stopped rowing until their medical team said he could continue.
Their run of bad luck did not end there. The very next day, their rudder broke at 4 am. After drifting along until daylight, they were able to fit their spare rudder.
Around Britain
52 Degrees North (IE/UK) - The three-man crew of David Irving (IE), Rod Tredgett (UK), and Scott Brown (UK) is rowing 2,700km around Great Britain. The trio started from Tower Bridge on June 9 in a clockwise direction. They have covered the first 100km of the route along the south coast of England.
Within days, challenging weather forced them onto their para-anchor for 48 hours. Rowing around Great Britain might seem simple when compared to an ocean crossing, but the UK has powerful tidal currents and ever-changing conditions. You can only row during tidal windows and have to navigate the coastline and several busy shipping lanes.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, one crew has restarted their Pacific crossing and two new boats have taken to the Indian Ocean.
Pacific Ocean
The MacLean Brothers (UK): Ewan, Jamie, and Lachlan McLean are rowing from Peru to Australia. Five weeks into their journey, they have covered approximately 5,000km of the 14,000km and settled into a good daily routine, even if it is a little monotonous and draining.
The trio has rowed an ocean together before. In 2020, they broke the speed record for a trio crossing the Atlantic. Now they are hoping to do the same on our biggest ocean.
In the last week, they have struggled with the heat. Although they are making good progress, the combination of rising temperatures and exhaustion from constant rowing has started to impact their motivation. They are also struggling with their steering. The majority of the time, they use an autopilot, but theirs is starting to act up.
The autopilot's compass seems to forget which way is north. This adjusts the rudder accordingly and starts sending them in loops. So they have to switch to manual steering while the autopilot readjusts.
A big day for the trio came on May 17. It was their 35th day on the water. In 2020, they completed their Atlantic row in just over 35 days, but now they have almost two-thirds of their journey to go. On social media, they admit they are in “uncharted waters” as a team.
Seas the Day (UK): Jess Rowe and Miriam Payne have restarted their Pacific crossing from Peru to Sydney. Initially, the pair set off in April but had to abandon their attempt after just 480km. Their rudder broke in difficult weather, and the duo decided to head back to shore, fix the boat, and start again.
Less than a month later, they are back on the water for their 14,000km journey, rowing at least 15 hours a day. Over the last few weeks, they have had a number of power issues. They thought the heavy cloud cover had affected their solar-powered batteries, but now it has brightened up, and the problems remain.
They are manually steering the boat and will soon have to start manually pumping their water if the issues persist.
Indian Ocean
Ocean Revival (UK): This four-man crew of Matthew Mason, Jake Mattock, Matthew Inglesby, and Mathew Hemmings is trying to row 8,500km from Australia to Tanzania.
Ocean Revival has been taking on ocean challenges for the last few years. In 2021, they became the first to row from New York to London. Since then, they have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and even did a long Arctic row. Now they are taking on the Indian Ocean. The crew members change for each journey. The only consistent member is Mason; Inglesby has also rowed with the team before.
The foursome started on May 15 and has covered 8% of the total distance. The first few days were "no joke," they admitted. "You train for it, plan for it, prep your body and your mind...but nothing quite hits like the reality of sleep deprivation, 35°C+ heat, and two-hour rowing shifts that seemingly never end. There’s no easing in!”
Untamed (BG, NL, CN, UA): A second team of four rowers has set off across the Indian Ocean from the west coast of Australia to Kenya. The rowers are Evgeny Sudyr from Ukraine, Liu Yong from China, Ralph Tuijn from the Netherlands, and Stefan Ivanov from Bulgaria.
They started on May 17 and have covered just 4% of the 9,000km so far. They hope to finish in 75 days. The Indian Ocean is known for its powerful currents and unpredictable weather. It is taken on far less than the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which makes it even more surprising that two independent teams are attempting to row from Australia to Africa at the same time.
The team is hoping their collective experience will give them an edge as they attempt to cross it.
Tujin, who owns and is captaining the boat, is an experienced adventurer. He has made 12 ocean crossings and spent 958 days at sea. Ivanov has made successful crossings of the Atlantic, Southern, and part of the Arctic Ocean, and Yong has rowed the Atlantic. Though Sudyr has not rowed an ocean before, he has taken on several endurance challenges.
A few days into their journey, the team has shared very few details, but their tracker shows they are making good progress.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, all the crews on the Atlantic have completed their rows, and two fresh teams have taken to the Pacific.
Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Dash: The Atlantic Dash calls itself an ocean-rowing regatta. Four teams took part in the 5,000km row from the Canary Islands to Antigua this year. Starting on February 1, all four boats had crossed the finish line by March 26.
The event organizers stressed that it was not a race, but the four crews were neck and neck to the finish, and all finished within 26 hours.
Waves to Awareness, with the pair Ruby Coates and Steffan Evans, finished first. Three hours later, soloist Gary Hutching landed in Antigua's Jolly Harbour. Row For It, a four of Neil Glover, Peter Ross, Darren Smith, and Nick Southwood, finished the next day, followed by the all-female crew Cruising Free, consisting of Sophie Pierce, Janine Williams, Polly Zipperlen, and Miyah Periam.
Annasley Park (UK): Solo rower Annasley Park completed her Atlantic row on March 28. The former professional cyclist rowed from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 54 days, 14 hours, and 14 minutes.
At the start of her row, she battled sea sickness, strong winds, capsizes, and dust on her solar panels. As she rowed into March, conditions improved, and she picked up speed. This lasted a few weeks before it became clear that a weather system was going to start pushing her north. To counteract it, she took a more southerly line.
This helped, but Park still ended up on her para-anchor, trapped in her cabin.
"For safety reasons, the cabin door needs to be shut, but that means that Annasley [Park] is sitting inside a sealed fiberglass box, under the hot sun. Much like leaving someone in a car on a hot day with the windows shut," her team wrote.
Once finally off the para-anchor, things went from bad to worse: Her autohelm (the link between her chart plotter and rudder) broke. After a day fiddling with the equipment and some frantic calls, she managed to fix it and start the final week of her row.
For the last few kilometers, Park whipped round the northern tip of Barbados in a huge squall.
Pacific Ocean
Seas the Day (UK): Jessica Rowe and Miriam Payne are rowing from Peru to Sydney, Australia. The pair started on April 8 and hopes to make it 14,000km across the Pacific in six months.
Rowe and Payne met in 2022 while taking part in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge (now called The World’s Toughest Row). Payne was taking on the race as a soloist, Rowe in an all-female four. Having connected before the row, they stayed friends and decided to embark on a joint project.
They were originally going to start their challenge in the middle of March, but this was pushed back to April 8. There were delays getting their boat and food through customs, and they then found a stress fracture in the hull.
The first few days felt like "rowing through treacle" because there was little wind. Then conditions changed dramatically, and they ended up on their para-anchor.
Assessing the boat after the bad weather, they noticed that the storm had damaged the rudder in four places. Days after leaving, the pair turned their boat around, and a rescue team towed them back to Peru. They will make repairs and restart as soon as possible.
The Maclean Brothers (UK): Three Scottish brothers, Ewan, Jamie, and Lachlan MacLean, are also rowing across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Sydney, Australia.
The trio crossed the Atlantic in 2020, breaking the speed record for a three-man crew. On that expedition, they rowed from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in 35 days.
Now they hope to do the same across the Pacific. They aim to cover 14,000km in 120 days by rowing in two-hour shifts around the clock. If they manage this, they will cut 42 days off the current record.
At just 280kg, their carbon-fiber boat is one of the lightest ocean rowing boats in the world.
In true Scottish style, they ate a haggis dinner the night before their departure, and packed haggis, neeps, and tatties to celebrate Lachlan’s 27th birthday while at sea.
Setting off a few days after Seas the Day, they are one week into their row. Already, they've had to contend with the usual early struggles, including seasickness and sleep deprivation. After a few days, they have regained their appetites but are struggling with salt sores on their backsides and a finicky autohelm.
Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov has ended his attempt to circumnavigate the Southern Hemisphere. The 73-year-old priest had to abandon his 27,000km rowing journey after several technical failures on his boat, AKROS.
Konyukhov was attempting a three-stage route around the southern hemisphere of our planet. Starting in 2019, he rowed 11,525km alone from New Zealand to Argentina, thereby becoming the first-known person to make a solo crossing of the Southern Pacific Ocean.
The second stage started on Dec. 5, 2024. His plan was to row from southern Chile to the South Atlantic and then to continue across the South Indian Ocean to Australia. From here, the third and final stage would have taken him back to New Zealand.
Unfortunately, despite a relatively successful start to the second stage, several systems on Konyukhov's boat failed at the end of March, which made continuing unsafe.
Storm derails a promising start
Konyukhov had already navigated through the tricky waters around the Falkland Islands, Burdwood Bank, and South Georgia Island. In so doing, he traversed the South Atlantic -- a first in solo ocean rowing. From here, he continued into the South Indian Ocean toward Australia's Cape Leeuwin. Then, at the start of February, a Force 10 storm battered his small boat, damaging his navigation and communication systems.
The experienced rower pushed forward, but further disaster struck on March 26. The primary desalination pump failed, leaving Konyukhov with only a manual pump that couldn't meet his daily water needs. A day later, his autopilot broke. This made navigation difficult and meant that in future storms, he might end up sideways to the waves.
His team believes that three months of "relentless wet and cold conditions" led to all these equipment failures.
With a favorable forecast and the bulk carrier Ore Hong Kong within two days of his position, Konyukhov decided on March 29 to end his expedition. The freighter reached him on March 30 at sunset. Using a lifeline gun, the crew threw a tow line onto the little boat. They then drew AKROS close enough so that the Russian explorer could clamber up a 22-meter ladder and board the vessel despite ocean swells.
This is the first time in his long career that Konyukhov has abandoned his vessel, and the seasoned explorer was tearful as they left his little craft adrift and steamed away. However, its tracking devices are still working, so Konyukhov is hopeful that it will be possible to retrieve AKROS near Australia later this year.
Now safely aboard Ore Hong Kong, Konyukhov is en route to Qingdao, China, where he expects to arrive around April 20–21. He has not said whether he plans to pick up the challenge again in the future.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, one soloist has crossed into the Indian Ocean, another has made a pitstop in French Polynesia, and a canoeist has crossed the Atlantic.
Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Dash: The Atlantic Dash is a relatively small event that touts itself as an "ocean-rowing regatta." Four teams are participating in the 5,000km row from the Canary Islands to Antigua this year. Gary Hutching is rowing solo. Row For It is a four of Neil Glover, Peter Ross, Darren Smith, and Nick Southwood. All-female crew Cruising Free comprises Sophie Pierce, Janine Williams, Polly Zipperlen, and Miyah Periam. Finally, Ruby Coates and Steffan Evans make up the pair Waves to Awareness.
By the beginning of March, all four crews had crossed the halfway mark, with the first three boats very close together. Though this is not a race, the positioning of the boats has been quite surprising. Soloist Gary Hutching has been in the lead for a chunk of time, while four-man crew Row For It brings up the rear.
At the end of February, Row For It discovered a couple of lockers on board their boat had filled with water. They pumped out nearly 100kg of water, perhaps explaining their slow start.
In the last few days, a tropical low-pressure system has caused chaos. Squalls, constantly changing winds, and strong currents have pushed all the crews off course.
75 days at sea
Gabor Rakconczay (HU): Hungarian extreme athlete Gabor Rakonczay has completed his solo transatlantic canoe expedition. After 75 days and 10 hours at sea, he arrived in Antigua on March 8. After departing from La Palma in the Canary Islands, he paddled 5,123km. He paddled for 15 hours a day, pausing every few hours to eat.
This is his second solo canoe crossing of the Atlantic. In 2012, he became the first person to canoe the route. For this year's expedition, he custom-made his vessel, basing it on the design he used in 2012.
His journey wasn't always smooth. Stormy weather led to a broken thumb, and the journey took longer than he had hoped; by the end, his food supplies were dwindling.
As he arrived in Antigua, family members took a small boat out to join him for the last section of his crossing, and over 15,000 followers watched the live stream of him completing the journey.
"With this, I consider my 18-year career in extreme sports to be closed, and with the experiences I have lived, my life will enter a new phase," Rakonczay said.
Cyclist turned rower
Annasley Park (UK): A former professional cyclist, Park switched disciplines to take on the Atlantic. Starting in February, she set out from Spain toward Barbados.
It was a rough start. Within the first few days, huge waves led to a capsize, she couldn't keep any food down because of seasickness, and dust in the air rendered her solar panels useless.
Fortunately, things have improved. On February 26, Park reached the halfway point and says she is now enjoying the row. The cross swell that had been slowing her down was almost gone and forecasts predict a stint of good conditions.
Even when conditions are near perfect, it is still physically draining. To keep herself going, Park has been listening to the Lord of the Rings audiobooks, and by happy coincidence, she recently rowed past Researcher Ridge. Ocean mappers have named this chain of seamounts after characters and locations from Tolkien's world.
Indian Ocean
Fedor Konyukhov (RU): Konyukhov, the tireless 73-year-old priest and adventurer, is circumnavigating the southern hemisphere. He aims to row 27,000km over three stages. On May 9, 2019, he completed the first stage, rowing 11,525km from New Zealand to Argentina. This was the first recorded solo crossing of the Southern Pacific Ocean.
Konyukhov is now undertaking the second stage of his route. On Dec. 5, 2024, he set out from Chile into the Drake Passage. From there, he is heading across the South Atlantic and South Indian Oceans to Australia.
After 68 days, he approached South Africa. Passing the cape was a challenge, with three huge weather systems colliding (the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Southern Ocean) in this patch of water.
Several storms and capsizes later, he limped past with all his boat's antennae down and a broken oar. Any hope that the situation would improve in early March was quickly quashed.
Now in the Indian Ocean, Konyukhov got stuck in an anticyclone. For days, he looped around the same bit of ocean, making no forward progress. After escaping, he battled headwinds.
His land team thinks that the tricky conditions cost him over 250km of progress. The storms, cyclones, and headwinds are making it nearly impossible to predict when Konyukhov will make it to Australia.
Pacific Ocean
Louis Margot (CH): Margot is rowing across the Pacific Ocean as part of a human-powered, round-the-world expedition. This is the fourth leg of his journey, having already completed two cycling stages and one rowing stage.
On November 12, he left Peru bound for Indonesia, planning to make a pitstop on the Marquesas Islands to restock and make repairs. After an exhausting row, Margot says this has been the most taxing stage of his entire expedition. He landed on Hiva Oa (the second largest island in the Marquesas Islands) on March 9.
Margot barely slept for the last 48 hours of the row. Strong winds and currents, heavy rain, and thunderstorms made positioning the boat to land difficult.
Margot has not said how long he plans to stay on Hiva Oa before resuming his row to Indonesia.
Today, a naval warship rescued 44-year-old ocean rower Aurimas Mockus off the coast of Australia.
The Lithuanian rower was within a week of completing his 12,000km row across the Pacific from San Diego to Brisbane when Tropical Cyclone Alfred hit him. It generated winds up to 100kph and waves up to seven meters high. He set off a distress signal on Friday when he was about 740km from his endpoint.
Australian search-and-rescue authorities sent out planes, which eventually located the exhausted rower. A naval ship, HMAS Choules, was dispatched to pick him up.
Mockus had been rowing on his own for almost five months.
Only three rowers -- Peter Bird, John Beede, and Michelle Lee -- have completed the Pacific crossing.
Aurimas Mockus is at the center of a search-and-rescue mission in the Coral Sea east of Australia after he activated his emergency beacon. The Lithuanian, who was attempting to row across the Pacific Ocean from San Diego to Brisbane, is caught in Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Mockus, 44, sent out his distress signal on February 28, approximately 740km east of Australia. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority immediately sent an aircraft to locate him. Initial attempts to contact him were unsuccessful.
Today, one of the rescue planes spoke to Mockus. He told them he has no serious injuries but that he is exhausted.
Terrifying seas
The Royal Australian Navy quickly deployed another aircraft and a ship, HMAS Choules, from Brisbane to reach the stranded rower. That aircraft visually located Mockus. Their images show his tiny boat being thrown about in terrifying seas.
Mockus left San Diego on October 15, 2024, aiming to row 12,000km across the Pacific. Had he reached Australia, he would have been the first person to row this route across the Pacific. But for the last two weeks, the weather has rapidly deteriorated. First, he became trapped in a whirlpool, which forced him to row in the wrong direction to get out of it. He had hoped to use a three-day spell of good weather to head for Brisbane, but a different cyclone forced him onto his para-anchor and he missed the weather window.
Barely a week out from Australia, he was unable to evade the powerful Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Winds up to 100kph and waves up to seven meters brutally batter his vessel. To make matters worse, he has little battery power left.
“There’s no sun out in the ocean, so I must conserve my battery power as much as possible," he said. "I’ve shut down everything I can, leaving only the ability to communicate with my shore team. I just spoke with them, and they had nothing reassuring to say. I must endure this wind.”
Mockus said that rowing is “out of the question -- I need to survive.” He told his team that he is now “in God’s hands.”
The HMAS Choules should reach him Monday morning, so he will have to hold on a little longer.
Since our last ocean roundup, another event has started in the Atlantic Ocean, soloists are just days away from land, and a legendary 73-year-old adventurer is taking on the South Atlantic Ocean.
South Atlantic Ocean
Fedor Konyukhov (RU): The 73-year-old priest and prolific adventurer Fedor Konyukhov is completing a circumnavigation of the southern hemisphere. The epic challenge comprises three stages and covers a staggering 27,000km of rowing. On May 9, 2019, he completed the first stage after 154 days at sea, rowing 11,525km from New Zealand to Argentina. In doing so, he did the first-known successful solo crossing of the Southern Pacific Ocean.
He had intended to begin the second stage in 2020, but the pandemic delayed him, as it did everyone else. Konyukhov finally started stage two on December 5, 2024, when he set out from Chile into the Drake Passage. He is heading across the South Atlantic and South Indian Oceans to Australia.
By the end of 2024, he had successfully maneuvered around the most difficult points on his route through the South Atlantic: Isla de los Estados, the Falkland Islands, Burdwood Bank, and South Georgia Island.
"Loneliness in the ocean is felt more on days like these when you reflect on the past year and mentally go over your whole life," he wrote. "When I was young, I never thought I would be greeting 2025 in the South Atlantic aboard a rowing boat.”
Rowing through these notorious waters, the veteran has had to tackle every possible weather scenario. Winds raged from every direction, including strong headwinds and cyclones, which battered his boat to a worrying degree. His wind vane, active radar reflector, and one of his satellite phones all sustained damage.
At the start of February, a Force 10 storm hit Konyukhov, further damaging his navigation and communication systems. Noting a research vessel nearby, his land team asked the ship to pass near the little rowing boat to check on Konyukhov. On February 6, they found him waving cheerily at them and in excellent spirits.
On the final leg of his circumnavigation, he will row from Australia back to New Zealand.
North Atlantic Ocean
Mission Atlantic: This Atlantic event features two crews battling from Spain to Barbados. The organizers stress that this is not a race. Only open to active or retired military personnel, the two crews this year include one pair and one foursome.
British duo Chris Thrall and Louie Greenhalgh make up Oceans Elite. Meanwhile, Baudouin De La Rochefoucauld (Belgium), Juan Dumont De Chassart (Belgium), Jean-Pierre Boross De Levay (Costa Rica/Canada), and Joachim Megret De Serilly D’Etigny (Brazil/France) call themselves the Rowing Stones.
Both crews finished the 4,800km route after approximately seven weeks on the water. Although, yes, it was not a race, Oceans Elite beat the four-man crew to the finish line by a few days, landing on January 27. The Rowing Stones came in on January 31.
During their final few days, both crews experienced strong winds across the Sargasso Sea. Oceans Elite suffered a capsize, and the Rowing Stones had to deal with both knee and wrist injuries. The biggest worry for both was that strong winds would push them off-course as they neared Barbados.
Atlantic Dash: This month's second Atlantic event bills itself as an "ocean-rowing regatta." Crews start from the Canary Islands and row 5,000km to Antigua. Like Mission Atlantic, it is a relatively small event.
This year, four crews are competing. Gary Hutching is rowing solo, Row For It is a team of four consisting of Neil Glover, Peter Ross, Darren Smith, and Nick Southwood. The all-female Cruising Free includes Sophie Pierce, Janine Williams, Polly Zipperlen, and Miyah Periam. Finally, Ruby Coates and Steffan Evans make up the pair Waves to Awareness.
The event began on February 1. Cruising Free took an early lead, but just 40km separate the multi-person crews. As with any ocean row, everyone dealt with serious seasickness and adapting to the new routine over the first week.
Pierce, from Cruising Free, summed up the first few days: “The rowing is easy!!! Going to the toilet is a nightmare, moving around the boat is ridiculous, and getting in and out of foul weather gear at night is impossible...I have slept with mine on.”
A few boats have had problems with their power and autopilots and have had to manually steer while they fix them. Cruising Free went through a phase of using more power than it generated. Unlike other crews, they need a fridge for medication, so had to turn off their autopilot so that the fridge had enough power. They have now sorted through their electrical issues and remain in the lead.
Annasley Park (UK): This former professional racing cyclist has switched her bike for a rowing boat and taken to the Atlantic. After years of planning, she set off on February 1 to row alone from Spain to Barbados.
Her start has been particularly stressful. On the second night, as she pulled away from the Canary Islands, big waves flipped her boat as she rowed. She clambered back into the boat and deployed her para-anchor to give herself a moment to recover. She has also struggled with debilitating seasickness and was unable to eat for the first three days.
Now that she has her sea legs, Park has picked up speed. She has kept her spirits high by wearing a Hawaiian shirt every Friday. An unusual difficulty: For a while, dust clouds from the Sahara blew across the Atlantic and affected her solar panels. The haze has ended, and her solar panels are now at full power.
Pacific Ocean
Louis Margot (CH): Margot is rowing across the Pacific Ocean as part of a human-powered, round-the-world expedition. He has already completed two cycling stages and one rowing stage, but mentally, this has been his toughest section.
On November 12, he left Peru bound for French Polynesia. He has decided to stop at the Marquesas Islands to allow himself time to restock and make repairs. He hopes to land within the next two weeks. Today marked his 100th day at sea.
Margot has spoken several times about the difficulty of being alone for so long and how the days all merge together. Milestones have kept him going over the last month. On February 7, he had covered 40% of the entire journey.
“It's huge…[yet] it seems so small in comparison to all that is left to go," he commented.
After his pit stop in the Marquesas, he will continue on to Indonesia.
Aurimas Mockus (LT): Mockus has now passed the 10,000km point of his row from San Diego to Brisbane, Australia. Since setting off on October 15, he has covered 93% of the way.
The last few weeks have not been easy. He had hoped to finish before the end of February, but light winds have hampered him. Most rowers hope for a tailwind of some kind.
Eventually, a tailwind did come along, but it was short-lived. Then strong easterlies pushed him almost 40km off course. He worked hard to get back on track, but then a hurricane hit briefly, and he spent a day on his para-anchor.
Zara Lachlan has become the first woman and the youngest person to row solo, unassisted, and non-stop from mainland Europe to mainland South America.
The 21-year-old left from Lagos, Portugal on October 27, 2024 and rowed 6,670km to French Guiana in under three months -- 97 days, 9 hours, and 20 minutes, to be precise.
During the challenging voyage, Lachlan broke a finger, injured her arm, had a near-collision with another vessel, and dealt with brutal weather that snapped an oar, capsized her craft, and caused many equipment malfunctions.
"It was tough," she told Women in Sport. "At some points, really tough. But it’s in those moments you find out what you’re really made of. In many ways, I didn’t really have a choice. I just had to grit my teeth and row."
The hardest part
The start of her row was by far the hardest section. Getting away from the coast and the Canary Islands was much harder than she expected. For weeks, the weather flitted between winds so strong she had to deploy her para-anchor, and waters so calm that it felt like rowing through treacle.
At some points, she rowed for 21 hours a day into headwinds but barely moved forward. It was as if she was on a treadmill. Once, she drifted so far on her para-anchor that it took nine hours of rowing to make up the lost distance.
She described that phase as "soul-crushing."
"Every day for the first month, I wanted to go home, and I thought this was a silly idea, but it was so hard," Lachlan told the BBC. "But if someone came up to me on a boat and said they would tow me in and I could fly home, I would [have told] them to go away. I wanted to give up, but I never actually wanted to stop."
'By the end, I loved it'
Cleaning the hull of her boat was a particularly anxious task at first since she doesn't swim well.
"Jumping out of the boat and diving underneath it to clean it was something I dreaded," she recalled. "But by the end of the row, I loved it. In fact, I looked forward to a dip in the sea and was in the water every day."
As with many ocean rowers, the wildlife and scenery around her was a highlight.
"From orcas and dolphins to the breathtaking sunrises and crystal-clear night sky –- there were moments when I just had to pinch myself."
Arriving in French Guiana, Lachlan was met by her family and locals intrigued by her challenge. "It was so nice to see people and hug them, and I will remember that feeling for a really long time," she said.
Lachlan will now join the British Army as a technical officer. Major General Lamont Kirkland, CEO of Team Forces, said: “It’s been incredibly impressive to see that her focus has never wavered...It’s doubly astounding when you recall that this 21-year-old had never rowed a boat on the sea in her life until this year.”
It has been a busy month on the world's oceans. Since our last roundup, the winner of the 2024-25 World's Toughest Row has been crowned. Two soloists are approaching their finish lines, and a new duo has taken to the Atlantic.
Atlantic Ocean
World’s Toughest Row: Possibly the most popular ocean rowing race in the world, the World’s Toughest Row (previously the Talisker Whisky Challenge) started on December 11. This year, 38 crews totaling 109 rowers started in Tenerife. Today, the first crew crossed the finish line in Antigua.
Team Row4Cancer won the 2024 race after 37 days, 14 hours, and two minutes at sea. They landed just a few hours ago. The four-man crew of Leon Koning, Tom Rijnders, Maarten Diepeveen, and Mark Slats has led since the beginning. The four Netherlanders finished a full two days ahead of the next closest boat.
This is the third time Mark Slats has taken part in the Atlantic race. In 2017, he broke the solo speed record. In 2020, he did the same in a pair.
This year was the toughest yet. Previously, easterly winds pushed the crews toward Antigua. This year, they battled constant headwinds and crosswinds, which foiled their hope for a new speed record.
“It’s no secret that the team had a record in mind, but sometimes Mother Nature has other plans,” the organizers observed.
An unusual start
This year's conditions were very unusual. The race started a day early to give crews a calmer start and allow them to adapt to sea life. Initially, crews moved swiftly, but progress on the back half was particularly slow, with none of the usually reliable winds. Crews are so spread out that 2,110km separates the first and last boats in the pack.
Race statistics so far:
Winners: Row4Cancer
Leading five: Power of 1
Leading four: Row4Cancer
Leading trio: Team V3nture
Leading pair: Scholarship
Leading soloist: Ocean Ways
Mission Atlantic: The smaller of the two Atlantic events, Mission Atlantic involves two teams crossing the ocean from Spain to Barbados. Unlike the World’s Toughest Row, where many crews set to break records in their categories, this is not a race. It is an event for active or retired military personnel.
This year's teams feature Oceans Elite and the Rowing Stones. British pair Chris Thrall and Louie Greenhalgh make up Oceans Elite. Baudouin De La Rochefoucauld (Belgium), Juan Dumont De Chassart (Belgium), Jean-Pierre Boross De Levay (Costa Rica/Canada) and Joachim Megret De Serilly D’Etigny (Brazil/France) comprise the Rowing Stones.
Neck and neck
The larger Rowing Stones crew are currently second in this non-race, though very little separates the boats. They are just 55km apart. Over the last few days, the Rowing Stones have had issues with their water maker and satellite phone. And in a reversal of the usual expedition problem, they brought too much food rather than too little. They fear the extra weight might be slowing them down a little. Meanwhile, Oceans Elite faces a catastrophe that only we Britons can understand: They have run out of tea bags.
Zara Lachlan (UK): Lachlan is the youngest rower to take to the seas this season. She is rowing alone from Portugal to French Guiana. If successful, she will become the youngest person and first woman to row solo and unassisted from mainland Europe to South America. So far, she has covered 4,170km, about 70% of the distance.
'I'm not an ocean rower'
Lachlan modestly says that she does not consider herself an ocean rower, even if she makes it to South America. Instead, she says she is a regular rower who happens to be on the ocean and has had a lot of advice from seasoned ocean rowers.
The start of her row was difficult. It took a long time to pull away from the Canary Islands, south of Portugal, and difficult weather plagued her. She has injured her arm, broken a finger, and capsized.
Luckily, the row became more enjoyable as she pulled away from the coast and into the open ocean. Since December, she has doubled her daily mileage. Just a few days ago, she passed a significant milestone: just 1,000 nautical miles (1,852km) to go. She hopes to finish before the end of January.
Phoenix Expedition: Hungarians Adam Norbert Szabo and Gergo Havasi are rowing from the Canary Islands to Antigua. They started on January 6 and have covered 1,000km in 11 days.
Seasickness at night
So far, they have been relatively lucky with the weather. The first few days were calm, with manageable winds. On their fifth day, their first storm forced them to deploy their para-anchor. They waited out the storm in their cabin, which felt like a washing machine and worsened their early seasickness. After the storm petered out, strong winds and large waves lingered for three days.
They are now settling into a routine but have found nighttime rowing particularly difficult. It coincides with when their seasickness is at its worst, and the interrupted sleep has caused fatigue.
Pacific Ocean
Louis Margot (CH): Margot’s Pacific row is just a stage of a much larger project. He is aiming to cycle and row around the world. This is his second rowing leg. On November 12, he pushed off from Peru bound for Hiva Oa in French Polynesia. Here, he will stop briefly before continuing to Indonesia.
A few days ago, Margot hit a major milestone --500 days since he began. He has found rowing much harder than cycling, mainly because of the mental aspect. Completely alone on the ocean, he struggles with the monotony.
Yet there have been some memorable moments, such as when a sea turtle swam past the boat.
“First time I’ve ever seen a sea turtle!" he commented on social media. "This has made my day."
Aurimas Mockus (LT): Of all the rowers currently making their way across the world's oceans, Mockus has been paddling the longest. The Latvian started on October 15 and has covered over 9,000km. He is rowing across the Pacific from San Diego to Brisbane, Australia, and does not have that much farther to go.
December was a big month for Mockus. He saw land again for the first time in months as he neared Kiribati. Rowing through the center of Kiribati's atoll, he passed the halfway point of his journey. He said it was the best Christmas gift he could have asked for.
Since our last roundup, two events have begun in the Atlantic, and 39 crews are racing from the Canary Islands to either Barbados or Antigua. Three soloists are still battling across the world's oceans.
Atlantic Ocean
World’s Toughest Row: The 2024 World’s Toughest Row -- previously known as the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge -- started on December 11. Thirty-eight teams and 109 rowers pushed off from Tenerife, bound for Antigua. One crew, City of Derby, had to pull out after a few hours because of technical issues.
This year's race started a day early.
"Starting a day earlier than planned has provided relatively easy conditions so far," race organizers said. "The calmer seas have led to fewer cases of seasickness than usual, giving crews time to start adapting to life at sea."
Though the first few days were slightly calmer than previous years, the crews are dealing with choppy water. The southeasterly and easterly winds are impacting boats differently, depending on their position in the race. Those further south are experiencing a helpful tailwind. Meanwhile, crews who took a slightly more northerly route are deploying para-anchors to stop the wind pushing them back.
Fortunately, conditions are expected to improve in the next few days.
Race statistics so far:
Leading: Row4Cancer
Leading five: Power of 1
Leading four: Row4Cancer
Leading trio: Ordinary Buoys
Leading pair: Scholarship
Leading soloist: Ocean Ways
Mission Atlantic: Organizers state that Mission Atlantic is not a race. Instead, it is "an opportunity for those who have served to come together, forging bonds of fraternity and friendship. All whilst taking on a challenge of staggering proportions, and raising thousands of pounds for charity."
A much smaller event than The World’s Toughest Row, this is only open to military or ex-military. It does not take place annually and was last held in 2021.
Two crews are taking part: Oceans Elite (Chris Thrall and Louie Greenhalgh) and Rowing Stones (Baudouin de La Rochefoucauld, Jean Pierre Boross de Levay, Joachim d’Etigny, and Juan Dumont de Chassart).
The teams set off from Gran Canaria on December 8. They will row 5,000km to Barbados.
So far, the crews have faced tricky headwinds and choppy seas, in addition to the usual challenges of seasickness and lack of sleep. Thankfully, now over a week into the row, those difficulties are starting to subside.
Unsurprisingly, the four-man crew has covered slightly more ground than the pair in the first 10 days. The Rowing Stones have covered 672km to Ocean Elites 646km.
Zara Lachlan (UK): This 21-year-old is rowing from Portugal to French Guiana. If she completes the journey, she will become the first woman, and the youngest person, to row from mainland Europe to South America.
The start of the row was a struggle for Lachlan. For three weeks the weather flitted between winds so strong she had to deploy her para-anchor, and waters so calm that it felt like rowing through treacle. After almost two months, she has covered 2,100km of the 6,668km total. She is significantly behind schedule for her 90-day target.
Despite the slow start, Lachlan is feeling positive. By early December, she had left the Canary Islands and the wind picked up in her favour. Recently, she has doubled her daily mileage.
Pacific Ocean
Louis Margot (CH): Swiss adventurer Margot is now well into the fourth leg of his round-the-world journey. He is rowing across the Pacific from Peru to Hiva Oa in French Polynesia. From there, he will continue to Indonesia.
After five weeks back on the ocean, Margot has covered 1,660km, less than a tenth of his 20,000km row. Before this row, he cycled 2,500km from Switzerland to Portugal, then rowed from Portugal to Columbia, before hopping on his bike again and cycling to Peru.
Margot aims to make it around the globe in three years. If he succeeds, he will cut a whopping two years off the current record for a human-powered circumnavigation.
Margot spent the first ten days of this section of his long journey getting reacquainted with life on a boat.
"The first few days were physically intense, with pain in my hands and back, and adapting to the rhythm of life at sea. But little by little, my body is starting to get used to the minimal comfort and constant effort," Margot said.
Margot is dealing with currents that are pushing him in the wrong direction. He needs to head west but the currents are pushing him north.
One of the biggest challenges so far is the loneliness. Other than a little bird that sat on his boat for a few hours, Margot is alone, and Indonesia seems very far away.
Aurimas Mockus (LT): Mockus is rowing from San Diego, California to Brisbane, Australia. Ten weeks in, the Lithuanian has covered just over 5,000km. He is now nearing Kiribati, the first patch of land in months.
Mockus has shared very few updates but is making good progress. At the end of November, he reached the 2,000 nautical miles (3,704km) milestone.
Over the last few weeks, conditions have become tricky, with gusts of wind regularly hitting 30 knots. During one such gust, his boat flipped.
"Frankly, I wouldn’t want to experience that again ever," he wrote.
Since our last roundup, two more soloists have taken to the ocean. One is attempting to break two records on the Atlantic; the other has begun the next leg of his round-the-world journey across the Pacific.
Atlantic Ocean
Zara Lachlan (UK) is rowing across the Atlantic from Lagos, Portugal, to French Guiana in South America. The 21-year-old hopes to become the first woman and youngest person to solo row from mainland Europe to South America.
Since starting on October 27, she has covered 835km of the 6,668km crossing. Rowing for 20 hours a day, she hopes to finish in 90 days but remains a little behind schedule. Getting away from the land at the start was tricky, and the weather has not cooperated.
Several times, winds forced her to deploy her para-anchor, and she ended up drifting in the wrong direction. Once, she had to stop for a full day and drifted so far back, it took her nine hours to make up the lost distance. On other days, the water had been so calm that she is barely moving. Progress was so slow that more bad weather has caught up with her. It is pushing her eastward toward the Canary Islands and Africa.
Pacific Ocean
Swiss adventurer Louis Margot has started the fourth leg of his round-the-world journey. Currently, he is rowing 6,746km from Callao, Peru to Hiva Oa in French Polynesia. He aims to make it around the globe by cycling and rowing. The record for a human-powered circumnavigation is five years and 11 days. He hopes to finish in three years.
On Sept. 3, 2023, he started cycling 2,500km from Switzerland to Portugal. From there, he rowed for 115 days to Columbia, then jumped back on his bike and cycled 4,030km to Peru in 62 days. Here, he took a two-month break to recover, reconnect with his family, restock, and repair his boat.
He started his second row on November 12. Margot aims to get to Indonesia but is unsure of his route after French Polynesia. He is debating whether to row to Australia, bike across it, and then continue to Indonesia, or go to Papua New Guinea and then island-hop to Indonesia.
The first week reintroduced him to the agonies of rowing. “My hands hurt, and my back is already broken,” he joked after one day at sea.
The ocean is so calm that the water and his boat are barely moving. Many ocean rowers get a reliable boost from trade winds or currents, but so far, every inch of forward progress is with the oars.
Aurimas Mockus of Lithuania is now five weeks into his own Pacific row. He started in San Diego, Calif. on October 15, bound for Brisbane, Australia. With 1,288km done, he has another nine-tenths of the distance to cover.
In the first few days, he struggled to pull away from the coastline of California. Finally, he made it out past Guadalupe Island and into the open ocean. That should be the last patch of land he sees for over 5,000km until he reaches Kiribati.
The weather over the last few weeks has been mixed. At first, it was against him, which meant slow progress and extra hours of rowing. Now, the opposite has happened. Strong winds have whipped up six-meter-high waves, which crash against the boat, but they are pushing him in the right direction. The only mishap occurred when a wave snapped one of his spare oars.
Since our last roundup, one soloist has taken to the water. He is the only person rowing the world’s oceans at the moment.
This is one of the quietest times of year on the Seven Seas. It is hurricane season over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans -- not the best time to go rowing. In the Pacific, hurricane season runs from May to November; in the Atlantic, it goes from June to November. Once these end, more rowers will begin their challenges.
Aurimas Mockus: Meanwhile, Lithuanian rower Aurimas Mockus is attempting to cross the Pacific Ocean from east to west. He started in San Diego on October 15 and hopes to land in Australia in six to eight months. His boat was built in Ukraine, modified in Lithuania, and then shipped to California for the launch.
After the first few days, he has started to pull away from the coastline of San Diego into calmer waters. The beginning of any ocean rowing journey is tricky. Near the coastline, you have to cope with sea traffic. Most also have to contend with seasickness as their bodies get used to the new routine of non-stop rowing.
A year of training
Mockus has never rowed an ocean before and has spent over a year preparing, including a trial row in the Baltic Sea.
"I had several goals -- to test the autopilot and parachute anchor in real conditions, to assess how the boat feels in the open water, and how it rolls on the waves," he said. "Also, to test the navigation system and communication."
Buoyed by the experience, he wanted to start his journey as soon as possible.
"Since one Aurimas [fellow Lithuanian Aurimas Valujavicius] has already managed to conquer the Atlantic, I think another Aurimas is left to...row across the Pacific from America to Australia," he said.
Aurimas Valujavicius crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 2023. He became the first Lithuanian and third person ever to solo row from Spain to the U.S.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, all crews have ended their journeys, and not a single one crossed their intended finish line.
Atlantic Ocean
Tom Waddington: Waddington (UK) was attempting to cross the North Atlantic from Canada to the UK. Though new to the sport, he was aiming to break the 39-day speed record. With winds pushing against him almost every stroke of the way, he only hit the halfway mark on day 41.
He has spent days on the para-anchor waiting to row and only had the odd sporadic day with favorable conditions. He also capsized multiple times, damaging or losing some equipment, including his Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB). Then he had a change of fortune. The waves were big but they were moving in the same direction as he was. Surfing them, he began speeding toward the UK.
With just 152km to go, a new set of difficulties hit. Waddington had been aiming for Penzance, on mainland Britain. But strong southerly winds started pushing him north toward the Scilly Islands just off the coast from his finish line. His land team urged him to row as far south as possible to counteract the oncoming winds, but it wasn’t enough. He was still headed straight for Scilly.
His plan then morphed into rowing around the top of the islands. After rowing without rest for over 18 hours, he was completely exhausted. It became clear that he wouldn't make it to Penzance.
With the wind and tides getting stronger, Waddington called the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to come and tow him to safety.
Patrick Favre: Favre (FR) has set a new speed record for solo rowing the North Atlantic. He rowed from Canada to Ireland in 32 days, breaking the previous record by seven days.
He initially started in Newfoundland but stopped after three days in Trespassey Harbour. Wind and heavy fog made rowing too dangerous. After two days, he picked up his oars and pointed the boat toward France. His record time was taken from his departure in Trespassey and does not count the initial three days.
Despite moving quickly, there were many tricky points. At the halfway mark, the winds kept pushing him off course. On day 18, he awoke to find himself in the same position that he started in on day 17, despite a full day on the oars in between. Thankfully, this was Favre's ninth Atlantic crossing and he wasn't phased.
"No crossing of the North Atlantic happens without a backward loop," Favre commented.
In the later stages of the journey, he frequently used the para-anchor. During a day of 35-knot winds and 50-knot gusts, he capsized and the autopilot broke. Yet even in turbulent conditions, he was making good progress.
However, the wind and currents pushed him sideways, away from France. With strong headwinds on the horizon, it became vital he make land as soon as possible. His new finish line became the south of Ireland.
Around the UK
The Long Row Home: Allan Lipp and Mhairi Ross were attempting to row around the coastline of mainland Britain. They set off from Wick in the far north of Scotland on June 1 and rowed clockwise.
They had been hoping to break the 60-day record for the circumnavigation, but it was not to be. After 80 days, they paused their journey in Tobermory. Exhausted, they did not think it safe to continue in the forecast weather.
"We have hit the pause button on the row and are now in the marina at Tobermory. Getting to the start was hard. We have offered up nothing but blood, toil, sweat, and tears, as we tirelessly worked to succeed in our unsupported attempt to row around Britain. Our journey has taken us to places we never knew existed, mentally, physically, and at times geographically," they wrote.
Northwest Passage
NWP Expedition: This crew has had a dramatic end to their traverse of the Northwest Passage. This year, they returned to finish the journey they started in 2023. Last year they rowed the first 1,950km of the route before the weather stopped them.
Though the Northwest Passage is always challenging, the remaining 1,950km to Herschel Island near the Canadian-Alaskan border is considered a marginally less challenging section. However, they've once again missed out on completing the journey.
At the end of August, they encountered a storm that resulted in their boat's cabins filling with water. They estimate that the bow cabin alone had 150 liters of water in it. During the storm, "two of our three main anchors had been ripped off clean while the remaining anchor's claws had also been ripped off," Stefan Hacker said. After searching the hull, they found a three-and-a-half-foot crack.
Their next step was to motor as quickly as possible to Paulatuk. There, they could try to patch the boat up before motoring straight back to the site of the accident and finishing their row.
But before they could start, they needed some kind of temporary fix to move the boat at all. Skipper Leven Brown managed to fix the boat enough to relaunch her, but a few hours later, the emergency engine failed. Still, determined not to call in emergency services, the four-man crew rowed over 300km in a sinking boat over 10 days.
Eventually, they made it to Paulatuk.
"We assessed the damage to the boat in Paulatuk and it is too great to continue. Have we finished? For now at least," Brown wrote on social media.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, two crews have finished their journeys, a world record has been set, and a fresh soloist is taking on the Atlantic.
Pacific Ocean
Ocean Revival: Matt Mason, Will Scott, Mike Donovan, and Stephen McHugh completed their crossing of the mid-Pacific from San Francisco to Hawaii on Aug. 6. They landed in Honolulu after 46 days and 21 hours at sea.
Unlike many other crews, they have not been battling strong winds. Instead, it has been incredibly calm water with strong currents. At points, this has brought them to a standstill. Other issues include struggling in the heat, a lip infection, blisters, and painful salt wounds. But despite these few ailments they have stayed incredibly positive. During calm periods they found their own fun: decorating the boat for Scott's 40th birthday, holding diving competitions, and discussing their first meals back on dry land.
The final week of the row was eventful. A battery was leaking and a set of headphones caught fire, something they only noticed when they could suddenly smell smoke. Meanwhile, Scott's lip infection remained open and bleeding, necessitating a second course of antibiotics.
Finally, they had to battle prevailing winds to land the boat.
Atlantic Ocean
Tom Waddington: Waddington (UK) is attempting to cross the North Atlantic from Canada to the UK. One of two soloists currently crossing this stretch of ocean, he was aiming to beat the 39-day record. Now 41 days in and just over halfway, he has missed his target by a considerable margin.
Completely new to ocean rowing, Waddington has struggled with patches of tricky weather. When he reached the Flemish Cap, the winds were against him and he was suddenly covering 25% or less of his normal distance. For five days, he needed to stay on para-anchor between rowing sessions to control how much he would drift.
Once he made it off the continental shelf, conditions improved. But bouts of good weather were short-lived. Twenty-four hours of good weather would be followed by twenty-four hours of changing winds.
A big part of his row has been accepting that he cannot beat the ocean. This required reframing each situation to stay upbeat. One thing that did cheer up Waddington was a passing ship. It was the first vessel he’d seen in weeks, and he rang them on his radio to chat with the captain.
He reached the halfway point on July 28, a huge moment after days of intense gales and storms. He hopes the second half of his journey will be shorter than the first, but it has been a bumpy start. In early August, Waddington capsized twice in two days. He lost his EPIRB and water containers, and the accidents damaged aerials and electronics. Fortunately, he has made repairs and had spares of everything lost at sea.
A few days later, his Automatic Identification System (AIS) signaled that a large vessel was nearby. They were on course to collide. Waddington radioed the boat to check they had seen him and could maneuver around him. Anxiously, he waited for a reply. After a long wait, he was getting ready to dig out a parachute flare when they eventually responded.
Patrick Favre: Favre (FR) is rowing across the North Atlantic from Canada to France. After waiting three weeks for a suitable weather window, he started in Saint Pierre and Miquelon on July 22. According to the Ocean Rowing Society, he has covered 54% of his route so far.
The experienced rower has made 22 successful solo ocean crossings and is also trying to best the 39-day record for this crossing. Favre is on track; he reached the halfway point in 17 days.
The first section saw Favre pick his way across the southeastern tip of Newfoundland to get to the open ocean. After three days, he made a safety stop at Trespassey Harbour. Unfavorable winds and heavy fog meant rowing would be too dangerous for a few days. It was so foggy that when he landed he could not see land, only the end of the pontoon.
The winds died down after two days but the mist did not clear. Nevertheless, Favre decided he had waited long enough. First, he had to round Newfoundland's Cape Race. Though technically in open ocean, Favre was still very close to land and needed to navigate maritime traffic. This meant constant vigilance, which can be exhausting during a solo crossing. At one point he had to dodge a nearby cargo ship, throwing the boat into crosswinds and big waves.
Visibility was poor and with everything on the boat relying on solar panels he tried to conserve electricity by only keeping essential pieces of kit on. Despite this, by Aug. 7 he had no power and was hit by force 7 winds. Favre sat on anchor again, waiting for the winds to die down and his solar panels to charge up the essentials.
Around the UK
GB Row Challenge: This challenge sees crews race clockwise around mainland Britain. On June 9, two boats set out from Tower Bridge, London. Sea Change pulled out after two weeks when high winds damaged their boat.
The only remaining crew, Coastal Odyssey, soldiered on and made it back to Tower Bridge on July 28. They set a new speed record for a mixed, six-person, unsupported row around Great Britain.
A particularly tricky section of the route is the Pentland Firth, a 13km stretch of water between Orkney Island and the Scottish mainland. It has some of the fastest tidal currents in the world, and crews must wait for suitable weather. When their weather vane was almost completely still, at first the crew thought it must be broken. They had stumbled across unusually calm conditions and sped across the Firth before anything changed.
Though they had the odd day of slightly stronger winds, the rest of the row passed without any real issues.
The Long Row Home: Mhairi Ross and Allan Lipp (UK) are circumnavigating mainland Britain. After 75 days they are nearing the end of their journey. All that is left is to cross the top of Scotland and navigate the east coast to their hometown of Wick (their start and end point). They wanted to complete the 3,706km journey in 60 days but adverse weather made that impossible.
Over the last month, they rowed up the west coast of the UK and were thrilled to reach the halfway point at the end of July. They experienced "great" British weather for the duration, switching between wind, fog, pouring rain, and blistering heat. At times, winds and tides were so strong they were covering just 20km in 12 hours. At others, it was so still they barely moved.
One of the hardest sections came on days 61 and 62 when the pair tried to cross Saint George’s Channel.
"The planned 45nm passage ended up being much longer. A full tide cycle longer than planned," they wrote on social media.
Northwest Passage
NWP Expedition: This team is finishing the journey they started in 2023. A full traverse of the Northwest Passage. Last year, they rowed the first 2,600km of the route before stopping because of the weather.
This year, they returned to Cambridge Bay to complete the final (and easiest) 1,100km to Point Burrow in Alaska. They set off on Aug. 2. On just the second day on the water, Stefan Hacker realized three of the ration packs he had eaten had gone bad. This did not bode well for the third day.
"The following day I would see myself overdosing on immodium and sitting on the bucket," he wrote in a blog post.
Rotten rations aside, the first two weeks have been slow and difficult. After crossing Wellington Bay, high winds trapped the team. They spent days waiting on the western shore for conditions to change.
Finally able to move on, they have been struggling to build up a head of steam. They are rowing during calm patches and then anchoring to wait out headwinds. They are currently approaching Coronation Gulf.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, all but one crew have finished The World’s Toughest Row. In addition, one party has abandoned its circumnavigation of Britain, and another is gearing up to complete a row of the Northwest Passage that they started last year.
Pacific Ocean
World’s Toughest Row: The World's Toughest Row race began on June 8. Nine teams set off from Monterey, California to cross the mid-Pacific to Hanalei Bay, Hawaii. This year saw the highest number of female crews, seven of the initial nine. And despite pretty horrendous conditions, the women have been smashing speed records all over the place.
The conditions throughout the row have frustrated everyone, with many teams pushed off course by unexpected bad weather. The first few weeks had winds of over 30 knots and waves nearly 10 meters high. One crew pulled out after four days because of severe seasickness, and one member was even airlifted from the boat.
Every boat suffered multiple knockdowns, and most suffered several capsizes, leaving rowers with bruises and broken equipment. AIS and automatic steering failures meant that some crews had to steer manually and missed collisions by inches. Everything on the boats, including sleeping bags, was always soaking wet, making for quite a miserable time.
So far, seven of the eight crews have crossed the finish line. The race winners were the four-man crew, the Salty Sappers. All engineers in the British Army — sappers is military slang for "engineers" — Major Adam Siggs, Captain Joshua Warne, Lance Corporal Richard Wilkinson, and Corporal Adam Sedgwick made it to Hanalei Bay in 36 days, 6 hours, and 49 minutes. After winning, they said that they would "live off the high for months."
This means that British military crews have won both of the World's Toughest Row races this year. In January, HMS Oardacious, made up of members of the Royal Navy, won the Atlantic version.
Two all-female crews broke speed records during the row. Both previously completed the Atlantic race, where they also broke records.
Wild Waves became the fastest women's pair to cross the mid-Pacific, beating the previous record by a staggering nine days. Hilariously, when they first turned up for the Atlantic row years ago, they were one of the least experienced crews. They were also so drunk the day before starting they were almost banned from competing.
Yet in the end, they won the race by five days, beating 35 other crews. This time, they took it more seriously and said it was a much harder race.
"It was absolutely grueling, both [mentally and physically]," they said on the podium. "The hardest thing we have ever done. We gave it everything and are completely broken. But it was worth it."
A day later, another women's team, Pacific Triow, broke both the women's and men's speed records by 15 hours for a trio crossing the mid-Pacific. Their boat capsized three times, and their first two auto-helms melted because of the heat.
"The thought of the last remaining auto-helm breaking was a real worry," Charlotte Irving told The Telegraph. "We had this constant level of anxiety that it would. The conditions were brutal, there were many tears....We had to be really resilient...but our goal was to break the world record, and we did that."
Rumor has it that the two record-breaking female crews are now planning to team up and take on the Indian Ocean.
The leaderboard:
Overall Winners: Salty Sappers (Four) – 36 days, 6 hours, and 49 minutes.
2nd: Wild Waves (Pair) – 37 days, 11 hours, and 43 minutes (speed record: Fastest women’s pair to cross the Mid-Pacific).
3rd: Liz and Lena (Pair) – 37 days, 16 hours, and 33 minutes.
4th: Pacific Triow (Trio)– 38 days, 1 hour, and 34 minutes (speed record: Fastest trio to cross the Mid-Pacific).
5th: Full Foarce (Four) – 38 days, 9 hours, and 3 minutes.
6th: Hericane Rowing (Four) - 40 days, 22 hours, and 14 minutes
7th: Human Powered Potential (Four) - 41 days 1 hour, and 57 minutes
Ocean Revival: Ocean Revival's current crew comprises Matt Mason, Will Scott, Mike Donovan, and Stephen McHugh. They are attempting to row across the Mid-Pacific from San Francisco to Hawaii.
The four started rowing on June 20. Kayaker Cyril Derreumaux ceremonially accompanied them as they set off.
In the first few days, they pushed against strong winds. Everyone except Scott suffered from seasickness. Despite this, their updates have been positive. Now, the easterly winds and swells are behind them, and their pace is increasing. Yesterday, they reached their halfway point.
Atlantic Ocean
Tom Waddington: Waddington is attempting to row across the North Atlantic from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada to Penzance, UK. The soloist started his journey on July 5 and is trying to break the 39-day speed record for the route.
Before this challenge, Waddington had never rowed, but he put in over 400 hours of training at sea.
On the first night, Waddington struggled to sleep despite the waves crashing against the boat. The anxious newbie kept jumping up to check that his oars had not fallen overboard. He soon got into a rhythm, though.
Mid-row, some curious long-finned pilot whales followed his boat. More whales kept joining the group. Eventually, around a thousand whales surrounded his little craft. The whales kept popping their heads out of the water, playing with each other and diving.
All of a sudden, one of the whales slammed into the side of his boat.
“And I was like, Oh my God," Waddington commented on social media. "Suddenly, it turned from David Attenborough into Moby Dick. And I was really scared."
Getting through a pod of a thousand whales is a daunting task. Waddington tried shouting and hitting his oars on the water to get them to move. The whales stayed exactly where they were, happy with their new play area. So he tried veering northward, out of the gam of whales. It worked, although some continued to follow him for two hours.
Waddington did not have an easy first few weeks because of consistently difficult conditions. Most of the time, it has been raining. Fog and mist have reduced visibility to an eerie few meters. Huge waves have slowed him down. He has had to row 16 hours a day to keep pace, only stopping to eat.
Around the UK
GB Row Challenge: In this race, two crews row clockwise around Great Britain, starting and ending at Tower Bridge in London. The row kicked off on June 9, in tricky conditions.
Within the first 10 days, both crews ended up at anchor because of gale-force winds along Britain’s south coast. Then, along the Cornish coast, they battled strong currents.
Coastal Odyssey has led Sea Change since the start of the race. Their lead has increased over time.
At the start of July, Coastal Odyssey made its way up the east coast of Ireland. However, strong winds forced them to hug the coastline, adding many extra kilometers. Sea Change also struggled against the unexpected winds and had to wait for a weather window to cross the Bristol Channel.
After 14 days stuck in a harbor on the south coast, Sea Change moved anchorage to cross the Bristol Channel. But then a squall hit, bearing winds of up to 105kph. The boat was damaged, with key safety features compromised. As Coastal Odyssey hit the halfway point, Sea Change pulled out.
Now a one-team race, Coastal Odyssey has made it around the top of Scotland and is heading down the east coast of Britain.
The Long Row Home: Allan Lipp and Mhairi Ross (UK) are also rowing clockwise around Great Britain, but they started from Wick in Scotland.
The row down the east coast of Britain has had some tricky moments. As they moved from Scotland to England, the long shifts left them exhausted and seasick. In some places, there was so little shelter from the swells that it felt like being trapped in a "washing machine on a cold cycle: moist, swooshy, and rolly," they said.
Arriving in the Humber, they had to contend with busy shipping lanes.
At the end of June, the weather changed completely. Rather than the rain and wind they had become used to, they found themselves in a heat wave. They adjusted to a one-hour on, one-hour off rotation to cope with the sweltering heat.
After 46 days at sea, they are just 90km from Lands’ End, the southwestern point of Britain.
Northwest Passage
NWP Expedition: This team first tried to traverse the Northwest Passage last year, but abandoned the attempt after 2,600km, deterred by the unstable fall weather.
Rather than attempt the entire journey again, they are returning to Cambridge Bay, where they ended their row last year. From there, they will row the final 1,100km of their original route to Point Burrow, Alaska.
Though the team uses the same name and is still led by Leven Brown, nearly all the other members have changed. Mike Harding is the only returning crew member, while Felix Petit, Stefan Hacker, and Art Huseonica joined the 2024 team. They are currently in Cambridge Bay.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, many boats have taken to the oceans. Two races have started, one in the Pacific and one in the UK. Meanwhile, two other journeys have come to unexpected ends.
East China Sea
New Xu Fu Voyage: On June 3, Christian Havrehed and Sun Haiban started rowing from China to Japan. After three days at sea, they aborted and landed back in China.
The pair's problems started as soon as Havrehed landed in China. Chinese officials insisted that their boat be towed into international water before they could start their journey because a rowing boat was classed as sporting equipment rather than a vessel. Then a storm held them at the start line for over a week.
On June 3, they finally began their row, setting off from Zhoushan, China, across the East China Sea to Nagasaki, Japan. But the journey was short-lived. They struggled with the wind and seasickness, covering only 100km before returning to shore. They have not said whether they will reattempt the row.
The duo first rowed together in the 2001 Atlantic Race. They were attempting this row as part of a larger project. They wanted to explore whether the Chinese could have arrived in America before Columbus. Earlier this year, Havrehed spoke to ExplorersWeb about the project.
Around the World
Ellen Falterman: Ellen Falterman’s "Ellen Magellan" expedition has ended prematurely. In May, she was making her way around the Bahamas as part of her round-the-world journey. At the end of May, she crossed the Tongue of the Ocean, an 80km stretch of the deepest water in the Bahamas. She rowed for 31 hours, crossing from Andros Island to the Exumas Islands. "Navigating it [the chain of islands] is to cruise through postcard paradise," she wrote optimistically.
But a few days ago, disaster struck. Working her way through incredibly shallow water, her boat beached on the sand. This did not cause Falterman much stress: She had purposely beached her boat on a few occasions before in the Bahamas. Once the tide rose, she secured the boat with a bow and stern line and went onto the island to get dinner. At the time, the water was calm, with no wind.
But then a squall had arrived from the west, very unusual for the area. Falterman ran back to the boat but was too late. The waves were already smashing her boat against the rocks.
Though Falterman managed to pull her boat to a safer area, it was too damaged to continue. She wants to restart her journey but is unsure when. For now, her priority is getting home with her boat.
Pacific Ocean
World’s Toughest Row: The World's Toughest Row race started on June 8. It is the counterpart to the company's annual Atlantic Race. Compared to the relatively "common" Atlantic route (from La Gomera, Canary Islands to Nelson’s Dockyard, Antigua), this route sees far fewer rowers. Only 33 boats have rowed from mainland America to Hawaii.
All nine teams aim to row 4,500km from Monterey, California, across the mid-Pacific Ocean to Hanalei Bay, Hawaii. Most of this year's rowers have previously competed in the Atlantic Race.
After a few days, the all-female Pacific Triow crew is in the lead. They have covered 325km. Charlotte Irving, Jess Goddard, and Taylor Winyard met at the Atlantic Race in 2021. At that time, they were all in separate crews, but they struck up a friendship and joined forces to take on the Pacific.
Conditions have been challenging. All nine teams have battled strong winds. Many crews have suffered from seasickness, and some oars have broken. One crew has already quit. For now, there is little distance separating the remaining crews.
Around the UK
The Long Row Home: Allan Lipp and Mhairi Ross (UK) are trying to circumnavigate Britain. On June 1, the duo set out from Wick, Scotland. They are rowing counterclockwise around the UK.
On day 10, they crossed the border into England and will continue down the east coast. The border also marked their first 200 nautical miles (370km), so they rewarded themselves with a chocolate bar. They have packed one chocolatey reward for every 200nm.
The changeable British weather has kept them on their toes. Some days start with huge swells and end with glassy water.
GB Row Challenge: This race around the UK starts and ends at Tower Bridge in London. Teams row clockwise around the British coastline. The event first ran in 2005. It is now organized by William de Laszlo, who competed in the inaugural race.
Each team will row 3,700km around mainland Britain. With complex tides, changeable weather, and areas of heavy traffic, the row is a serious challenge.
This year, two six-person crews are racing. The first is Sea Change, an all-female crew from the UK, Canada, the U.S., and South Africa. The second is Coastal Odyssey, a mixed crew from the UK.
Since setting off on June 9, Coastal Odyssey has taken a slight lead, covering 370km to Sea Change's 214km.
As with our last roundup, only two soloists have been making their way over the oceans this month. One has completed a stage of his round-the-world trip, and the other is making her way around the Bahamian coastline.
Louis Margot: This Swiss adventurer is trying to circumnavigate the globe by human power alone. He has split the journey into five stages involving rowing or cycling. On his first leg, he biked 2,400km from Switzerland to Portugal. He has now completed the second leg, rowing from Portugal to Columbia.
Margot landed in Santa Marta on May 1. He took 115 days to cover the 8,400km but made several pit stops. At Gran Canaria, he resupplied, then made his way to Martinique and finally carried on to Santa Marta.
Though the last part of the row was relatively short -- 20 days across the Caribbean -- it was not easy. Four days from land, his water maker broke, and he had just 15 liters of water over his last few days at sea.
Even more significantly, winds and currents kept pushing him off track, and he fretted about the possibility of overshooting his landing site. But in the end, he landed safely.
Now in Santa Marta, he is preparing for the next leg, a 3,700km cycle to Lima, Peru. Then, he will tackle an 18,500km row across the Pacific to Bali before cycling back to Switzerland.
Ellen Magellan
Ellen Falterman: Falterman aims to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe by rowing. She started her "Ellen Magellan" project from Texas in September 2022. After reaching South Florida, she paused her journey for personal reasons but picked up the oars again in February 2024.
In April, she landed in the Bahamas and is now rounding its coastline. From Bimini, she rowed across Mackie Shoal, a 100km stretch of shallow water. During the eight-day crossing, she felt like a nomadic desert dweller with just four meters of water between her keel and the "featureless" sand below.
Although the Bahamanian coastline might sound like peaceful, it is anything but. As soon as the wind picked up, rowing through the choppy water became almost impossible. Falterman eventually had to drop her anchor and wait out the wind for two days.
That whole section was at times agonizingly slow. Once, she covered just 1.6km in two hours of rowing. Eventually, she made it to Morgan’s Bluff, where she spent two weeks waiting for good weather before continuing her journey along the coastline.
Her final destination on this leg is Panama. Falterman is not trying to go as quickly as possible and has given no indication of how long it will take her to reach Panama, or the exact route she plans to take.
On May 25, Christian Havrehed and Sun Haibin will start rowing from China to Japan. It is the first step of their journey to find out whether the Chinese made it to America before Columbus. They hope to find the answer by following the clues in two ancient Chinese tales.
The first story tells of Xu Fu, a court sorcerer who lived around 210 BC. It is said that the emperor ordered the sorcerer to find the elixir of life. Xu Fu set off. He returned years later claiming that he had found the elixir, but that the gods of the Eastern Sea required an offering to relinquish it.
With 3,000 men and women as the offering, Xu Fu set off again. He traveled eastward and never returned. Academics believe he must have gone to a place unknown to the emperor. If so, he may have continued east after Japan, potentially landing in America.
The second story starts in 499 AD. Chinese Buddhist priests wrote of a monk who set out across the Pacific Ocean to spread the Buddhist faith. After sailing eastward for months, he arrived at a place they called Fusang.
The book contains multiple descriptions of Fusang, the people there, and where the monk stopped along the way. Although academics have studied the text, no one has ever tried to follow the trail. And that is exactly what Havrehed and Haibin plan to do.
Fusung story: legend or map?
Is it possible that the Fusung story is a map to America? That may sound far-fetched, but Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad found the Viking settlements in Newfoundland similarly, by following the pathway described in the Icelandic Sagas.
This is not the first time Havrehed and Haibin have stepped into a rowing boat together. They rowed the Atlantic together in 2001. In doing so, Haibin became the first Chinese person ever to row an ocean.
Havrehed became the first Dane to row the Atlantic. The main aim of that journey was to promote unity between China and the West. The journey was a huge success, especially in China, where they were front-page news. Haibin was voted Sportsman of the Year.
Now the duo hope to replicate their success of two decades ago. While the main purpose of their journey is to discover if the Chinese made it to America before Columbus, they also hope to strengthen Sino-Western cross-cultural understanding.
ExplorersWeb spoke to Havrehed about the journey.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity
You were supposed to start last May but didn't get the permit. Now you have it. How difficult was that logistically?
We were asking for something that had never been granted in the history of the People's Republic of China. They are not open to international yachting, and we are trying to go to Japan. Right now, geopolitically, everything is difficult between China and Japan.
Permit problems
I think we got this permit for several reasons, mainly because we've been pestering them for three years. Usually, a government department sponsors such activities, but they all thought the risk was too great. This is something that has never been done before.
Eventually, we told them, "Look, we really want to do this. We have lined everything up, and we've been asking for three years. Everybody thinks this is a great project, and we just need permission to leave. We understand we can't have an official sponsor. But you should still allow us to leave just as adventurers because we are two stupid middle-aged guys with a dream we want to fulfill."
Of course, we are in a privileged position because normally you wouldn't have access to some of the bureaucrats we needed to speak to. But when we rowed the Atlantic, it was way off the scale of what was possible in China.
We came back and were heroes in China. Everybody saw this positively. I think because we have that history and just threw all the arguments at them that we succeeded. We did everything they asked us to do. I speak Chinese. I know the history better than most. So in the end, I think that is why they gave us this chance.
Shore crew in Japan
Why will you have a safety team following you in Japan?
We have a crew following us on shore in a car to help us at night when we get to ports. It’s not recommended to row the coast or to be on the water at night in Japan because there are a lot of fishing vessels and nets.
The local fisheries association owns all of these small harbors, and it used to be up to them to allow you to enter or not. But that law in Japan changed after the Tokyo Olympics. Now you can get a permit, so you are allowed to use these previously closed ports. But you have to take that with a grain of salt. The law might have changed, but that information may not have made it to these tiny fishing villages.
So we need some people who speak Japanese, who understand the culture, and who can make sure that when we get there we are allowed to use the port. We want to have good interactions with local people because this is all about trying to create understanding.
You’re also running an outreach program in these places?
We're working with a UK NGO called Atlantic Pacific, whose purpose is to provide lifeboats. Atlantic Pacific also runs summer courses to teach Japanese kids life-saving and environmental preservation in the sea. We hope to send a child from each port we stop in to join the course.
Search for relics
How much time will you spend at each port?
The coastline is very dramatic. Often it's just sheer cliffs. You only have a few exit points. We have to be careful with the weather to make sure that we can make it to the next port. We plan to row 50 to 60 kilometers a day and know we might have to wait out bad weather.
Also because it's all following in the wake of Xu Fu, this ancient magician, we’ll look at relics in two of the ports. We will work with the local caretakers of these relics, then we can tell the story of Xu Fu's significance to this place.
We had hoped to stop at two further places with relics but we've had to cut the row short by about 500 kilometers. The local communities there were not welcoming to the prospect of us coming.
What is your updated route?
We will start in Zhejiang, China and row 800 kilometers to Nagasaki, Japan across the East China Sea. After Nagasaki, we follow the coastline for a further 500km, stopping at the various ports each night.
That is the first stage of the expedition. Then, depending on what we find, the route takes us from Japan to Siberia, Siberia to Alaska, and Alaska to Newfoundland.
Earlier attempts
A few people have attempted Xu Fu’s journey but have been unsuccessful. Why do you think this will be different?
Tim Severin tried to imitate Xu Fu's voyage by going trans-Pacific on a bamboo raft. He left Vietnam because he couldn't leave mainland China, but his vessel broke up in the Pacific. Then before that, you had a Danish-Austrian team with their best guess of what a junk in 200 BC would have been like. It also broke up in the Pacific.
Academia suggests Xu Fu may have made it to America. But I think if Xu Fu went on from Japan, he wouldn't have gone trans-Pacific. It is much more likely that he went to Japan, then north to Hokkaido. Then from Hokkaido through the Kuril Islands to the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka. Once you get below the Bering Strait, you have the Aleutian Islands.
That way, you can almost always see the next island in your path. That's a completely different kettle of fish. Then you can ask on this island: What are the people like on the next island? What should I bring? Is there food, is there water? It's a much simpler and safer way of getting to America.
But so far, no one has investigated that way of getting to America. [Editor's note: In 1999-2000, kayaker Jon Turk paddled from Japan to Alaska.] No one has looked to see if they can find archaeological breadcrumbs of Chinese presence along that route to America.
Trail of cookie crumbs
Are you planning to do archaeological work along the route?
This is an old story. It has never been proven. We will try to put the Chinese in America before Columbus by following a trail of archaeological relics. That's our game. That's the research purpose. We don't move forward if we don't have a reason.
It is not possible to do archaeology in each place. But for each segment of the larger journey, I will first do desktop research. I read all the history books I could find. Then I reach out to all the academics and museums who don't want to have anything to do with me, but hopefully, they will be more open after this first stage.
Once I have a pearl string of potential places to visit, I visit them by modern means to see, is it bullshit or is there solid evidence? Then if it's solid, I'm happy. Then we use the human-powered expedition as a form of storytelling. I hope it will make the academic research more interesting to the wider public.
Reluctant scholars
Why don’t academics want anything to do with you?
Because basically, they see me as a charlatan. Some people think I am another Gavin Menzies. He wrote 1421: The Year China Discovered the World. It was a huge success, an international bestseller. He spun a great yarn, but it was so far from historical fact that the academic world got extremely pissed off. They had been doing scientific research for years and years and years, and no one had ever noticed them. So Gavin Menzies ended up doing this subject a huge disservice because now no academic wants to touch this subject with a barge pole.
A few academics say, "Okay, Christian, this is interesting. I'll support you. You can borrow my research assistant, but don't mention my name." I understand their perspective. I appreciate the help and the expertise that they can give me. This taught me the importance of persistence.
Background
You rarely see such an academic research project tied in with ocean rowing. Where did that idea come from?
As a kid, I always loved to read about discovery at sea. I love these stories about going by boat, visiting new places, and exploring. I love the adventure side of this.
I'm an accidental academic but I understand that if this was experimental archaeology, if I made my best guess of what Xu Fu's vessel would have looked like and tried to sail it trans-Pacific, it wouldn't prove anything even if I succeeded. It wouldn't move the discourse.
No one is willing to entertain this idea anymore. The pushback would still be, "Oh, yeah, well, of course, anybody can get lucky. It's probably nothing like the vessel he used." The only way we can move it along is to go from one archaeological clue to another.
The idea that the Chinese were in America so early is not new. Until 1830, everybody thought that the Chinese had been in America before Columbus. But then the Opium War happened, and in Europe's eyes, China went from being a high culture to a low culture. And you can't have low-culture people inventing or visiting America pre-Columbus. After that, the whole story died down.
The Viking example
Then another Dane said that based on the Icelandic Sagas, it seemed like the Vikings made it to America. Yellow-haired, blue-eyed, nice Scandinavians made it to America pre-Columbus, and everybody went, that's better. That story was accepted. But then you have from 1830 until 1960, where this is only a hypothesis or a theory, right?
In 1960, the sagas led the Ingstads to Newfoundland. They went ashore and asked the local population if there were any old buildings around. They were shown some Indian ruins, which turned out to be the houses the Vikings had described in the sagas. Here, they followed a story that people had written off as just a story.
Then if you go back to around 1885, you have a German called Heinrich Schliemann. He wanted to find Troy. All the academics said this is mythical. It doesn't exist.
He found Troy using The Iliad's description. So there are two precedents for this. For us, the Fusang story has as many directions as The Iliad and the Icelandic sagas. Hopefully, we'll be as lucky as Schliemann and Ingstad.
Family ties
This trip also has some family ties for you, doesn’t it?
There are quite a few. My fourth great-grandfather was the Chief of Trade for a Danish trading company with China from 1770 to 1785. While there, he picked up Chinese, which was illegal for foreigners to learn then. But he learned it from a Spanish Augustine monk.
Then he came back to Denmark speaking Chinese. And that's as useful as having the world's first video phone. But he's recognized as Denmark's first Sinologist, the first academic to study Chinese language and culture seriously. His works are in the National Museum or the National Library, and academic papers have been written about him.
It's quite funny actually. I told you how in 1830, the story about Fusang was discredited. The guy who discredited the story was a German academic called Julius Klaproth. And guess who taught Julius Klabroth Chinese? So it's personal.
Then there was my grandfather and great-uncle, both called Christian. My grandfather was in the Navy and went on a diplomatic mission from 1899-1900, where he visited Shanghai. My great-uncle sailed between America and China several times with the U.S. Merchant Marines. So we seem to have a familial interest in seafaring in China.
Ocean rowing experience
You and Haibin rowed the Atlantic in 2001, which was quite a while ago. How much ocean rowing have you both done since then?
I bought the boat that we're using in the UK in 2020, and I rowed it to Denmark with three UK marines training to row the Atlantic later that year. Then in 2022, because it was the pandemic and we couldn't do anything in China, I thought rowing around Denmark would be a good challenge. It also let me see what it is like to row coastal in an ocean-rowing boat and to go to shore and do events with the local population. Sun Haibin hasn't done any ocean rowing since 2001. But I’m not worried. Before rowing the Atlantic, he had never been off dry land.
Short haul across the East China Sea
Is there a section that you're particularly looking forward to?
I'm very much looking forward to arriving in Nagasaki. The first two or three weeks of life on the ocean are very uncomfortable. Psychologically you have to do a lot of adaptation.
Only after two or three weeks do you start enjoying it. It becomes everyday life and you don't think you're going to die all the time. We don't get into that space because our trip to Japan will be maximum, touch wood, two weeks.
When would you like it to start the second leg of the journey?
I think in two years, simply because I hope we are busy doing the speaker circuit after this trip here so we can start recovering some money and do more research. If these speaking gigs don't happen, we'll try to begin by the end of 2024. We're not getting any younger.
You can follow the journey here.
Since our last roundup, very little has occurred in the ocean rowing world. At the moment, just two soloists are attempting to cross the world's oceans. Both are trying to complete human-powered round-the-world journeys.
Louis Margot: Margot is circumnavigating the world by cycling and rowing. He started by biking 2,400km from his home country of Switzerland to Portugal. From there, he embarked on his first rowing leg — a 10,800km paddle from Portimao to Columbia.
His first attempt ended after five days due to bad weather. He restarted on Nov. 6 and rowed to Gran Canaria where he resupplied, then continued onward to Martinique.
After spending six weeks on the island, Margot restarted rowing on April 11. He aims to cross the Caribbean and land in Santa Marta, Colombia, in 20 days. His biggest worry has been strong currents and ensuring he doesn’t overshoot and miss his landing.
And sure enough, currents and winds continue to push him northward, and he has to fight hard to stay on track.
Ellen Magellan
Ellen Falterman: The American restarted her “Ellen Magellan” expedition in February. She aims to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe purely by rowing. She began in September 2022 in East Texas; from there, she followed the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the Florida Panhandle. From there, she rowed the Gulf of Mexico and landed in South Florida.
At this point, she had to put her expedition on hold after suffering a few family bereavements. Over a year later, she packed up her boat again and set off from Sarasota in Florida. The next leg of her journey will take her to Panama, something many people have been critical of. No one has rowed this route before, and many people have told her it is impossible and that she is “a silly woman" for considering it.
Falterman does not care. No one has done it before — that doesn't mean it's impossible.
Over the first month, she made her way to the Everglades and waited for a good weather window to tackle the Gulf Stream. She did not give any updates while the crossing was in progress. However, she has since confirmed she "successfully made it to another country" by completing her crossing six days ago.
Overall, the crossing took her 38 hours, and it was a section she was nervous about — for good reason.
Falterman faced strong winds, choppy conditions, and huge boat traffic on the water. At one point, she was so stressed and exhausted that she threw up.
She was supposed to land in Bimini but missed it by five kilometers, so she had to double back to get to her finish line. Now, she is in the Bahamas and is planning the next section of her row.
Over 2,898 days, Karlis Bardelis has rowed and cycled completely around the world. On April 4, he crossed his finish line in Namibia, where he began almost eight years ago.
During his circumnavigation, the 39-year-old Latvian adventurer has rowed 46,326km and cycled 11,972km. Bardelis says the key to doing such an overwhelmingly long journey was only looking one step ahead.
Bardelis began his journey in 2016 when he and a partner rowed from Namibia to Brazil. Then in 2018, he restarted in Brazil and cycled on a tandem bicycle to Lima, Peru with his then-girlfriend. They pedaled the 5,400km in 102 days.
Immediately after this, he rowed 26,000km alone across the Pacific in 715 days. When he landed in Malaysia, he became the first person to row from South America to Asia. Storms and hurricane seasons forced him to stop at various islands along the way.
COVID delays
COVID then forced him to pause his circumnavigation. He flew back to Latvia and waited for a year and a half before he could return to Malaysia and restart. When he arrived, his boat had more water damage than he expected.
He needed so much time to make repairs that he missed his weather window. Headwinds made the Malacca Straight almost impossible to row. So instead, he moved the boat to Kuala Perlis, elsewhere in Malaysia, and cycled to his new starting point.
In January 2022, he began rowing to Sri Lanka. Here, he picked up fellow circumnavigator Dimitri Kieffer. They rowed together for nine days to the Maldives, where Kieffer continued his own journey and Bardelis went on alone.
His plan was to make it to Tanzania, but huge winds and waves kept throwing him off course. He rowed for up to 20 hours at a time to keep from drifting backward.
The last stage of his journey has been fraught. During the first few weeks, the winds pushed him the wrong way. Next, he had to cut one of his anchors loose when he was unable to retrieve it from the deep corals it had hooked onto.
Rows Asia-Africa
On June 21, 2022, he became the first person to row from Asia to Africa. The only problem was that he landed in Somalia, not Tanzania. Speaking to ExplorersWeb, he explained, "I knew about the East African coastal current which runs south to north. It starts around 80 to 90km off the coast of Africa. My plan was to get to Tanzania or to approach it as closely as possible. I still had Kenya as a safe buffer before Somalia. But because of the wind, I was already too far north when I hit the current."
The next stage was a logistical nightmare. He had had to abandon his boat in Somalia. To restart, he needed it back: He still had to finish the row to Tanzania. Originally, the army said it would look after his boat, but local fishermen seized it instead.
A year and a half later, and after many changed plans, he managed to get the boat to Kenya. Then the boat was towed back into Somalian waters, 90km off of the Somalia-Kenya border, and Bardelis started the final stage of his row with his friend Arturs Skroderis. They covered the 385km route to Kilifi, Kenya in just three-and-a-half days. The duo landed on Jan. 30.
Since then, Bardelis has cycled the final 5,000km stage of his 7-year and 11-month journey. He traveled from Kenya to Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia.
As he finished at last, Bardelis exclaimed, “The feelings are surreal! The person who started this journey nearly eight years ago was a completely different person."
One long-distance rower set out across the Atlantic Ocean, experienced but unsupported. But when a strong wave overtook his boat, he suffered multiple traumas and succumbed to the effort.
A doctor’s examination revealed Michael Holt, of Porthmadog, Wales, died on his boat from "polytrauma due to accidental injury,” the BBC reported. Holt, 54 and a Type 1 diabetic, had completed about one-quarter of his 4,000km journey.
The rower had spent 24 days and covered 1,100km when fishermen found him deceased on his boat off the coast of Mauritania. Coroner Andre Rebello determined polytrauma — two or more severe injuries in at least two areas of the body — as the cause of death. Rebello called the death accidental and “tragic.”
Accidents compound
The big wave that swamped Holt’s boat, the BBC reported, “nearly knocked [him] overboard,” cut his hand, and cost him an oar.
The alarm clanged when relatives received a satellite phone call from on the afternoon of Feb. 19. The rower explained he “wasn't feeling very well and was going to head for Cape Verde rather than Barbados,” his family explained in a Facebook post.
“A recording had been made of this call which we were then able to listen to. We could tell from that call that he was completely exhausted, and we knew in our minds that he was in trouble.”
The family alerted authorities in the area. They launched a search-and-rescue mission that eventually involved the French Air Force. Efforts failed until a large container ship located Holt’s boat, but it was too large to help. Once fishermen boarded the vessel and confirmed his death, the mission became a body recovery.
Cape Verde officials verified Holt’s body, and family members raised over $25,000 to bring his remains home with a crowdfunding effort.
'Needles and Pins'
Holt called his project “Needles and Pins,” which referred to his diabetic condition and the major shoulder surgery he was forced to undergo. In 2015, Holt Holt suffered a severe low blood sugar event. During an incoherent episode in the hospital, he “placed both hands on [his] collar bones and pulled downwards.”
Holt said he did not recall the episode. It left him with a titanium fitting in his right arm and approximately 20 titanium pins, plus a plate, in his left.
Nonetheless, he pursued swimming, rowing, and triathlons as he developed the idea for his Atlantic crossing. He eventually attempted a solo, unsupported row across St. George’s Channel (from his hometown in Wales to Ireland) in 2023 — which ultimately failed.
"Despite what's happened, to be rowing on the open sea for 24 days and to cover over 700 miles is amazing," Holt’s brother, David, told the BBC. "There's probably a reason nobody with type 1 diabetes has ever rowed across the Atlantic Ocean before, but when Michael got an idea in his head, that would be it."
Since our last rowing roundup, there have been two rescues, two female soloists have taken to the water, and several crews are about to finish.
Linda Blakely: Linda Blakely (UK) is crossing the Atlantic from east to west. She started on Jan. 20 in the Canary Islands and is heading to St. Lucia. So far, she has covered just over half of the 5,000km distance. Though she has not rowed before, Blakely is no stranger to physical challenges. She previously summited Everest and Lhoste within a day, has won Ironman competitions, and has represented Great Britain in triathlons.
Now, the athlete is aiming to become the fastest woman to cross the Atlantic solo. So far, however, Blakely is making slower progress than expected. She capsized and lost her spare oars during difficult conditions in the first week. Then there was so little wind that she barely moved. Now conditions have settled, and she has picked up the pace.
The return of Ellen Magellan
Ellen Falterman: Ellen Falterman (U.S.) has restarted her rowing expedition. "Ellen Magellan," as she calls herself, is attempting to row around the world. If she succeeds, she will become the first person to complete a circumnavigation entirely by rowing. She initially set off in September 2022. From East Texas, she followed the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the Florida Panhandle. Then she crossed the Gulf of Mexico to South Florida. Here, she put her journey on hold because of several family bereavements.
More than a year later, she has returned to the water. On Feb. 8, she set off from Sarasota, Florida, where she ended her row in 2022. She is now trying to make it to Kusapin, Panama.
The first two weeks have been quite challenging. At some points, the tailwinds have been too strong to control the boat properly. Falterman is determined to keep going but admits that she does not know what the row to Panama will bring, or how long it will take.
A challenging route
On her blog, she wrote, “Texas to Panama has been my mantra for three years now. I am aware there are logistical problems with this route. [Some] people have let me know –- some nicely, some quite rudely –- that rowing from Texas to Panama is a stupid idea, an impossible route in a rowboat, and I’m a dumb, silly woman for even considering it. These people, however, have not tried this route in a rowboat. Nobody has.”
Pete Beatty: Pete Beatty (UK) aborted his bid to row the Atlantic on Jan. 26. Consistently strong winds on the journey from Portugal to French Guiana left him on the para-actor for days at a time. Once he capsized after a large wave hit the side of his boat.
An almost constant headwind made progress difficult, and conditions showed no signs of improvement. When a short window opened up, he made it past Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. Then disaster struck. A huge wave snapped one of his oars in half. With the good weather ending, and unable to fix the oar or make it to shore, Beatty summoned help and was rescued by air.
Decides to abort
After resting on Lanzarote for a few days, he decided not to continue. “It wasn’t the fear of the boat capsizing, or me ending up under the water," he wrote on social media, "but rather the realization that my life is worth much more than...reaching French Guiana.”
Oar Blimey: This duo is rowing from Sagres, Portugal to St. Martin. They set off on Dec. 1 and have now been at sea for almost three months. As with everyone on the Atlantic in December and January, they struggled against the strong winds, which slowed their pace dramatically.
Unable to make up the lost time, they started rationing their food in early February. They cut their daily intake from 5,000 calories each down to 3,000 calories. Even without a scale, they say that it is clear how much weight they're shedding.
Change of route
Yesterday they decided to change their route to nearby Antigua.
"Not only will this reduce the distance by [130km], but more importantly, it’ll get us across the Atlantic three days sooner," they wrote. "Rerouting allows us to once again enjoy a higher daily calorie intake."
The extra energy will help them navigate from the Atlantic currents into the Caribbean.
They will now shift slightly south while maintaining a general westward direction toward Antigua. They have 1,050km left and hope to cover it in three weeks.
Piotr Pawelec: Pawelec (Poland) is rowing from Portugal to Guadeloupe. After 20 days, he stopped for a few weeks in Gran Canaria to rest, resupply, and make repairs. He then continued to Guadeloupe.
Pawelec has shared almost no updates on his journey, but his tracker shows that he has almost finished. He has covered 5,315km.
Round the world
Louis Margot: Margot (Switzerland) is rowing from Portugal to Costa Rica. The row is part of a much larger, round-the-world expedition by rowing and cycling.
After biking from Switzerland to Portugal, he began his first rowing leg. He started on Oct. 9 but temporarily stopped after five days because of difficult weather. He restarted on Nov. 6. After 19 days, he landed briefly in Gran Canaria to resupply and make adjustments to his boat. He then continued toward Costa Rica.
Margot recently decided to adjust his route. Instead of landing in Costa Rica, he will make a second pitstop on the island of Martinique. He wants to reach there on March 2, to celebrate his birthday with his family.
No more SUP
Gabor Rakonczay: Gabor Rakonczay (Hungary) completed his row across the Atlantic on Jan. 26. The Hungarian adventurer unsuccessfully attempted the crossing twice before, on a SUP.
Both ended in disaster. In 2020, he abandoned the crossing after three days when water penetrated his hull. A year later, he had to be rescued after six days. In trying to keep his SUP as traditional as possible, his vessel did not have an enclosed sleeping area. Rakonczay simply strapped himself to the deck at night.
This did not work at all. He was constantly soaked to the skin and unable to sleep. Eventually, he began to hallucinate. He had the urge to remove his life jacket and throw himself into the water. Luckily, he came to his senses, inflated his emergency life raft, and called for rescue.
His attempt to row a boat rather than SUP was more successful, but it was not easy. The winds made it incredibly arduous. The most difficult section was navigation during the last few days so that he could land correctly. On the penultimate day, Rakonczay rowed for 22 hours and had to overcome problem after problem.
"I have just been pushing through to the island in the strong waves coming almost from the side all day," he wrote. "The boat lay on its side every half an hour and capsized four times. Once, I fell into the water and broke my finger.”
'World's Toughest Row'
The World Toughest Row: The famous race (previously the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge) across the Atlantic has entered its final stages. All crews set off from Tenerife on Dec. 13. The winners -- the five-man Oardacious crew -- reached Antigua on Jan. 17 after 35 days, 4 hours, and 30 minutes at sea.
Now just three crews remain on the water. All are just days from finishing. As always with this race, different crews vie for category wins and records. Here are the stats from the 2023-4 crews:
Overall Winner: HMS Oardacious
Fastest five: HMS Oardacious (35 days 4 hours, and 30 minutes)
Fastest four: Team Out of the Blue (36 days 11 hours, and 5 minutes)
Fastest trio: Blue Tusk (38 days 18 hours, and 29 minutes)
Fastest pair: Spirit of Hospitality (38 days 15 hours, and 3 minutes)
Fastest soloist: The Entrepreneurship (42 days, 3 hours, and 15 minutes)
Records
Oldest men's pair to cross any ocean: Never 2 Late (66 days 17 hours, and 39 minutes)
Oldest soloist to cross any ocean: Frank Rothwell (64 days 7 hours, and 53 minutes)
Oldest female four to cross any ocean: Intrepid232 (58 days, 12 hours, and 30 minutes)
Fastest women's pair to cross the Atlantic: Team Ocean Grown (45 days, 1 hour, and 27 minutes)
Fastest women’s trio to cross the Atlantic: Wave Breakers (40 days 10 hours, and 51 minutes)
Atlantic Dash
The Atlantic Dash: The Atlantic Dash is a second, smaller organized event on the Atlantic. The organizers half-stress that this is not a race: “However, we are not your mum, if you want to be the first to Antigua, race on!”
This year's field now consists of just two crews. Three started, but Destiny’s Tide pulled out after 17 days. The crews make a very similar journey to those in the larger World’s Toughest Row. They also begin in the Canary Islands, but from Lanzarote rather than Tenerife. They row to Antigua. So far, the race positions are:
The Brightsides: This four has held a steady lead for most of the race. Rod Adlington, Anna Williams, Alex Perry, and Guy Minshull have covered 5,115km and are expected to land in four days.
Atlantic Rocks: Phil Angus, Gary Binns, Justin Wallace, and Dan Martin are in second place and should land 11 days after The Brightsides, on March 7. So far, they have rowed have covered 4,252km.
Destiny’s Tide: A two-man crew made up of Neil Glover and Jason Black aborted on Jan. 20, after 1,205km. The pair lost both their rudder and daggerboard and were unable to continue.
They worked with the Coast Guard to organize a recovery. The merchant shipping vessel Lagoa picked them up and also agreed to tow their boat to Portugal.
Karlis Bardelis has begun the final 5,000km of his human-powered, round-the-world journey. He is cycling from Kilifi, Kenya to Lüderitz in Namibia, the place where he first hit the road eight long years ago.
The Latvian adventurer thought he would have completed this final stage by now. But then, in January 2022, he began a 10,000km row from Malaysia to Tanzania. When he made it to Africa, he became the first known person to row from Asia to Africa. Unfortunately, he did not land in Tanzania. Stronger winds than he had expected than he had expected pushed him too far north. He hit the East African coastal current and ended up landing in ever-dangerous Somalia in June 2022.
There, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Security Service and the coast guard helped get him to land safely, but he had to abandon his boat. The plan was always to go back to Somalia and restart, but logistically it was nightmare.
Endless complications in Somalia
Initially, the army watched over his boat. They told Bardelis they would tow it to port and stow it in a sea container. But once Bardelis was back in Latvia, the army stopped responding to him. Local fishermen eventually seized the boat and “basically held it ransom,” Bardelis explained.
Eventually, he struck a deal with them and found a logistics agent to move the boat to Mogadishu. But again, this did not go according to plan. Since a terrorist Islamic organization controlled the roads, the boat had to go by sea. In Mogadishu, the boat was loaded into a sea container bound for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Bardelis waited there for the boat in January 2023.
There, customs and red tape held up the boat for a further two months.
You can only make the short crossing from Somalia to Kenya between January and March because of the strong currents and winds. The boat arrived so late that a 2023 crossing became impossible. Then, the boat was only permitted to remain in Tanzania for three months, so Bardelis had to move it to Kenya.
Clearly, with some adventures, the logistics are as hard or even harder than the physical feat.
Many would question why Bardelis went to such trouble to save his boat. He could have borrowed another one for the final rowing leg, but he was adamant about using his own craft. “This boat is like a home to me," he explained. "It has survived so much, and kept me safe. It's been my most reliable companion on this journey.”
Cloak-and-dagger start
At the start of 2024, he moved the boat from northern Kenya to the point where he finished the last part his row, just 90km from the Somalia-Kenya border. He did all this in secret because of the danger he faced the last time he was Somalia.
“I went in under the radar," he explained. "I know quite a few Somalis follow my tracker and have seen my social media…It was scary to be back out there in that position, in Somalia. We didn’t have any lights on and rowed as fast as we could to get to the safer Kenyan side.”
Despite the stress of restarting “it felt amazing to be back on the boat and to get the boat back.”
He rowed this short section with his friend and experienced sailor, Arturs Skroderis. They covered the 385km route to Kilifi, Kenya in just three-and-a-half days. In the first 24 hours alone, they paddled 155km because the currents were so strong.
The duo landed on Jan. 30. Bardelis spent a few days getting the boat ready to ship back to Latvia and preparing for the final leg of his circumnavigation. He set off on his bike today and has put out the word on social media for fellow adventurers to join him for sections as he pedals westward to Namibia.
Some legs solo, some not
Bardelis never considered this a solo journey. He has now had companions for four legs of the adventure. In 2016, he started in Namibia and rowed with Gints Barkovskis to Brazil. In 2018, he restarted in Brazil and cycled on a tandem bicycle to Lima, Peru, with his then-girlfriend, Linda Zuze. They pedaled the 5,400km in 102 days.
In 2018, he rowed alone 26,000km across the Pacific, landing in Malaysia after an astonishing 715 days. He became the first person to row from South America to Asia. Then in 202,2 he started his row from Asia to Africa with fellow circumnavigator Dimitri Kieffer. Kieffer joined from Malaysia to Sri Lanka.
Since our last roundup, the World’s Toughest Row nears its end, a second race has started, several crews have taken to the Atlantic Ocean, and a rower tragically lost his life.
Pete Beatty (UK): Beatty started his bid to cross the Atlantic on Dec. 13. He started in Portimao, Portugal, and aims to land in French Guyana.
If he finishes, Beatty will become the oldest man to solo row the Atlantic. After just over a month at sea, he has covered 780km.
Over the last few weeks, Beatty has been battling strong winds and waves. At the end of December, a large wave capsized his boat. Fortunately, it self-righted quickly. Since this scare, he has been hyper-vigilant, watching the waves so that he is not caught off guard again.
Despite the difficulties, Beatty is positive. His highlight has been the wildlife around his boat. On one occasion he had four whales within 15m.
Crippling winds
Oar Blimey (UK): George Nelson and Russell Davis are rowing from Portugal to Saint Martin. They set off on Dec. 1 and have covered just over 2,000km.
The row has been anything but easy. Neither of them has any prior rowing experience. Crippling winds have left them on para-anchor for days at a time. On the days when they can row, very little progress is made. On Jan. 15, after 15 hours of rowing, they had covered just 16km. They then immediately drifted backward when they stopped.
Though they maintain a good pace on days with no wind, their timeline for finishing is ever extending. They have 58 days of food left, which will only be enough if they can get back to 60km per day. If that does not happen soon, they will have to ration their food.
Davies recently celebrated his 55th birthday. He opened cards packed by his family and cracked open a family-size packet of M&Ms.
Piotr Pawelec (PL): Pawelec is rowing from Portugal to Guadeloupe and has made a short pit stop in Gran Canaria.
He covered the first stage in 20 days, landing in Gran Canaria on Nov. 26. He spent a few weeks on the island getting supplies, resting, and making repairs.
Pawelec has shared few updates on his journey, but his tracker shows that he has covered 2,700km.
Around the world cycle/row
Louis Margot (CH): Margot is rowing and cycling around the world. After pedaling from Switzerland to Portugal, he is now partway through his first row. He started rowing on Oct. 9 but called it quits after five days because of poor weather.
Margot restarted on Nov. 6, rowing from Portimao, Portugal to Gran Canaria in 19 days. He is now going to Costa Rica and has paddled 2,800km.
As with everyone crossing the Atlantic, he has struggled with the wind. But Margot's biggest challenge has been emotional and mental. During the many solo hours at sea (making slower progress than anticipated), the enormity of the challenge has dawned on him. Though he has no intention of stopping, he is questioning why he is doing it and how difficult a full circumnavigation will be.
Gabor Rakonczay (HU): After two attempts to standup paddleboard (SUP) across the Atlantic, Rakonczay is now partway through a row from Lagos, Portugal to the Canary Islands. He previously tried to make a journey by SUP in 2020 and 2021. Both attempts ended within a few days.
In 2020, he was on the water for three days before turning back when water penetrated his hull. In 2021, a helicopter rescued him after six days. His SUP did not have an enclosed sleeping area and Rakonczay strapped himself to the deck at night. After days without sleep, soaked to the skin and hallucinating, he had the urge to remove his life jacket and throw himself into the water. Luckily, he came to his senses, inflated his emergency life raft for shelter, and called for rescue.
Rakonczay is now 24 days into his row and has covered 967km of the journey from Lagos, Portugal to the Canary Islands.
During the first few days, he struggled with shipping lanes, lack of sleep, and getting into his new daily routine. After six days, his body became accustomed to the new schedule and he has picked up the pace.
However, the wind has been almost constantly against him. "Out of the 24 days so far, I had three good days in total, the rest are windless, quarter, or defying. But there will be more like those three days," he wrote on social media.
World's Toughest Row
The World’s Toughest Row: The famous Atlantic race saw a fatality this year. Alistair Putt, part of the four-man crew Aussie Old Salts, suffered a cardiac arrest on deck. His crew was unable to resuscitate him.
The remaining 37 crews are nearing the finish line. Organizers expect to crown a winning crew today, after 35 days at sea. Five-man crew HMS Oardacious is well ahead of the pack and set to land between 8:00 and 10:00 am local time in Antigua on Jan. 17. The crew consists of Royal Navy Submariners, Matthew Main, Daniel Seager, Ian Allen, Micheal Forrester, and Rob Clarke. The team previously took part in the race in 2019 (when it was the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge).
Now, the battle is for second place. Team Out of the Blue should cross the finish line on Jan. 19, whilst team Four Brothers is 150km behind and billed to arrive on Jan. 20.
Current race statistics:
Leading: HMS Oardacious
Leading five: HMA Oardacious
Leading four: Team Out of the Blue
Leading three: Blue Tusk
Leading pair: Spirit of Hospitality
Leading soloist: The Entrepreneur Ship
The Atlantic Dash
The Atlantic Dash: Organizers state that The Atlantic Dash is "not designed to be a race. However, we are not your mum, if you want to be the first to Antigua, race on!"
Much smaller than The World’s Toughest Row, there are only three crews in this year's event.
The teams set off from Lanzarote on Jan. 3 and will row 5,000km to Antigua. The biggest issue for these crews is a lack of wind. Whilst that might sound positive, it means there is almost no movement. All three crews are moving significantly more slowly than they anticipated, which can be demoralizing day after day.
The statistics so far:
The Brightsides: This four is in the lead. Rod Adlington, Anna Williams, Alex Perry, and Guy Minshull have covered 1,400km.
Atlantic Rocks: This four, consisting of Phil Angus, Gary Binns, Justin Wallace, and Dan Martin, is in second place. They have covered 1,040km
Destiny’s Tide: A two-man crew made up of Neil Glover and Jason Black. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the small crew is in third place. They have covered 950km.
Alisdair Putt has died while taking part in the The World's Toughest Row, a 4,800km race across the Atlantic Ocean. The 61-year-old former Australian spy and war crimes investigator was part of a four-man team called the Aussie Old Salts.
On Jan. 4, the crew were halfway through the race when Putt collapsed on the deck and passed away. He is thought to have had a cardiac event. His team desperately tried to resuscitate him but were unsuccessful.
The crew, made up of Putt, Andreas Koenig, Alastair Horton, and Stewart More, were taking part in the annual race (previously known as the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge) from the Canary Islands to Antigua. The ex-agent for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was skippering the crew of current and former military servicemen.
Speaking to the Australian Defence Department before he started, Putt admitted that the team was slightly nervous.
“There have been more persons who have climbed Mount Everest than rowed across the Atlantic, so the scale of the undertaking is a bit daunting,” he said.
Before the start of the race, he had been in Rwanda investigating war crimes for the UN.
His death was confirmed by a spokesperson for the The World's Toughest Row on Jan. 4. The rest of the crew are now safely onboard a vessel heading for land.
This year, Michelle Lee became the first woman to row the Pacific Ocean alone. After an epic 240-day journey, she landed in Queensland, Australia on April 5.
Lee started her 14,000km row in Ensenada, Mexico on Aug. 8, 2022, three days after her 50th birthday.
Lee previously set the women’s speed record for rowing one million meters on a rowing machine (5 days, 21 hours, and 35 minutes). In 2019, she became the first Australian woman to row any ocean solo when she crossed the Atlantic during the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Despite all this experience, nothing could have fully prepared her for this Pacific row.
A difficult start
Her row started slowly. For the first few weeks, headwinds and difficult currents plagued her. At one point it was so bad that she was in contact with her meteorologist every four hours to try and find the most efficient way forward.
Lee tried to keep her eye on the positives. During one storm, she decided to row regardless of the conditions because she was going stir-crazy in her cabin.
"I ended up rowing in 20-knot winds and big seas. It was so awesome. Like breaking new barriers. Now I know I can row in 20 knots. It was a confidence builder," she said.
But rowing through the storms was not always possible. She had to contend with five hurricanes, four cyclones, and long periods trapped in her cabin. Cyclone Gabrielle caused her the longest stretch inside -- a claustrophobic nine days. All she could do was sit on her para-anchor and listen to the waves crashing into her boat.
For a solo rower, one of the trickiest balancing acts is sleeping. With adverse currents and winds, you can spend all day rowing only to get pushed backward during a few hours of sleep. Lee used her para-anchor to reduce this, but losing miles was often inevitable.
Navigating the Great Barrier Reef
Lee's journey proved difficult to the last. Two cyclones hit while she was crossing the Coral Sea. Lee was moving west but it was hard to predict which exactly port she would land in. Wind and strong outgoing tides pushed her off course.
Her landing was delayed several times and she had to carefully maneuver her way through the Great Barrier Reef.
"There are a lot of things that need to be organized for this, a fair bit of planning and strategy," Lee wrote on her blog. "There’s a plan A, plan B, and plan C. It’s super technical for Roger, my weather router, to get me across the reef at the right time."
Lee spent days trying to navigate the reef and reach her finish line. She was rowing for six-hour stints, hoping to make Port Douglas. But in the end, conditions became so tricky that she was forced to move her endpoint 58km.
"The last section was a bit of a battle," she told reporters.
Aside from the physical strain, Lee's biggest hurdle was loneliness. Living in solitude for eight months is hard, and Lee admitted to many low points. To stay sane, she listened to 37 audiobooks, played her ukulele, and spoke to friends and family when possible.
"There have been long, long chats on the satellite phone. We’ve had a few tears and a lot of laughs together. We’ve been talking constantly," one of Lee’s friends told ABC while they waited for her to land.
Dreams of an early finish dashed
Earlier in her journey, Lee was making such good progress that it seemed she would get to Australia at the end of February. This was far sooner than she had expected and it raised her hopes. A few cycles later, it was clear that such an early finish wasn’t going to happen. She couldn’t help feeling a little down.
Fortunately, the Pacific's wildlife helped lift her spirits. The biggest highlight for Lee was when her boat became a creche for baby sharks. She had been trailed by two sharks for weeks and soon noticed four baby sharks swimming beneath her boat. The parents would leave them for periods before returning. Lee is convinced that after following her for weeks, they felt their babies were safe with her. Pretty soon there were dozens of baby sharks around her. "I have become the nursery. It’s very cute. Everyone is in harmony with each other," she wrote.
One morning, Lee emerged from her cabin to find a shark thrashing around on the deck. Sadly, she was unable to help it back into the water. All she could do was wait for it to die before returning it to the sea.
Though she was alone on the water, Lee did have a land support team. She had a doctor on call to discuss ailments and a dedicated weather router to keep her updated on winds and currents. Lee says she could not have done the arduous journey without him. His information allowed her to maneuver around weather systems.
Setting out, Lee knew that the ocean itself would ultimately dictate the success or failure of the row.
"You’re just experiencing and witnessing Mother Nature in all her runway-ready, take-me-as-I-am, natural beauty. Some days she’s better than others and she certainly puts you through the paces," she told Women’s Agenda.
Back in Australia, Lee is already planning future expeditions. "Say ‘yes,’ work the details out later. I’m excited for what’s to come."
In the world of ocean adventure, kayaking is not the norm, especially for long-distance crossings. With only a handful of long-distance kayakers, advice and expertise are hard to come by. Richard Kohler, 53, did not see this as an issue when he embarked on what would become one of the longest ocean crossings by kayak.
The second-longest solo ocean kayak journey
Kohler paddled 6,403km solo and unsupported from Cape Town, South Africa across the Southern Atlantic Ocean to Salvador, Brazil. It is the second-longest recorded solo ocean kayak journey. The late Aleksander Doba completed the longest journey when he paddled 6,558km from Portugal to Florida in 2014.
Kohler may also be the first person to cover this particular route in a kayak. Amyr Klink rowed a similar route in 1982; Klink also crossed the Southern Atlantic Ocean to Brazil but started his journey in Namibia rather than South Africa.
Kohler has decades of experience as a sailor and has completed 11 ocean crossings as a professional yachtsman. But he had always dreamed of completing a solo crossing. After kayaking the South African coastline alone in 2013, he came up with the idea of solo ocean crossing by kayak.
Success on his second attempt
He first attempted the crossing in December 2021 but abandoned his attempt after 16 days. The wiring to his main solar panels corroded, and his spare set of panels didn't work. Unable to use his communication devices, AIS system, or desalinator, he had to make landfall in Namibia.
In a twist of fate, the unfortunate ending of his journey allowed him to do something he would otherwise have missed. He was able to make it back to South Africa to say goodbye to his father, who had fallen ill.
Over the next year, Kohler made adjustments to his boat and equipment. His kayak is very unusual. In fact, it barely resembles one at all. Named Osiyeza, it was built for this crossing. It is eight meters long, one meter wide, and includes an enclosed sleeping area.
Paddling purists might question whether this should be classed as a kayak at all. They might point to Ed Gillet's crossing of the Pacific as a true ocean kayaking expedition, but Kohler is not phased by the debate. In a radio interview before setting out he explained his view: "The term kayak is because I am using a double-bladed paddle to propel myself."
Gale-force winds and seasickness
Regardless of how high-tech his kayak is, you can't question the skill needed to make the crossing.
The 63-day, seven-hour journey was extremely challenging. For the first 48 hours, Kohler’s seasickness was so bad that he couldn't eat. Over the next three weeks, he endured gale-force winds and storms that forced him onto his sea anchor several times. Eventually, he was able to escape the horrific conditions and position himself with the trade winds behind him.
He faced storms with 40-knot winds and five-meter swells. He had no choice but to sit these out, listening to the waves smashing into his boat.
"The problem with being on a kayak is you are so slow you cannot escape the weather. So you are sitting there for a week just watching this thing approach, and that can do some funny things to your mind," he said.
His daily routine
Over two months at sea, Kohler settled into a routine. He would paddle for two to three hours before dawn and then stop for a coffee, some breakfast, and a chat with his shore team. Then he would paddle three hours on, one hour off for the rest of the day.
At midday, he usually stopped for two hours to get out of the sun, rest, send a message to his wife, update his blog, and eat a bit more food. He tried to paddle for 10 to 15 hours each day.
For Kohler, the mental battle proved harder than the physical. Two months is a long time to spend alone. It hit particularly hard over Christmas. His wife had packed four small presents for him to open, and he spoke to her and his mother. But once the calls were over, he began to feel a little low.
Kohler had packed some letters from friends, sealed for him to open when he needed a little encouragement. He picked out two to open. The first was from his father, written before he died for Kohl’s first attempt.
"Let me just say that today goes down in my personal history book as my lowest emotional state. I can’t even begin to describe how emotionally mixed up I am right now," Kohler wrote on his blog.
Swam ashore
Landing his kayak in Salvador proved particularly hard. The bay where the yacht club is located has strong tidal currents, so he had a very small window to land.
"The current here was an absolute beast," he wrote. "Osiyeza was flying towards Salvador. Then the wind died, and as a parting gift, it started to blow offshore. I just chuckled to myself."
Kohler paddled hard to make the bay. As he turned a corner, he was met by a flotilla of kayakers, SUPs, yachts, and the Navy. They had come out to paddle alongside him during the last kilometer of his journey.
One final problem presented itself. There was nowhere for him to dock at the yacht club. For the expedition to count as solo and unsupported, he had to touch land without help. Kohler tied Osiyeza to a mooring buoy, jumped into the water, and swam to shore.
"Paddling a kayak across the ocean has been a ten-year dream, with the last five years of planning and execution," Kohler said after landing in Brazil. "I am very relieved that I had what it takes for an adventure like this, but also very grateful that it has come to an end. The experience is one that I will cherish for the rest of my days."
Since our last roundup, the number of boats on the Atlantic Ocean has ballooned from two to 42. Four independent crews are crossing from east to west. The other 38 are taking part in the 2023 Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.
Around the world cycle/row begins
Louis Margot (CH): Margot wants to cycle and row his way around the world. He cycled from Switzerland to Portugal, then started rowing to Costa Rica. From here, he'll make his way to the mainland U.S., cycle to California, then row across the Pacific Ocean.
On Nov. 25, after 19 days and four hours, he covered 1,188km from Portimao, Portugal to Gran Canaria. He stayed on the island for 18 days. His second leg, from Gran Canaria to Costa Rica, will be far longer.
The hardest part so far was landing on Gran Canaria. Initially, he was on course to arrive at night but decided that this was too risky amid cargo ships and tankers. Instead, he slowed down to arrive in daylight. As a result, he was awake for almost 48 hours.
"The AIS indicated that the [shipping] lane was clear. But as I made my way along the entrance, a huge cargo ship suddenly took off, dashing straight toward me. Total panic! With the wind and waves, controlling the boat was very difficult," Margot said.
Once safely through the shipping lane, Margot navigated through a "maritime maze" of sailboats, windsurfers, and high winds.
On the island, he made a few repairs to his boat but mainly used the time to recharge his batteries for the second leg of the row.
Margot thinks it will take him two to three months to get to Costa Rica.
Piotr Pawelec (PL): Pawelec is rowing from Portugal to Guadeloupe. He started on Nov. 6 and completed the first section of his row on Nov. 26. Like Margot, he made a pitstop in Gran Canaria and stayed there for 17 days before restarting.
In Gran Canaria, he rested, resupplied, and made small repairs. Then he waited for good weather before starting his second leg.
Pawelec has released few details of his journey, but his tracker shows that he is making good progress. And Pawelec had nothing but good things to say about his first few weeks of rowing: "No words to describe the beauty of the ocean," he said.
Shipping lanes and seasickness
Pete Beatty (UK): Beatty is just over a week into his row across the Atlantic. He also started in Portimao, Portugal. He set off on Dec. 10 for French Guyana. So far, he has covered 280km of 6,115km. He hopes to become the oldest man to row alone across the Atlantic.
Over the first few days, Beatty has struggled with shipping lanes, lack of sleep, and seasickness. He is now trying to figure out the best routine to reduce boat drift while he sleeps.
At the age of 12, Beatty watched a documentary about swimming the English Channel. Though not the best swimmer, he made several unsuccessful attempts during his 20s and 30s. Eventually, at age 45, he completed the crossing. In 2011, he walked from France to Gibraltar.
Oar Blimey (UK): George Nelson and Russell Davis are rowing from Portugal to Saint Martin. The British pair set out on December 1 and hope to finish the 5,600km in three months. They have no prior rowing experience.
Nelson and Davis planned to start at the end of November, but their water pump broke, delaying them a few days. The pair were particularly worried about getting away from the coast and through busy shipping lanes. After 25 hours, they confirmed they had made it out and were "breathing a big sigh of relief."
They had a good first 48 hours but then had to deploy their para-anchor to stop strong winds pushing them back toward Portugal. This continued on and off for the next few days.
The winds are now in their favor, but they are having some battery issues. Both of their batteries are rechargeable but one of them is not charging properly from the solar panels. They are trying to fix it themselves. If they are unable to make the repairs they will make a quick pitstop in Lanzarote before continuing to Gran Canaria.
Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge
Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge (TWAC): The 2023 TWAC started on December 13. A total of 38 teams and 98 rowers pushed off from La Gomera, Tenerife, to begin their row to Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua.
The TWAC was founded by Chay Blyth in 1997. It was initially called the Atlantic Rowing Race. The event has changed hands a few times and now touts itself as "the premier event in ocean rowing" and "the world’s toughest row."
The first few days have been challenging for the crews.
"This year has been incredibly unusual in the trade wind patterns, particularly with their high northward direction. The waves have been big and brutal, [they have] thrown our crews around with several experiencing knockdowns and getting thrown from their seats," the TWAC team wrote.
One pair, Never2Late, are finding the conditions particularly difficult. Their tracker shows large waves have pushed them off route to the east.
The current race statistics are as follows:
Leading: HMS Oardacious
Leading five: HMS Oardacious
Leading four: Team Marduk
Leading trio: BlueTusk
Leading pair: Spirit of Hospitality
Leading soloist: Wave Wrangler
Since our last roundup, one soloist has restarted his journey and another has begun rowing across the Atlantic.
This is one of the quietest times of year on the world’s oceans, but hurricane season in the Atlantic is ending. As we move into slightly calmer weather, more rowers will take to the water. This includes those in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. The race starts on Dec. 12.
Louis Margot (CH): Margot is making a second attempt at his Atlantic crossing. He first started on Oct. 9 but had to abandon his attempt after five days because of bad weather, communication breakdowns, and seasickness. He restarted from Portimao, Portugal on Nov. 6 bound for Columbia. On the way, he will stop in the Canary Islands.
Building momentum
So far, the second attempt is going far better. In 10 days, he has covered 450km. "My peace grows with every paddle," he remarked on social media.
The winds have been in his favor, and he is now out of the busier shipping channels and able to pick up the pace. The biggest difficulty has been sleeping. He has struggled to get more than a few hours a night and often ends up rowing longer than he anticipated.
Margot's row forms part of a much longer journey. He is attempting a human-powered world circumnavigation in five stages. Three are cycling and two are rowing. Friends may join him for parts of the cycling, but the rowing will remain solo.
He started on Sept. 3 in Switzerland and pedaled 2,300km in 25 days to Portugal. In a few months, once he reaches Columbia, he will cycle north to Monterey, California. From there, he begins his second rowing leg, across the Pacific Ocean.
Another soloist
Piotr Pawelec (PL): Pawelec is our second soloist attempting the Atlantic. He also started from Portimao, Portugal on Nov. 6. He hopes to finish in Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. Like Margot, he plans a pitstop in the Canary Islands.
So far, he has covered just over 350km. Since setting off, he has not provided any updates, but you can monitor his progress via his tracker.
His idea began in the fall of 2022. He had heard of another Polish rower, Romuald Koperski, who hand-built a boat, and then crossed the Atlantic. Pawelec liked this plan, which added an extra element to rowing.
Unfortunately, he had no idea how to construct a boat. He contacted a shipbuilder, who became involved, and drew up some plans. Over the next few months, Pawelec and his accomplice built his boat. Now his crossing is finally underway.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, three journeys have ended unsuccessfully. One solo rower/cyclist has begun a three-year round-the-world expedition.
Pacific Ocean
Tom Robinson: The young Australian's Pacific row came to a sad end on Oct. 5. Robinson was only four days into the final stage of his row to his home country when he had to call for rescue.
While crossing the Bougainville Strait, a huge wave struck his boat. Water flooded the cabin, and his boat flipped. Unable to right the boat, Robinson swam out and hauled himself onto the top of the capsized boat. He tied himself to the hull, set off his EPIRB, and waited 14 hours to be rescued. A cruise ship detoured 200km to collect him.
This was supposed to be the final stage of his row from Peru to Australia. Initially, he rowed from Lima to Penrhyn where he waited out the cyclone season. He then made his way to American Samoa and finally to Vanuatu. It was from here that he started his last section on Oct. 2. Until the rescue, he was on track to become the youngest person ever to solo row the Pacific Ocean.
Atlantic Ocean
Jari Saario: The Finnish rower attempted to complete a double crossing of the Atlantic. Starting in the Canary Islands, he was going to row to Miami, but electrical issues forced him to detour to Antigua. Here, his first crossing ended on March 28. He then went back to Finland and made repairs while reassessing his route.
He eventually decided to make his second row from Newfoundland, Canada to Finland. After 75 days, he landed in Scotland. Potentially rough weather convinced him to reach the North Sea via the inland Caledonian Canal Route. But then his electrical system began to play up.
Unable to fix it, he sent the boat to London for repairs. Then he had to make a difficult decision. Should he attempt to row the North Sea back to Finland at this late and rough time of year? Many advised him against it.
Eventually, on Sept. 29, he set off into the North Sea. Conditions forced him to keep rowing to avoid blowing off course. Some nights he barely slept. A few days into October, he commented on social media that it had been such a hard day that “tears just fall as I paddle."
On Oct. 5, the situation became drastically worse. Waves and swells were so bad that his boat flipped during the night and was upside down for several minutes. All his equipment was drenched. Barely able to continue, he detoured to Cuxhaven, Germany and finished his row there on Oct. 7.
Back on dry land, he said, “We conquered more than we set out for. We rowed across the Atlantic and back...I am proud of all that we achieved.”
Louis Margot: On Sept. 3, Louis Margot of Switzerland started a human-powered circumnavigation of the world, rowing and cycling. Starting in Morges, Switzerland, he cycled 2,300km in 25 days to Portimao, Portugal.
He has been rowing since he was 13 and won his first Swiss Championship in 2008. He then went on to compete in the Junior World Rowing Championships for Switzerland. However, ocean rowing is new to him. After leaving university, he took up long-distance cycling.
The record for a human-powered circumnavigation is five years and 11 days. He hopes to finish in three years.
The second leg of his journey is a 10,300km row from Portugal to Costa Rica. He started rowing on Oct. 9. Sadly, it was short-lived. Margot found the first few days a struggle because of seasickness. His communication devices were also not working properly. Then the weather worsened, and forecasts predicted that he would need to be on his sea anchor for up to 10 days.
He decided to turn back to Portugal and wait for better weather. “It's a hard blow to morale," he commented, "but these six days at sea have taught me a lot.” He plans to restart next week, on Oct. 22.
Arctic Ocean
Matty Clarke: Matty Clarke was rowing the Northwest Passage from west to east. He began as a pair but was forced to continue solo when his partner Adam Riley injured his shoulder. He has had to make multiple repairs to his boat along the way.
Not long after crossing the halfway point, his electrical systems failed. This meant he would have no use of his bilge pumps or communication devices. He ended his row at the Inuit town of Gjoa Haven.
Tom Robinson’s Pacific row has come to a dramatic end. The 24-year-old Australian was rescued by a cruise ship that found him standing naked on top of his overturned boat.
Until recently, Robinson had been on the island of Vanuatu, his last stop of the row from Peru to Australia. On Oct. 1, he began the final stage of his journey home. He was only at sea for three days and 22 hours when disaster struck on Oct. 5.
He left Vanuatu and was making his way across the Bougainville Strait, which has notoriously strong currents and wind. A huge wave came crashing through the main hatch, flooded the cabin, and flipped his boat.
“I was just sitting there inside the boat contemplating dinner, and a millisecond later it was upside down,” he told the New Zealand Herald.
Robinson swam out of the swiftly flooding cabin and hauled himself onto the boat's hull.
“With the state I was in, the best option for me was to sit on top of the overturned hull and hold that EPIRB.” He tied a rope around his waist, attaching himself to the boat, and clung on for dear life. Waves continued to crash over the hull as he waited for 14 hours.
Capsized 185km offshore
The EPIRB notified the Australian Maritime Safety Authorities. They contacted New Caledonia's Marine Rescue Coordination Centre who subsequently ran the rescue. A plane discovered Robinson 185km from Vanuatu, atop the hull of his handmade boat.
Once they verified his location, a cruise ship took a 200km detour to pick up the stranded man. They got to him at 7 am. He received medical care and treatment for dehydration and sunburn.
The ship will arrive in Auckland in two days. From there, Robinson will fly home to Brisbane.
It is a sad end to Robinson’s journey. He began in Lima on July 2, 2022, and was vying to be the youngest person to solo row the Pacific Ocean. He designed and built his 7.3m boat Maiwar.
For him, it was not about being the quickest. It was about the full experience. He first rowed 8,800km to Penryhn, in the Cook Islands. Here he waited out the cyclone season before rowing 1,500km to American Samoa. There, illness forced him to stop and recover before continuing.
After a month, he started his next leg, a two-month, 2,500km row to Vanuatu. Three weeks later, he left for the final part of his journey. He had just 2,000km left to Cairns, Australia.
He has not yet commented on whether he plans to reattempt the route.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, few boats remain on the water. Three solo journeys continue, and one four-man team has aborted its Northwest Passage attempt.
Pacific Ocean
Tom Robinson: The young Australian is rowing across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Australia. Robinson is not trying for any kind of speed record but is simply doing it for the experience.
He has stopped several times. His first layover was in the Cook Islands, where he waited out the cyclone season in Penrhyn. Then he rowed to American Samoa and stayed there for a month. This was the lowest point of the experience so far. The rowing had been draining, he was ill with a recurring flu, and his boat needed repairs. He was ready to quit. After a few weeks on the island and some kindness from strangers, he felt more positive.
He began his third leg on July 2. Two months later, on September 11, he landed in Vanuatu. He actually arrived at the archipelago 19 days earlier but couldn't make it ashore.
Robinson initially had no intention of stopping, but as winds picked up, he changed his mind. He tried to anchor near Gaua Island, but reefs made it inaccessible. Then he saw two people jump in a canoe and start paddling toward him to guide him through a tiny crack in the reef.
As he made his way along the coastlines, villagers canoed out to him and offered food and conversation. Then a German yacht appeared and agreed to tow him to Luganville, where he would be able to land properly. He has not said when he plans to continue his journey to Australia.
Atlantic Ocean
Jari Saario: On January 23, the Finnish rower started his bid to complete a double crossing of the Atlantic. He planned to row from the Canary Islands to Miami, then travel to New York and recross the Atlantic to London. Unfortunately, very little went according to plan.
His first crossing ended on March 28 in Antigua. Electrical issues affected both his GPS and communication devices and forced him to shorten that leg of the journey. He went back to Finland and rethought his route. In the end, he decided to cross from Newfoundland, Canada to Finland.
Five days after launching on June 22, two out of three rudder controls had broken. Saario could steer with ropes but not row at the same time. Strong winds started pushing him back toward his starting point. Luckily, with help from his land team, he managed a fix. July 26 marked his 100th day at sea this year.
Seventy-five days later, he arrived in Scotland. After spending some time repairing his boat, he will make his way across the Caledonian Canal Route to the North Sea. His original plan was to row the English Channel or north of Scotland, but strong winds would have made progress difficult. So in the end, he picked a more sheltered way.
Northwest Passage
NWP Expedition: This four-man team was trying to row the Northwest Passage in a single season from Baffin Island, Canada to Point Burrow, Alaska. Experienced ocean rower Leven Brown is leading the team on the 3,700km journey.
They started their row on August 17 and made good progress at first. But in Cresswell Bay, just north of Bellot Strait, difficult conditions prompted them to use their electric motor, depriving their expedition of its self-supported status. Then their daggerboard split in half on a sandbank, but they had a spare.
After 13 days, they reached Bellot Strait. Here, they waited for calm weather before relaunching on September 1. They made good progress past Victoria Island, the location of Cambridge Bay.
Again, they waited for calm weather, but with the arrival of arctic fall, such days were fewer and shorter. The high winds and large waves deterred them enough that on September 14, they decided to abort the expedition with 1,100km to go. They are now making their way back toward Cambridge Bay, where they will store the boat over winter. Brown says they will return to finish the undone portion next summer.
Solo arctic rower
Matty Clarke: Clarke is rowing the Northwest Passage alone from west to east -- the opposite direction from the Brits above and the four kayakers, who are continuing their paddle despite the wintry conditions. Clarke started the journey with companion Adam Riley, with a plan to row the Passage in one season. After two weeks, Riley injured his shoulder and had to pull out, but Clarke has continued alone.
Clarke is using a kayak that you row rather than paddle. His former partner is now helping with logistics.
On August 28, he reached the Inuit town of Cambridge Bay, a little less than halfway. Here, he made repairs to his boat and waited out rough weather.
“The next 500 miles will be the most difficult I’ve ever done," he said. "The weather window gets shorter and shorter, and I’ve three big crossings left.”
His daggerboard has broken twice, and he fixed it twice. Then on September 8, the hull of his boat cracked in big waves as his boat repeatedly went vertical and slapped down hard on the water. It now leaks. "This is different from a hole from ice or a rock," he explains. He is trying to fix the structural issue with the materials at hand but is unsure if he will be able to continue in the rough autumn seas.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, quite a few records have been claimed. Though most crews have finished their journeys, one soloist is still at sea.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Challenge - The inaugural Pacific Challenge came to an end on August 2 when the five-man Flyin’ Fish crew crossed the finish line.
The race, run by the same group that organizes the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, started on June 12. Fourteen crews and 49 rowers set off on the 4,500km from Monterey, California to Hanalei, Hawaii. Thirteen of the 14 crews crossed the finish line.
The overall winners were a four-man crew called Kiwi Fondue. They finished in 29 days, 17 hours, and 29 minutes. They broke the speed record across the Pacific by an impressive 14 hours.
The next fastest crew was Ocean Warrior, they landed in Hawaii after 31 days, 17 hours, and 12 minutes. The Danish crew of Jens Neergaard, Andreas Dyrby, Joachim Sutton, and Lasse Wulff Hansen were officially the first Scandinavian crew to row the Pacific Ocean. This crew was packed with experience; Hansen has rowed the Atlantic Ocean three times and in 2021 he won the TWAC solo class. Sutton was an Olympic rowing medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
There was no shortage of records on the route this year:
- Kiwi Fondue: Fastest Team to Row the Mid-Pacific Ocean (29 days, 17 hours, and 29 minutes)
- Pacific Discovery: Fastest Mixed Four to Row the Mid-Pacific Ocean (34 days, 8 hours, and 22 minutes)
- HODL: Fastest Trio to Row the Mid-Pacific Ocean (38 days, 16 hours, and 19 minutes)
- Row Aurora: Fastest Female Trio to Row the Mid-Pacific Ocean (40 days, four hours, and 52 minutes)
- Flyin’ Fish: Fastest Five to Row the Mid-Pacific Ocean (51 days, five hours, and 44 minutes)
Peru to Australia
Tom Robinson - Robinson (AU) is on the third leg of his row from Lima, Peru to Australia. He initially rowed to Penrhyn, in the Cook Islands, in 160 days. There, he waited four months for the cyclone season to end. He then rowed to American Samoa in 38 days, arriving on May 21. He set off on the third section on July 2 and the Ocean Rowing Society estimates he has now covered 81% of the total distance.
He changed his route slightly after setting off, choosing to stay north of New Caledonia instead of going south. This was based on meteorology reports that predicted less troublesome currents and winds on this route. Another silver lining was that there would be fewer boats to navigate around.
Despite less fierce winds than his original route, the journey north of New Caledonia was still very challenging. On some days winds were so strong that they prevented him from rowing at all.
On July 5, Robinson celebrated two key journey markers: he crossed the International Date Line on his 200th-day rowing. But it hasn't all been smooth sailing in July either; on July 23, for the first time since leaving Peru, Robinson's tracker showed him moving away from his destination as he battled weather systems that were pushing him around.
This should be the final leg of his journey, but, depending on the weather, he might make another pitstop en route to Queensland.
Indian Ocean
Robert Barton - Barton (AU) completed his 8,358km row from Australia to Tanzania on July 20. In doing so he became the first known person to row solo, non-stop, and unassisted from mainland western Australia to mainland Africa.
On his website, Barton said that he hoped to finish the row in 150 days. He almost cut his target in half, making Tanzania in 85 days, 12 hours, and nine minutes.
An avid sailor, this was Barton's first ever attempt at rowing an ocean, so he was unsure of how much daily progress he would make when he pushed off from Carnarvon, Australia. He researched how long other rowers had taken to make the crossing, and they took between 120 and 150 days. All of the previous crossings involved at least one stop.
The hardest part of Barton's journey was the beginning. During the first few days, he was suffering so badly from seas sickness that he turned his boat around and started back to land. After two hours of reflection, he realized he couldn’t give up, spun his boat around, and continued on.
Barton gained the nickname "the naked rower" on social media for forgoing clothes for most of his trip. Speaking to Sunrise Australia, he explained that this was to try and reduce the number of salt sores on his body as he rowed.
After almost three months in a boat, Barton's first steps back on dry land felt strange. "A final little push for the last mile or so and I was on the beach in front of the yacht club. I had my slightly less than graceful first few steps on land as I staggered around like a drunken sailor. I need to find my land legs," he commented on social media.
Indi Row 23 - Chris Cleghorn (UK), Allan Huntly (UK), Stephan Easter (UK), and Ben Mann (AU) completed their row from Western Australia to Mauritius on July 19.
The four-man crew covered the 5,900km route in 69 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes, narrowly missing out on the 67-day speed record they hoped to achieve.
Though their journey went relatively smoothly, it was not without challenges. They tackled huge waves, Easter dislocated his finger and had to pop it back into place, and on day 68, with the finish line practically in sight, the nut holding the rudder pin sheared off. They tried to fix the rudder as best they could using cable ties and rope.
Grand Baie is a tough area to land because it is surrounded by reefs. The coastguard was on standby to assist but they managed to land without help.
Arctic Ocean
Ocean Revival - Matt Mason, Matthew Inglesby, Mark Sealy, and Colin Hiscock completed their row in the Arctic Circle on July 22. The British crew rowed 1,050km from Tromso in northern Norway across the Barents Sea to Longyearbyen, Svalbard in 15 days, five hours, and 32 minutes.
They are the first four-man crew to tackle this route and broke a number of minor records along the way. Mason is the first person to have rowed across the mid-Atlantic, north Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans, and Inglesby is now the first person to row the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans in the same year.
The biggest challenge was the weather. Constant arctic winds and dampness meant that the team was "almost always chilled to the bone," they wrote on social media. This meant they had to be super disciplined on the boat, "changeovers had to be fast, personal hygiene kept to a high standard and separation of wet and dry kit meticulous."
The first five days went fairly smoothly, there were no strong winds and very little swell. The team settled into a good rhythm and tried to cover as much distance as they could as they knew the conditions would not last.
They were right. Over the following eight days, they had to spend five on para-anchor. Arctic weather systems can be extremely changeable and the team feared the wind would blow them too far off course. Staying still was a better option and limited the chance of capsizing. In temperatures as low as 2°C, the risks associated with a capsize increase exponentially in the Arctic.
Around mainland UK
Ithaca - Emma Wolstenholme, Amy Wood, Sandra Gates, Emma Hazel, Clair Hennessy, and Margaret Ann Hodge successfully completed their circumnavigation of mainland Britain on July 19. The British six-woman crew set a new women’s speed record on the route. They took 44 days, 20 hours, and 19 minutes to circle the UK clockwise. They started and ended the row at Tower Bridge in London.
Rowing around the UK involved changing tides, busy shipping lanes, and temperamental weather. Their first day on para anchor came on day three because of strong winds, the second on day five, and in total, they were forced to stop rowing for over a week of the challenge to wait for suitable conditions.
They were clear from the beginning that their main goal was to make it around the UK safely while collecting ocean data for the University of Portsmouth. One member of the team was particularly keen to avoid any major accidents. Hazel took part in the GB Row Challenge last year but it ended in dramatic fashion. The coastguard had to rescue Hazel from the Irish Sea after she capsized during a storm with 52-knot winds.
They had intended to row two hours on and two hours off in teams of three. But occasionally conditions were so exhausting that they had to reduce this to one hour off and one hour on. Coming down the east coast was the hardest section. The high winds were constantly against them and the tides turned every six hours. Hazel told Sky News that it was akin to "rowing through lead."
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, one team has broken the speed record across the Pacific Ocean. One soloist has restarted his journey, and several crews are closing in on their finish lines.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Challenge - The inaugural Pacific Challenge, run by the same group that organizes the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, started on June 12. Fourteen crews and 49 rowers set off on the 4,500km from Monterey, California to Hanalei, Hawaii.
The first finisher, Kiwi Fondue, crossed the line on July 12 after exactly one month. The team finished in 29 days, 17 hours and 29 minutes, breaking the speed record across the Pacific by 14 hours and one minute. The four-man crew included Alex Brooker, Rich Henderson, and brothers Lorenz Gammeter and Alex Gammeter.
Henderson described the row as “epic to torturous to beautiful and everything in between.”
The next crew, Oceanwarrior, should finish today, July 13. The foursome only has 120km left.
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A week after starting, one crew, Row4ALS, decided to end their Pacific crossing. On social media, they only cited "personal issues."
After a month at sea, all other crews are doing well, and some are closing in on the finish line. Many include experienced rowers who have previously taken part in the TWAC.
Overall Winners: Kiwi Fondue - 29 days, 17 hours and 29 minutes
Fastest Five - Flyin’ Fish - 2181km to finish
Fastest Four - Kiwi Fondue - Finished
Fastest Trio - HODL eEnergy - 1,092km to finish
Fastest Pair - Aloha Kai - 1,642km to finish
Peru to Australia
Tom Robinson (AU) has been rowing from Lima, Peru to Australia in stages. He first rowed to Penrhyn, in the Cook Islands, in 160 days. There, he waited four months for the cyclone season to end. He then rowed to American Samoa in 38 days, arriving on May 21.
He admits that when he arrived in Samoa, he was “ready to throw in the towel.” For the first few weeks in Samoa, he lived on his boat as he struggled with both recurring flu and the idea of continuing.
Then everything changed. Thanks to some good Samaritans, he lifted his boat out of the water onto a trailer and had a room to stay in. With a hot shower. “The Queen was still alive the last time I had had a hot shower!" he wrote. "It was the normalcy I needed to get back into the swing of things.”
Once rested, he spent a few weeks making minor repairs to his boat, once again determined to complete the journey. He started rowing directly to Queensland, Australia on July 2. He thinks he can make it in 120 days, but if he has to, he is ready to stop again.
“There is a swathe of large Melanesian Islands to the west, and if I do end up close enough to a beckoning, coconut-clad shore, it would be hard not to stop.”
Indian Ocean
Robert Barton - Barton (AU) is rowing from Carnarvon, Australia to Tanzania. He has now covered 95% of the 8,358km journey and should arrive in the next few days.
At the end of June, he faced completely opposite challenges from the wind. One day, he was barely moving because it was so still. A few days later, a stiff breeze pushed him in circles. Saltwater started affecting the bearings in his seat so he replaced them with some spares.
He has also been having issues with his satellite phone. He can send but not receive messages. Another day, he woke up to a deck covered with dead flying fish that had beached there while he slept.
Anyone doing a long ocean row eats mainly dehydrated food. You get tired of it. Near Mauritius, the Coast Guard radioed Barton to offer him some fresh fruit. As part of his unassisted journey, he sadly had to decline.
Indi Row 23 - This team of four is rowing across the Indian Ocean from Western Australia to Mauritius. Chris Cleghorn (UK), Allan Huntly (UK), Stephan Easter (UK), and Ben Mann (AU) began the 5,927km row on May 11. They have covered 5,290km so far, and hope to finish in 70 days. That gives them eight days to row the final 640km. If they make it in less than 67 days, they will break the speed record.
Throughout the journey, they rowed in two-hour shifts. In the last week, they faced numerous challenges. For days, huge waves spilled over the sides of the boat. One of the waves was so strong that on July 7, Easter dislocated his finger. He later managed to pop it back into place.
Arctic row
Ocean Revival - Matt Mason, Matthew Inglesby, Mark Sealey, and Colin Hiscock make up this British four rowing from Tromso, in northern Norway, across the Barents Sea to Longyearbyen, Svalbard.
The entire 1,050km row will take place within the Arctic Circle. Only 13 people have completed this before. If successful, they will be the first four-person crew to do this. There are also other minor records they will break if they make it to Svalbard. Mason will be the first person to have rowed across the mid-Atlantic, north Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, and Inglesby will be the first to row the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans in the same year.
They started on July 7 and have covered 405km so far. They hope to finish within 15 days. The crew has significant rowing experience. Sealey, Mason, and Inglesby have all completed previous ocean rows. Inglesby crossed the Atlantic Ocean this year, and Mason was part of the first crew to successfully row from New York to London in 2021.
Before beginning, Sealey told The Lancashire Telegraph, “The weather will be between 0˚and 7˚C, but the arctic wind could very quickly bring that down into sub-zero temperatures. The Arctic Ocean weather is unpredictable and extremely changeable, so accurate weather forecasting will be difficult. We will row in constant daylight and in shifts of two hours on, two hours off.”
Around mainland UK
Ithaca - This all-female, six-person crew is circumnavigating mainland Britain. They set off from Tower Bridge, London on June 4 and hope to make it back to their starting point in the next few days. Emma Wolstenholme, Amy Wood, Sandra Gates, Emma Hazel, Clair Hennessy, and Margaret Ann Hodge, are all from the UK. They have covered 3,000km so far and have 220km remaining.
From London, they made their way down the Thames Estuary and continued clockwise around Great Britain. Strong winds and rough seas forced them onto the anchor for 36 hours during the first week. Then they had to pass through the busy shipping lanes at the Port of Dover.
Another tricky section came at the end of June when they had to row through Pentland Firth. The channel separates mainland Scotland from the Orkney Isles. It has a tidal stream of 12 knots and is known as one of the most difficult channels to cross.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, a brand-new ocean rowing race has launched and Andrew Bedwell's effort to sail the Atlantic in the world's smallest yacht lasts less than a day.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Challenge has started. June 12 marked the beginning of the inaugural race run by Atlantic Campaigns, the same company that has been organizing the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge since 2012.
The event will see 14 crews, made up of 49 rowers, race 4,500km across the Pacific Ocean from Monterey, California to Hanalei, Hawaii. "As a relatively new and untouched route, the Pacific challenge offers new adventures, new world records, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences," the Atlantic Campaigns website claims.
Only 82 people have successfully rowed from the Hawaiian islands to the USA. Far fewer than have crossed the Atlantic.
A number of the crews and rowers who have previously taken part in the TWAC were drawn in by the new challenge. Soloist Paul Lore told People: "The Pacific is significantly more challenging because of the multiple currents, the cold water, big waves, and fog that reduces visibility to zero at times."
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The average crossing time is 62 days. The record is 30 days, five hours, and 37 minutes set by the Latitude 35 team in 2022 during the Great Pacific Race. That race is very similar to the Pacific Challenge, also taking a route from the USA to Hawaii. Whilst the Pacific Challenge will be an annual event, the GPR has run four times since its inception in 2014.
All 14 crews have set off and are working to get away from the coastline. You can track their progress here.
Tom Robinson has completed the second leg of his row from Lima, Peru to Australia. His first leg saw him row to Penrhyn, one of the Cook Islands, in 160 days. He waited there for four months to avoid the cyclone season and set out again on April 14.
After 38 days and 1500km at sea, the Australian arrived in Pago Pago, American Samoa on May 21. He was initially going to stop in Tau but decided to change course. Instead, he rowed to the larger, more densely populated Pago Pago as he thought it would be an easier place to restock and heal the injuries he sustained while rowing.
One of the hardest parts of the row was leaving Penrhyn. Robinson had felt at home there, "as I rowed away from Penrhyn that day...I realized that I had found what I had been looking for all this time. I’d been searching for something better than the big city, and here on Penrhyn, I had found it. To then be rowing away from this paradise seemed in that moment completely preposterous," he wrote.
The row was not a comfortable one. Robinson was not sleeping or eating well and he never quite found the rhythm of his first leg. He first planned to land in Fiji, a row he expected to take 60 days, but his health took a turn for the worse. Sores broke out all over his legs, oozing puss. They didn't heal and soon spread over the rest of his body. Worried that the sores would become infected he landed on Pago Pago, American Samoa.
Robinson must make it back to Australia before the next cyclone season in November. He plans to leave American Samoa in the next few days and head to Fiji.
Indian Ocean
Robert Barton is another Australian soloist currently rowing the world's oceans. Starting in Carnarvon, Australia on April 25, he hopes to make it 8,358km to Tanzania.
Barton did not have an easy start to the journey. In the first few weeks, he suffered seasickness, a flooded cabin, capsized once, and his autopilot broke in ever-worsening weather.
Eventually, on May 18, Barton managed to eat three full meals for the first time on the trip. Since then, things have started to improve. The sea has been calmer and he has adjusted to solo life on the boat. Barton commented on social media that though he misses his family immensely and would love some fresh fruit, he is quite content with life on the rowing boat.
A big moment for Barton came on June 6, when he reached the halfway point of his row. He originally thought that the journey would take between 150 and 200 days, so was thrilled to find himself at the halfway mark on day 42. After seven weeks he said it feels as though he has been on the water for a week or two, and that the first few tough days seem like a distant memory.
Atlantic Ocean
Big C Atlantic Challenge was the most unusual project to take to the oceans since our last roundup. It is a sailing challenge that treads a thin line between innovative and insane. Andrew Bedwell wanted to sail 1,900km from Canada to Cornwall in the world's smallest yacht.
Bedwell is an experienced sailor, he has navigated around Britain, sailed to the Arctic Circle, and delivered yachts all over the world. But this is something very different, Bedwell has spent years making a tiny 3ft by 11ft yacht.
Bedwell set sail on May 27, but after just a few hours at sea, the campaign ended in disaster. The vessel was taking on water and he had to turn back. By the time he got back to shore, the tiny yacht had taken on almost a tonne of water. As the boat was lifted from the water the framework gave way completely and the boat fell apart.
In a tearful video, Bedwell apologized to everyone who has followed his project. "I don’t know what to say to everyone who’s supported me, helped me. You’ve all been absolutely amazing. Big C is no more. She can’t carry on. I can’t do it, I’m sorry."
He has now started work on a new design to attempt the crossing again.
Since our last ocean rowing roundup, one soloist has completed his row across the Atlantic, another has set off across the Indian Ocean, and a third continues across the Pacific.
Pacific Ocean
Tom Robinson of Australia began his row in Lima, Peru. After 160 days, he paused on Penrhyn, one of the Cook Islands, for four months to wait out cyclone season. Finally, he took to the ocean again for his second stage on April 14.
When he restarted, he was unsure of the route he was going to take to Brisbane. His options were to make the full 5,560km journey to Australia, stop after 2,250km in Fiji, or after 1,600km in Samoa. He has opted for Samoa.
Robinson is now approximately 140km from the Samoan island of Tau. There are two possible landing spots, but they are surrounded by coral. Robinson will need good weather to make it into one of the harbors.
If the swells are too big, he will continue on to Western Samoa to rest for a few days, then continue all the way to Australia.
Atlantic Ocean
Aurimas Valujavicus (Latvia) has completed his 9,000km row across the Atlantic Ocean. He started in Spain on December 26, 2022, and finished in Miami on April 25 after 120 days, 14 hours and 18 minutes.
He became the first Lithuanian and third person ever to row alone from Spain to the U.S. When he made it onto dry land, he told reporters that he felt a little bit dizzy but okay.
During the voyage, he rowed for 14 hours every day. He had hoped to break records for distance and speed, but bad weather and large waves slowed him down.
Indian Ocean
Robert Barton (Australia) is rowing across the Indian Ocean from east to west. He began in Carnarvon, Western Australia, and hopes to make it 3,558km to Tanzania. There have only been 42 attempts to cross the Indian Ocean. Only half of them have succeeded, and just seven of those were by soloists.
He started on April 25, in glassy calm water. It quickly became rougher over the next few days, and he suffered from seasickness. Then a leaking conduit caused a minor flood in his cabin, when stormwater gushed through the vent, soaking almost everything.
The situation continued to worsen. After 10 days, he was almost ready to quit. He was still sick, only managing two meals a day, and the cabin flooded again. Then the autopilot broke. He had four replacement units with him but has been unable to set them up. But he continues to persevere. He has covered 23 percent of the total journey.
Since our last ocean rowing round-up, several crews have completed ocean crossings, Michelle Lee became the first woman to row the Pacific solo, and Guadeloupe Favre broke an Atlantic record, crossing for the eighth time.
Pacific Ocean
Michelle’s Pacific Row: On April 4, Michelle Lee (AU) became the first woman to row alone across the Pacific Ocean. Over 237 days, she battled her way 14,000km from Ensenada, Mexico to North Queensland, Sydney.
The journey was incredibly difficult. Lee expected to finish at the end of February but conditions made that impossible. She faced five hurricanes and four cyclones and spent over a week locked in her cabin, unable to row. At times, it felt like everything was against her: strong winds, currents, and waves. In the end, she had to move her finish line by 58km because of the weather.
Though she had low moments, Lee felt privileged: "You’re just experiencing and witnessing Mother Nature in all her runway-ready, take-me-as-I-am natural beauty," she explained. "Some days, she’s better than others and she certainly puts you through your paces," she told Women’s Agenda.
Despite the weather, one of the greatest difficulties was eight months of solitude. Lee listened to several audiobooks and played her ukulele to pass the time. She also reveled in the nature around her.
Once, two sharks followed her for several weeks. Later, four baby sharks swam beneath her boat. "I am the creche. It’s very cute. Everyone is in harmony with each other," she wrote via her tracker.
This is not Lee’s first ocean row. In 2019, she became the first Australian woman to row solo across the Atlantic.
Next, she is planning another endurance challenge, this time on dry land. Just a month after arriving back in Australia, Lee is heading to Spain to begin a 1,000km hike on the Camino de Santiago.
"Say ‘yes’. Work the details out later. I’m excited for what’s to come," Lee said after finishing.
Tom’s Pacific Row: Tom Robinson (AU) restarted his row across the Pacific on April 14. He initially set off from Lima, Peru, and plans to row to Australia. In December, after 160 days and 9,260km, he stopped in Penrhyn, the Cook Islands.
He has been waiting out the cyclone season on the picturesque island, restocking and repairing his homemade boat. Robinson remains unsure how long his next stage will be. He can either row 5,560km to Brisbane, 2,250km to Fiji, or 1,600km to Samoa. He will make his decision based on the winds and currents once he is on the water.
Robinson has stocked his boat with enough supplies to make it to Australia but would like to stop along the way and experience some of the other islands.
Atlantic Ocean
Row for Amy: Andrew Osbourne (UK) completed his 4,870km solo row across the Atlantic on March 27. He began in Gran Canaria and made it to Antigua after 78 days and 10 hours.
Osbourne was rowing in memory of his daughter Amy. Amy died in her sleep five years ago from an undiagnosed heart condition. "It is the honor and privilege of a lifetime to be able to raise this support and awareness in memory of Amy," he told the BBC.
Initially, he was going to sail to Antigua, but he decided to row to increase the challenge. Ex-Olympic rower James Cracknell coached him.
Despite all the expert training, Osbourne said that this was one of the most difficult experiences of his life. For the first three days, he was extremely seasick and unable to eat. He then had issues with both his satellite and auto helm. Then he capsized once and battled incredibly changeable weather. Storms and huge waves forced him to stop rowing and spend days on his para-anchor, only for the weather to flip, with water that was so flat and calm that he barely moved.
Speaking after the row, he told The Independent that "despite the challenge, each painstaking mile has been worth it."
Rame Ocean 2023: The six-man crew has finished their 4,600km row from Spain to Guadeloupe. Patrick Favre (FR), Louis Pellet (FR), Dominique Pape (FR), Christophe Huguet (FR), Jerome Caudoux (FR), and Liu Yong (CN) started their journey on January 30. When they reached Guadeloupe, Favre became the first person to row across the Atlantic eight times.
Calm water was one of their biggest challenges. The crew changed to a more southerly route to avoid storms, but the water became so flat, with such little wind, that they were barely moving.
Jari Saario: Jari Saario of Finland paused his two-way crossing of the Atlantic on March 28 in Antigua. He initially planned on rowing from the Canary Islands to Miami but has stopped for safety reasons. His boat suffered electrical issues that affected his GPS and communication equipment.
As he approached Antigua, Saario and his team started to worry. The winds were so strong that he was in danger of being pushed off course. This was a huge concern as his boat required repair work. When he eventually arrived in Antigua, Saario was struggling. He couldn't remember sections of the previous few days.
Saario still wants to cross the ocean both ways, but for now, he has returned to Finland. He hopes to restart his journey on June 24. He will transport his boat to Newfoundland, Canada, and then row 7,000km back to Helsinki.
Simon Howes: Simon Howes (UK) has completed his 4,900km row across the Atlantic. He launched from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands on January 16 and finished in St. Lucia on March 29.
Howes provided very few updates during his journey but spoke about his experience after finishing his row. He faced several storms and 12-meter waves and capsized twice. One storm snapped an oar and smashed the hatches on his deck. Water flooded into the boat and ruined some of his food supplies. He was "hanging on for grim life to the rails. It was a bit scary," he told media in St Lucia.
At age 67, he is the third oldest person to cross the Atlantic and may be the only person to complete this specific route in the last 25 years.
Howes first tried to cross the Atlantic in 2021 as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. He pulled out of the race after slipping on the deck and injuring his ankle.
Aurimas Valujavicus: Aurimas Valujavicus (LT) is just days away from finishing his 9,000km row from Spain to Miami. He has covered 97 percent of the distance and hopes to land this Sunday.
A big day came on April 4: his 100th day on the ocean. On social media, he wrote that "although I still feel that I'm getting weak physically, mentally I'm getting stronger every day. The goal is clear, and to reach it, you have to be consistent in your work. That’s why it’s important to love and enjoy the process."
But Valujavicus admits that there have been several incredibly hard days. As with most Atlantic crossings, he faced high winds and big waves. Last week, conditions were so bad that one of his oars snapped in two. Throughout the trip, he documented the state of his ever-blistering hands.
Atlantic Escapade: After 46 days, 22 hours, and 30 minutes of rowing, Andy Hodgson and Rosalind Chasten (UK) completed their 4,800km row from Gran Canaria to Barbados.
The row got off to a tumultuous start. Seasickness tablets caused Hodgson to suffer from temporary blindness. Nevertheless, they made good progress before a long stretch of very calm water. Soon after, their GPS broke and they had to stop completely for a few days to fix it.
The final moments of their row were particularly tricky. Waves made navigating the reefs around the island difficult, and getting to the harbor proved extremely stressful.
During the day, the duo rowed for three hours and then had a one-hour break. At night, they changed to two hours on and two hours off to allow for more sleep. Time off "consisted of a race to close your eyes and steal as much sleep as you could manage before the dreaded beep of the alarm," Chasten wrote in their blog.
They have found returning to dry land quite overwhelming: "The sights, sounds, and smells of Barbados are incredible, but after so long at sea, they can sometimes be a bit of an assault on the senses. We have both been walking (and stumbling) around in a bit of a daze," they wrote.
Heavy water and wild weather often wrack the 51-kilometer passage of the Ka'iwi Channel. Now, the world's best paddlers return there to race for the first time in three years.
This article was originally published on GearJunkie.
A waterway doesn’t get the moniker “Channel of Bones” for no reason. The Ka'iwi Channel separates the islands of Moloka’i and O’ahu. Notoriously foul weather and open-ocean swells routinely thrash the 51km waterway — and the bones of anyone navigating it. In fact, it’s where legendary waterman Eddie Aikau died in 1978.
Perfect place for a standup paddleboard race, right?
Yes, say the organizers of the Moloka’i 2 O’ahu Paddleboard World Championships (M2O). The celebrated event kicks off July 30, 2023, for the first time in four years, after repeated COVID-related cancellations.
Categories include SUP, Prone paddling, Foil, and Wing Foil. Entrants compete in teams, relay-style, or as individuals, and support boats follow along. When the gun sounds, paddlers take off downwind over swells up to 3.5 meters that can carry them hundreds of yards at once. Foil racers are typically the fastest, completing the crossing in four hours or less.
“We are so excited for the response and momentum for our return to racing this summer. Over half of the athletes entered are first-time entrants, mostly in the Prone divisions, which is a testament to the renewed growth in the sport,” Shannon Delaney, the director of the race, said in a press release.
Race fans can visit the Moloka’i 2 O’ahu website for more information, or follow the race on YouTube or its various social channels.
Since our last roundup, several crews have been battling their way across both the Pacific and the Atlantic. Although many are nearing the end of their journeys, they face a variety of difficulties. Apart from equipment issues, one rower suddenly lost his sight, and another expedition is grounded indefinitely.
Pacific Ocean
Michelle’s Pacific Row: Michelle Lee is rowing from Ensenada, Mexico to her home in Australia. She has now been on the Pacific Ocean for 224 days. Lee had hoped to complete the 24,000km journey by the end of February, but the weather has slowed her progress substantially.
She has had to cope with five hurricanes and four cyclones. In the middle of February, Cyclone Gabriel kept her locked in her cabin for over a week. Then, when she started rowing again, the winds made progress difficult.
By the end of February, she had had enough. "I really just want the closest piece of land right now," she said on social media. "At the moment, I'm struggling to achieve any westing at all. It's freaking hard, I feel like I'm stuck here. It has been 201 days at sea now and yesterday was the first breakdown for me."
She has pulled herself together and continued. As she chipped away at the remaining distance, her mood changed. She recently celebrated her last full moon of the crossing. "The night is stunning, the sea is calm, I did a toast to the journey and reminisced."
Lee has 500km remaining.
Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Dash Challenge: The Atlantic Dash was a small event that took place over the last few months. Just two crews competed, aiming to row from the Canary Islands to Antigua. Throughout the race, both crews have stayed within touching distance.
Atlantic Dragons is a pair made up of Adrian Tyrrell and Daniel Bohin. Cabbies Do Atlantic Row is a trio consisting of Robert Barber, Darren Parr, and Stuart Lockhart. As of February, the trio had gained a slight lead. This was mainly because Atlantic Dragon's auto helm broke, forcing them to manually steer for the majority of the trip. Cabbies managed to maintain their lead until the end, paddling across the finish line on March 4. Atlantic Dragons crossed one day later.
Other than the steering, the main issue for both crews was the weather. For weeks, they battled rough seas, strong winds, and rain. Then in the final week, the weather became "as flat as a carpet," according to the Cabbies. Though that might sound better, it was so still that it was like rowing through treacle.
The slow progress and heat forced Bohin to take a break because of exhaustion. Since finishing, both crews have released photos of their weight loss, calling it the "most extreme diet in the world."
Electrical glitches
Jari Saario: On January 23, Jari Saario started his ambitious two-way crossing of the Atlantic. His plan was to row 8,000km from the Canary Islands to Miami, then wait in the U.S. for a suitable weather window before rowing back across the Atlantic to London.
A week ago he announced that he is having to change his route. He has been struggling with severe electrical issues that he is unable to fix at sea. For safety reasons, he is now rowing to Antigua, which is 1,000km away.
Saario had originally planned to row to Antigua before electing to take on a less popular route to secure funding for the expedition. In the end, he will now have to make his way to Antigua. Once repairs are complete, he will transport the boat to New York, then start across the Atlantic back to London.
Two problems: calm seas, high winds
Rame Ocean 2023: With six rowers, this is the largest crew currently on the water. Patrick Favre (FR), Louis Pellet (FR), Dominique Pape (FR), Christophe Huguet (FR), Jerome Caudoux (FR), and Liu Yong (CN) are going from Spain to Guadeloupe. Since setting off on January 30, they have completed 90 percent of their journey.
The team changed their initial route slightly to a more southerly path, hoping for protection from winds and waves. Though it has helped, they have faced another challenge for much of the row: no wind at all. At some points, it has been like rowing on a lake, with nothing to help them move.
To make the most of the calm, the crew has focused on their rowing technique. One benefit: the flat seas have let them do boat maintenance easily.
Then in the first week of March, conditions changed again, and the crew had to contend with both headwinds and crosswinds. Soon after, it was back to the calm, flat water they have seen for much of the journey.
Aurimas Valujavicus: Valujavicus is aiming to row 9,000km from Spain to Miami. He has made good progress, reaching his halfway point in less than two months. As with all Atlantic crossings, he has had to cope with difficult conditions, especially high winds.
A few days ago, Valujavicus hoped that the winds would die down and even turn in his favor. Earlier this week, he confirmed that this had not been the case. It appears that contrary winds will stay for another week.
Despite this, he has remained in good spirits. On March 5, after 70 days at sea, he hit 6,000km traveled.
Radio silence
Broken Pinkies: This four-man crew completed their 5,800km row from Portugal to French Guyana on March 8. Ralph Tuijn (NL), Jordan Godoy (U.S.), Fionn O’Carroll (IE), and Ciaran Kavanagh (IE) began on January 14.
The crew has made almost no comment on their journey. They had just a simple tracker, and the Ocean Rowing Society confirmed their arrival.
Tujin has previously completed 11 ocean crossings. He put together a crew to try and beat a previous Atlantic crossing time. They were supposed to be a crew of five, but after a dropout, they decided to continue as a foursome.
Simon Howes: Howes began his row from the Canary Islands to St. Lucia on January 16. He has completed 88 percent of a route that only one other rower has done before. As with Broken Pinkies, Howes has not provided a running commentary on his progress.
Howes first attempted to row the Atlantic solo in 2021 as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Just days in, he slipped on the deck and injured his elbow, forcing him to pull out. So far, this attempt is looking much more likely to end in success.
Row for Amy: Andrew Osbourne has completed 87 percent of his solo row from Gran Canaria to Falmouth Harbour in Antigua. Osbourne set off on January 8. Last week marked his tenth week on the Atlantic Ocean.
Until mid-March, conditions had been very changeable. In early March, a 10-day period of high winds forced him to scramble out of the way of an approaching storm. He then had to deploy his para-anchor for four days, as he waited out the weather.
The winds have finally changed in his favor, and he has 800km to go.
"It feels a little bit like waiting to break up from school for the holidays or what I imagine it feels like waiting to be released from prison. There is still a long way to go, but not when I think about how far I have come. It is now in my grasp and I am determined to get there as fast as I can," he wrote.
Osbourne is rowing in memory of his daughter Amy. Amy died in her sleep five years ago from an undiagnosed heart condition.
Blindness from seasickness patches
Atlantic Escapade: Andy Hodgson and Rosalind Chasten are rowing from Gran Canaria to Barbados. They set off on February 20 and have covered 59 percent of the route.
Just four days into the row, the pair faced a scary situation: Hodgson could no longer see. His vision had deteriorated to the point where he couldn’t read the charts. They thought it might be similar to snow blindness, perhaps caused by sun glare from the ocean. After some frantic messages to the land team, they discovered that it was a side effect of sea sickness patches. Two days after removing the patches, Hodgson's sight returned to normal.
The duo has made slow progress with a host of challenges blunting progess. First, there were calm seas, then they had issues with their electronics. An alarm kept going off, making it incredibly hard to sleep. Finally, their GPS system crashed. Unable to track exactly where they were, they had to stop completely to fix the system.
Paused expeditions
Tom’s Pacific Row: Tom Robinson is rowing across the Pacific from Lima, Peru to his home country of Australia. On December 10, after 160 days at sea, he completed the first section of his row -- 9,260km to Penrhyn, an atoll in the northern Cook Islands.
He has remained on the island for the last three months, waiting out the cyclone season. Now, he is preparing to take to the water again. A cargo ship is bringing the supplies and spare parts he needs for the next leg of the trip.
Ellen Magellan Expeditions: Ellen Falterman began a row around the world on September 3. She started in East Texas and followed the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the Florida Panhandle. From there, she crossed the Gulf of Mexico to South Florida.
She paused to spend Christmas with her family, but after a number of bereavements, she has decided not to restart her row.
"Both ship and captain are in a sorry state and it is unsafe for either of us to continue in our current condition. I put my skipper’s stripes back on only briefly to orchestrate an emergency boat rescue operation to secure my vessel. Since then, I have grounded myself until I feel my maritime acumen has returned. I am not selling my boat, and I am not abandoning my expedition," Falterman wrote.
Erden Eruc has aborted his Six Summits Project. Since 2003, he has been trying to reach all the Seven Summits (except Vinson in Antarctica) by human power, then climb them.
He was hoping to relaunch into the South China Sea from the Philippines, then continue on his way to Everest. But lack of sponsorship has made it impossible.
On top of funding issues, he was unable to get the necessary visas. First Myanmar, then China turned down his visa requests. As late as March 12, China denied him a visa. Then three days later, the country announced that it had begun to issue visas to foreigners again after the long COVID hiatus. But combined with the mounting costs, it was probably too late.
“I no longer have the resources to push this proverbial boulder uphill," Eruc said on social media, in announcing the end of the project.
How the project began
It was the death of Eruc's friend Goran Kropp in 2002 that pushed him to start planning the project in earnest. The two were climbing together in Washington State when Kropp suffered a fatal fall. Kropp was best known for cycling from Stockholm to Nepal to climb Mount Everest.
“On the plane returning home from his funeral in Stockholm, I drew the world map on a piece of paper and marked the highest summit on each continent except Antarctica. I said, 'I’m going to reach each of the highest summits on these continents by human power, in honor of Goran.' That’s how the Six Summits Project began,” Eruc told ExplorersWeb.
He first climbed Denali in Alaska in 2003. Four years later. he started his human-powered circumnavigation of the world. He climbed Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia in 2010. Then he rowed alone across the Indian Ocean and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with his father in 2011.
Completes solo circumnavigation
Remained for him to tackle Everest, Elbrus, and Aconcagua. But financial issues began to impede his plans. Everest, as many of us know, is particularly expensive. Eruc decided to bypass the summits for the time being and continue with the circumnavigation. By 2012, he completed that human-powered trip around the world.
After more years of planning and saving, he decided to tackle the final three summits. Eruc left California in the spring of 2021 and began to row 11,000km to Hong Kong. He estimated that it would take 10 months. On reaching Asia, he was going to cycle overland to Everest.
Weather prevailed against him from the start. He faced Tropical Storms Hilda, Jimena, Kevin, and Linda, which eventually became a hurricane. Currents and winds pushed him off track and delayed him significantly. Then he was denied a visa to China, which was crucial for his plan. 
Eruc's route from the U.S. to the Philippines. Image: erdeneruc.com
More hurdles
In September 2021, he stopped in Hawaii so he could repair his boat and try to fix his visa problems. Again, no success. The weather was also becoming an issue. If he rowed straight to Hong Kong, he would have to resupply at sea, a difficult feat, so he rowed to Guam.
When he landed, he became the first person to row from Hawaii to the Marianas. He became the first person to notch 1,000 days of rowing alone across the world’s oceans, besting the previous record of 937 days, set by legendary British rower Peter Bird in the 1990s.
Eruc re-launched from Guam in February 2022, hoping to avoid tropical depressions and storms. But he started a few weeks too late. At the time, he admitted that “the volatility of these patterns was a bit of a surprise to me.”
Weather forced him to stop in the Philippines. He left his boat there, waiting for him to return and restart in February 2023. Sadly, it was not to be.
“At this point, I am disappointed but I don’t have any regrets," said Eruc, now 61. "To put it simply, I lost faith that my journey would be welcome in China…Six Summits Project lost its luster when it became clear that even before this visa nonsense, reaching Everest by human power and then climbing it was out of the question without proper funding.”
Though he didn't say as much, given the current political situation in Russia, even climbing Elbrus might have been one bureaucratic headache too far.
Pacific Ocean
Michelle’s Pacific Row: Michelle Lee has been rowing for 190 days. She is paddling from Ensenada, Mexico to her home in Australia. She expected to reach Sydney by the end of February, but storms have made that impossible. At one point, she had only 800km to go, but winds have pushed her back so far that she is now 1,300km from Sydney.
Before this setback, she managed to avoid five hurricanes and one cyclone. This recent storm, a gift from Cyclone Gabriel, moved along the coast of Australia and created un-rowable conditions. She has now been inside her cabin for six days. Lee expects to hunker down for a further two to three days.
“I just hope my body goes right back into enjoying being on the oars for 10-12 hours a day after all this rest,” she wrote.
Richard Barnes: The Australian has been paddling across the Tasman Sea between Tasmania and New Zealand for 58 days. Barnes first attempted the crossing in 2021 but had to stop after 75 days because of Cyclone Seth.
Atlantic Ocean
Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge: This rowing race touts itself as “the world’s toughest row.” On Dec. 12, 43 teams with a total of 127 rowers set off. Soloists, pairs, trios, and quads are battling their way across the 4,800km between Tenerife and Antigua.
After 31 days, 17 hours, and 9 minutes, this year's winners crossed the finish line. OceanCats is a four-man crew made up of Joaquim Planelles, Juan Romero, Sergi Franch, and Marti Ramirez.
At one point they thought they might have to pull out of the race. On Dec. 21, their battery stopped working, which meant that so did their autopilot, navigation system, and water maker. Luckily, they were able to fix the problem.
Since then, many other crews have finished. Some have broken race speed records:
- Fastest Female Solo Crossing: Miriam Payne - 59 days, 16 hours, and 36 minutes.
- Fastest Trio Crossing: Dark Trio (Gareth Keighley, Charlie Taylor, and Aaron Kneebone) - 35 days, one hour, and 33 minutes.
- Fastest Five Person Crossing: Row Hard or Go Home (Tom Nolan, Diarmuid Ó Briain, Shane Culleton, Gearoid O’Briain, Derek McMullen) - 33 days, 12 hours, and 39 minutes
- Fastest Mixed Four: Team NEDurance (lja Kok, Marcel Ates, Ingeborg Dijkstra, and Guus Koppes) - 32 days, 23 hours, and 53 minutes.
Five crews remain on the water.
Atlantic Dash Challenge: The Atlantic Dash Challenge is the second race taking place on the Atlantic. A smaller-scale event than the TWAC, it features only two crews this year, both from the UK. Atlantic Dragons is a pair made up of Adrian Tyrrell and Daniel Bohin. Cabbies Do Atlantic Row is a trio consisting of Robert Barber, Darren Parr, and Stuart Lockhart.
Neck and neck
The race began on Jan. 3 from the Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and goes to Antigua. Both crews have been neck and neck from the start. At the moment, Cabbies Do Atlantic Row are 113km ahead of their rivals.
One of the main reasons for their slim lead is that Cabbies Do Atlantic Row has a functioning auto-helm. This piece of equipment failed for the Atlantic Dragons earlier in the row. They've had to steer manually, which has made their route slightly less direct and slowed them down.
Jari Saario: On January 23, Jari Saario started his ambitious two-way crossing of the Atlantic. He will first row 8,000km from the Canary Islands to Miami. Following this, he will wait in the U.S. for a suitable weather window before rowing back across the Atlantic to London. If successful, he will be the first person to do a two-way crossing.
At first, he had to contend with strong winds and waves, but these have now calmed. After 12 days, he had covered 1,000km.
At one point, his water maker broke. This device converts seawater into fresh drinking water. He managed to fix it on a calm day.
Saario has also struggled with homesickness, especially on his daughter's birthday.
Halfway there
Aurimas Valujavicius: The Lithuanian man is rowing from Spain to Miami. In the first month, he covered 2,000km, and after 50 days, he reached the halfway point. Vaujaviius described the experience as “lots of waves, lots of wind, lots of mood swings, and a smile on my face.”
The early wind has died down and he is making good progress, despite dealing with numerous blisters on his hands.
Rame Ocean 2023: This six-man crew is rowing from Spain to Guadeloupe. Patrick Favre (FR), Louis Pellet (FR), Dominique Pape (FR), Christophe Huguet (FR), Jerome Caudoux (FR), and Liu Yong (CN) began on Jan. 30. Over the last two weeks, they have covered 1,209km.
For the first few days of the row, there was very little wind and only small swells. Still, they struggled to sleep and were seasick. They commented that it was like trying to sleep "in a warm washing machine on a spin cycle."
But within a week, they had adapted to life on board. Then conditions worsened. Large waves tested their newfound sea legs. Once, a wave crashed onto Huguet while he was using the satellite phone and broke it. Fortunately, they have another one. The crew has decided to take a more southerly route to avoid headwinds.
Eleven previous crossings
Broken Pinkies: This four-man crew is rowing from Portugal to French Guyana. Ralph Tuijn (NL), Jordan Godoy (U.S.), Fionn O’Carroll (IE), and Ciaran Kavanagh (IE) set off on Jan. 14.
The very experienced Tujin has previously completed 11 ocean crossings and spent 904 days at sea before this adventure. The crew is trying to beat their own Atlantic crossing time. Initially, they were supposed to be a crew of five, but one had to drop out. Unable to find a replacement, they decided to continue as a foursome.
Simon Howes: Howes is rowing from the Canary Islands to St. Lucia. Since starting on Jan. 16, he has completed 43% of the route. If he succeeds, he will become the second person to complete that particular route.
He first attempted to row the Atlantic solo in 2021 as part of the TWAC. Just days in, he slipped on the deck and injured his elbow, forcing him to pull out. Now he is retrying on his own.
Row for Amy: Andrew Osbourne (UK) is rowing from the Canary Islands to Antigua in memory of his daughter. She died in her sleep five years ago due to an undiagnosed heart condition. He set off on Jan. 8.
After 37 days at sea, he has almost reached the halfway point. Like Jari Saario, he too is suffering from loneliness. On day 35, Osbourne detoured for five hours just to have a face-to-face conversation. He noted on his radar that Linda Emilsen, one of the TWAC sailors, was not too far away so he rowed over to her. They were just 20 meters apart. After their chat, he threw her a bag of candies and continued on his way.
Antarctic Ocean
Antonio De La Rosa: On Jan. 7, De la Rosa started rowing 1,000km across the Drake Passage to Antarctica. This was supposed to be the first phase of a three-part challenge. After paddling to the Antarctic Peninsula, he erected a small sail and traveled a further 1,500km to South Georgia via Elephant Island, as Shackleton did. He was then going to cover the final 50km across the island on foot.
He successfully completed the first two stages to South Georgia, although dangerous katabatic winds forced him to land at the south end of the island, rather than at the north end, as he'd planned. The support boat required for all Antarctic rows figured in this decision; the crew was concerned about their own safety.
Once on South Georgia, he had to cancel the trek. The authorities that administer the island refused to give him permission to undertake the solo hike and ski.
“It's really not any extraordinary challenge," he reasoned on social media. "It's not a tourist route, but every year, dozens of people do it. The real challenge was getting here by paddling and sailing.”
Paused expeditions
Ellen Magellan Expedition: Ellen Falterman began a row around the world on Sept 3. She started in East Texas, then followed the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the Florida Panhandle. From there, she crossed the Gulf of Mexico to South Florida. The 27-year-old is aiming to be the first person to complete a global circumnavigation by rowing.
She paused to spend Christmas with her family, but since then, she has suffered a number of family bereavements. She has not said when she will resume her expedition.
Tom’s Pacific Row: Tom Robinson is rowing across the Pacific from Lima, Peru to his home country of Australia. On Dec 10, after 160 days at sea, he completed the first section of his row. This leg saw him row 9,260km to Penrhyn, an atoll in the northern Cook Islands.
He will remain on the island, which he has called "paradise under the sun," for the next few months until the cyclone season ends in April. Then he will row the rest of the way to Australia in stages, from Penrhyn to Samoa and then to Fiji. His final stop before Australia will be New Caledonia.
Health problems -- compounded with the predictably difficult rowing conditions -- forced Fiann Paul, Mike Matson, Jamie Douglas Hamilton, Lisa Farthofer, Stefan Ivanov and Brian Krauskopf to abort the 1,500km Antarctic row they began last week.
On January 11, the veteran six-person team, led by Paul, set out to row from the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, past Elephant Island, to South Georgia. They wanted to retrace the 1915 voyage of Ernest Shackleton and his crew from Elephant Island to South Georgia. They also wanted to become the first crew to row the Scotia Sea, the first to row the Southern Ocean from south to north, and the first to row from the Antarctic continent.
But problems rose even before the journey even began. The experienced Hamilton had undergone heart surgery recently, then suffered from a lung infection, and was not at peak fitness. Then Farhofer injured herself, affecting how much she could contribute. And almost immediately, Mike Matson had to be evacuated because of extreme seasickness.
Only three healthy rowers
This still left the crew with three injury-free rowers, but it was not enough. To generate enough power against the strong winds, they needed at least two fully fit rowers on each rotation.
So rather than row to the island of South Georgia, they re-routed to Laurie Island, in the South Orkney Islands. This cut their distance from 1,500km to 777km. They concluded their row after six days instead of their planned 18 days.
One of the biggest difficulties was the 100% humidity. With waves crashing over the boat and no way to dry them, everything was soaking wet. Usually, they paddled in conditions that would be considered a storm in any other body of water. Winds averaged 30-35 knots, and waves towered to nine meters.
Since our last rowing roundup, teams in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge have been making their way across the Atlantic, and the leaders are just days away from the finish line. Elsewhere in the Atlantic, a second race has started.
Besides the races, four soloists make their way across the Pacific, Antarctic, and Atlantic Oceans.
Pacific Ocean
Michelle’s Pacific Row
Michelle Lee is solo rowing from Ensenada, Mexico to Sydney, Australia. After 155 days at sea, she has covered three-quarters of the 14,000km distance.
At the start of December, storms forced her to hunker down for days. On December 16, Lee was in her cabin and heard a crash on the deck in the middle of the night. She put on her head lamp and went outside. There was a shark on deck, thrashing around. She wasn't able to put it back in the water. She had to roll it overboard after it died.
Since then, the updates on her tracker have been less frequent. She described how Christmas Day “came and went like every other day on board. I am focused on getting home.”
Of the few updates she has posted, finishing the trip has been a theme. On New Year's Day, she reached a significant milestone: 2,000 nautical miles (3,700km) to go.
Tom’s Pacific Row
Tom Robinson is rowing from Lima, Peru to his home country of Australia. On December 10, after 160 days at sea, he had covered 9,260km and landed in Penrhyn, an atoll in the northern Cook Islands.
"For over five months, I lived wholeheartedly, passionately, brutally, and in solitude," he said. "Every day at sea was endlessly interesting, fascinating, and challenging.”
The hardest sections have been the bad weather periods and the continuously changing current. He wrote, “Aiming for one speck [of land] in the Pacific, I was constantly correcting my course to overcome adverse currents. There were only a handful of days when I was actually rowing in the same direction as my destination.”
He will remain on the island for the next few months until the cyclone season ends in April. Then he will row the rest of the way to Australia in stages, from Penrhyn to Samoa and then to Fiji. His final stop before Australia will be New Caledonia.
Atlantic Ocean
Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge
The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge began in 1997 and touts itself as both “the premier event in ocean rowing” and “the world’s toughest row”.
On December 12, 43 teams with a total of 127 rowers set off. Soloists, pairs, trios, and quads are battling their way across the 4,800km between Tenerife and Antigua.
The current race stats are:
Leading overall: Ocean Cats (4,796km)
Leading five: Row Hard or Go Home (4,596km)
Leading four: Ocean Cats (4,796km)
Leading trio: Dark Trio (4,448km)
Leading pair: Dream Boats (3,900km)
Leading soloist: The Atlantic Grappler (3,505km)
Estimates suggest that Ocean Cats will reach Antigua on January 13, after 31 days at sea. The second fastest team, This Way Up, also a foursome, are on track to finish 24 hours later.
Despite their best attempts, the Ocean Cats will not break the course record. A UK team known as The Four Oarsmen set the TWAC record in 2018. It took them 29 days, 14 hours, and 34 minutes. The winners of last year’s race, Swiss Raw, finished in 34 days, 23 hours and 42 minutes. The four-man team from Switzerland was the first winner from an inland country.
Atlantic Dash Challenge
The Atlantic Dash is the second race taking place in the Atlantic Ocean at the moment. A much smaller race than the TWAC, teams have to row from the Canary Islands to Antigua. Monkey First Adventures, whose teams have rowed five oceans, organized the race to encourage groups and soloists to cross a variety of oceans and seas. Two teams are in the race.
They began on January 3. The first team, Atlantic Dragons, is the British pair of Adrian Tyrrell and Dan Bohin. They have covered 998km and are slightly ahead of the second team, called Cabbies Do Atlantic Row. This trio of three London cab drivers, Robert Barber, Darren Parr, and Stuart Lockhart, have covered 955km.
Aurimas Valujavicius: The young Lithuanian started rowing from Spain to Miami on December 26. So far, has covered 570km.
On the first day, he rowed for 16 hours and covered 46km, to get away from the coast as quickly as possible. He hopes that once he makes it fully past the Canaries, he will be able to up his distance to 75km a day. At first, he struggled with seasickness and was unable to keep down much food.
Though the ailment has now subsided, he has spent days on the para anchor. Winds have been blowing him in the wrong direction, and he has been struggling not to lose mileage.
Antarctic Ocean
Antonio De La Rosa: Antonio de la Rosa of Spain started rowing 1,000km across the Drake Passage to Antarctica on January 7. The Drake Passage is one of the roughest bodies of water on Earth. What makes this even more impressive is that this is just the first phase of his challenge. Once he makes it to the Antarctic Peninsula, he will erect a small sail and travel a further 2,000km to Elephant Island and then South Georgia Island, as Shackleton did. He will then cover the final 50km across the island on foot.
He set off, hoping to catch a 72-hour window of good weather that was forecast. Unfortunately, the forecast was wrong. He had just a few hours of favorable wind within the first 100 hours. De la Rosa has almost capsized twice and endured gusts of up to 40 knots. Yet after four days on the water, he insists that he is “happy and moving forward.”
Fiann Paul is no stranger to ocean rowing. The 41-year-old is the first and the only person to achieve the Ocean Explorers Grand Slam -- crossing all five oceans under human power.
Most recently, in 2019, he led the first expedition to row completely across the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica. Now with his team of Dr. Mike Matson (U.S.), Jamie Douglas Hamilton (UK), Lisa Farthofer (Austria), Stefan Ivanov (Bulgaria), and Brian Krauskopf (U.S.), he is heading back to Antarctica.
On January 12, they will begin rowing 1,500km across the Southern Ocean and the Scotia Sea, retracing the voyage of Ernest Shackleton and his crew in 1915. All 28 of Shackleton's men survived, in what has been called the greatest small-boat voyage of all time. Paul and his crew will start at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, row past Elephant Island (the starting point of the Shackleton route), and end in South Georgia.
If Fiann and his party are successful, Fiann says that they will be the first to row the Scotia Sea, the first to row from the Antarctic continent, and the first to row the Southern Ocean from south to north. They have dubbed their journey the Shackleton Mission.
Fiann Paul spoke to ExplorersWeb about his upcoming, and final, expedition.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity
Why the Shackleton route?
Shackleton has become increasingly popular in recent years. Why have you decided to retrace his most famous route? Have you always been interested in him?
Choosing this route has nothing to do with Shackleton becoming more popular. Originally, the expedition was supposed to coincide with the anniversary of his death, but the pandemic meant that wasn’t possible. I knew when I was previously rowing the Drake Passage that I wanted to retrace this route but I needed time to put it together. This voyage is actually the masterpiece of James Worsley and Harry McNish. Shackleton was the coordinator of the whole project but he did not captain this leg of the expedition.
Our row will also be about 110km longer than the Shackleton route. We wanted to start from mainland Antarctica to give us another world first. From here, we will row past the starting place of the Shackleton route -- Elephant Island.
The unsung Harry McNish
You are hoping to get the Polar Medal posthumously awarded to Harry McNish of the Shackleton expedition. Why do you feel so strongly about this?
I was thinking about the story one night by the fire and thought this was the theme I would like to build an expedition around. It’s a beautiful way to participate in the history of Shackleton and hopefully rewrite a small section of that history.
It is a historic wrong. He was one of the most competent members of the expedition but he was overlooked because he questioned Shackleton's expertise. I also resonate with his character: In many of his journals, he complained about the manners and vocabulary of the other crew members. I am an artist and an athlete, so artists tend to see me as this macho control freak who is really regimented. But other athletes see me as a bit of a spiritual hippy. I am actually a bit of both, so I resonate with McNish, who didn't feel completely comfortable in these environments.
You and Jamie are the only crew members who have rowed in polar conditions previously. How have you and your team prepared?
Only 25 people have rowed polar oceans before, and 16 of those were with me, so it would be incredibly difficult to find people with that experience. All the team members have rowed oceans before, other than one who is a sailor -- but she rowed competitively.
Training regime
No one had to start training to get ready for this. Everyone involved is always training for something. The biggest difference between ocean rowing and a lot of other sports is that it requires power, endurance, mental strength, and technique. The only way you can train for it is by ocean rowing. There is no other way to pick up the necessary skills.
I do also have very clear fitness thresholds and expectations from my team members, which is not very common. Most ocean rowers don’t pay attention to it, but the athletic aspect is very important. Everyone must be able to hold a split of 2:00 for 15km, at a rate of 18 strokes per minute and a drag factor of 200 on the rowing machine, with their heart rate below 165.
A few months ago, you were still looking for your last crew member. Are you concerned about the limited time you’ve had together?
Sometimes you don’t have a choice, the situation is not always perfect. The last team member changed around three months ago. I started working on this project three years ago, and COVID has seriously challenged it. Only my first mate, the first person to join the expedition, Mike, has not changed. Everybody else has, and that’s just life. Someone was getting divorced, someone else had financial problems. These are things you can’t plan for.
Our geographical locations make it impossible to train as a team, but I am not worried. I am very goal-oriented, and I know I have a team that can be successful. We have weekly video calls, I rowed the Drake Passage with Jamie and have now known Mike for three years. I feel like I know them all well.
Dangers and difficulties
What do you think are the most challenging elements of the row, for the crew and for you personally?
If we end up among pack ice in a high swell, that will be a very scary scenario. That's the biggest danger. Another real worry is transporting the boat. It is a niche market, and there are no official services. It is people doing you favors most of the time. I constantly have to waive responsibility and agree that the boat could be damaged in transport.
For me personally, there are two big challenges. The first was putting the expedition together. Most people don’t have a clue how much work something like this takes and how many issues there are.
Ocean rowing is not the same as other expeditions. I know mountaineers might not like to hear this, but getting to the start of a mountaineering expedition is simple by comparison. And the fact this starts in Antarctica makes it even harder.
Because of the Antarctic Treaty, we need a supervising vessel. That really ramps up expedition costs. We are paying a significant amount for something that doesn’t even have much to do with rowing.
My second, very personal challenge is that this will officially be my last expedition. After this, I am retiring. I feel very sentimental about it.
Capsizing is not a death sentence
This will be your fourth polar row, and second in the Antarctic. What have you learned on previous rows that you will take into this?
One of the biggest lessons was how crucial safety suits and training are. People need to know that capsizing is not this nightmare situation where you’re going to die. It is scary in polar conditions but it is just one of those things that can happen. The suit and capsize training make everyone feel better. It provides confidence and a better mindset.
I have also learned a lot about selecting teams and what I am looking for. I have realized that perfect team members do not exist. Something like this requires so many attributes that only a few people exist who have them all.
Now, I approach most people individually. They need time, courage, physical fitness, experience, the funds to participate and to be happy with me as captain. Some captains are excellent seafarers, but terrible at expedition management and organization. So that has been a big learning curve over the years.
Why did you decide to do this with a six-person crew and not as a soloist or a pair?
The main reason is financing. I try to design expeditions so that I don’t lose or gain any money. A lot of expeditions get poor results because they’ve chosen people with money rather than skill. I would rather have a successful outcome and then recoup the money through public speaking.
Biggest cost: the (required) supervising vessel
Here, I needed a bigger crew because of the timing. A soloist would need to charter the supervising vessel for longer, which costs more. On warmer oceans, I have gone for even larger crews because I am trying to break speed records.
Apart from finances, I like to lead teams. I like the psychology of it, the dynamics of a team, and how different personalities and behavior types work together. It's fascinating.
How does polar rowing compare to rowing in warmer oceans?
Everyone thinks the main difference is the temperature. It's actually the humidity and the lack of consistent rowing conditions. The humidity really drains you psychologically. The average summer polar conditions are 2˚C and 100% humidity. That means everything is wet and nothing ever dries. Going into your sleeping bag is like crawling into a bucket of water. Visually, you are surrounded by grey. You don’t see much sun. It can be very difficult to cope with.
In warmer oceans, the winds tend to push you toward your destination. People usually time it so that they use the trade winds. In the Southern Ocean, storms are the only consistent weather system. They move over and around you all the time.
You get head winds, tail winds, side winds, all sorts of winds. That’s when the phrase "human power" takes on a whole new meaning. It is a very different rowing experience, so much more physical. That is why I have such specific rowing requirements. I am not trying to be harsh, but it is not about just being there and surviving. You need people who can contribute enough power to make the boat move. It's a whole different level of challenge.
Introducing the Scotia Sea
You have said this 'exceeds the difficulty level of the widely feared Drake Passage'. What makes this route more difficult?
There are two reasons. The first is that only half of the Drake Passage is in the Antarctic convergence. The second is that only 20% of the Drake Passage is on the continental shelf. The Scotia Sea is fully in the Antarctic convergence, which makes it colder and more humid, and 50% of this is on the continental shelf. The waves will be much higher, steeper, and sharper, and that is what sailors fear.
Also, the Drake Passage used to refer to both the Drake Passage and the Scotia Sea. Now they have been separated into distinct areas. The book Endurance [Alfred Lansing's book about Shackleton's voyage] says that the Drake Passage is the most dreaded bit of water on our planet. It was actually referring to what we now know as the Scotia Sea.
How long do you expect this to take?
The supervising vessel is only chartered for 40 days, and that includes getting to and from Antarctica and the safety protocol training. That only leaves us 18 days for rowing, so we have to cover about 90km a day. The slowest I have ever rowed was the Drake Passage, and we rowed approximately that daily distance, so I think it is achievable.
Absolute firsts
Why do you think no one has attempted this Shackleton route before?
Not many people row polar oceans. I have pioneered most of the routes. I think it's because it's so difficult and not at all inviting. It’s not like warm oceans. You can’t consider it romantic in any sense.
It is one of the treasures of the explorer's world, and one of the places where you have the most to win. These are real absolute firsts, not a speed record or secondary firsts -- the first pair to make a certain crossing, for example. You are still able to do things that no one has done before.
You mentioned earlier that this will be your last expedition. Why have you decided to retire?
When I was starting my career, I felt a strong drive to compensate for something, validate something, and to transform something through achieving these difficult feats. It was a rite of passage for me and it completed me in a very much-needed way. It was a form of self-expression. Now I feel I have expressed myself, and there are virtually no oceans left.
The best moment to change direction and charter a new course is when you are at the peak of your career and you can use the momentum. I feel it is time to shift the emphasis from physical performance to artistic or intellectual creativity. As a Jungian psychoanalyst, I would like to become more active through public speaking. I also want more space in my life for art and photography.
Last hurrah
How do you feel without another expedition after this one to work toward?
Yes, the last few days have been very sentimental. I’ve been thinking about this huge part of my life that has defined me. I have built myself around this, so it's confusing. I keep asking myself, “Who am I without it? Is the real me the artist or the explorer?”
After all these years, I still am not sure who I am. My explorer's career has not been that successful commercially, but I have achieved great happiness through it. I have gained a lot professionally, and the expeditions have given me credibility. I think that is one of the reasons I am not as motivated to keep achieving in this field. My success and rewards are starting to come from elsewhere. There are a lot of changes in my life at the moment.
Since our last round up, one soloist has completed the first leg of his journey while another battles her way across the Pacific. Meanwhile, in the other major ocean, the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is underway.
The hurricane season has now ended in the Atlantic, and the weather is becoming more favorable. Though only a few independent crews are on the open water this month, many are preparing to take to the waves at the start of 2023.
Pacific Ocean
Michelle's Pacific Row
Michelle Lee is rowing alone from Ensenada, Mexico to Sydney, Australia. She is now in the South Pacific and has been rowing for 127 days.
Lee regularly adds comments to her tracker and has had to battle difficult conditions since setting off. Over the last few weeks, this has only worsened. At the end of November, she was in the middle of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, an area known for high rainfall and opposing currents and wind. All of this led to choppy waters that she described as “like a washing machine”.
The heavy rainfall meant she couldn't see 50m ahead and was constantly drenched. Despite this, she has continued rowing for over 10 hours a day and crossed the equator into the South Pacific.
Sadly, conditions have not improved in the South Pacific. On December 5, she faced two thunderstorms in one night and was being thrown around in her boat. She was directly in the middle of the storm as another came rapidly towards her. All she could do was sit it out.
“The rain was pelting down on my hull, the noise was deafening. There was lightning coming through my hatch. It was lighting up the whole side of the cabin, and the boat felt like it was vibrating with the thunder,” she later commented.
Tom's Pacific Row
Tom Robinson is rowing from Lima, Peru to his home country of Australia. After 160 days at sea, he has covered 9,260km and is well over halfway. The Ocean Rowing Society estimates that he will finish in March 2023.
Robinson gave his first update only two days ago. He commented laconically on social media, “Landfall! 160 days at sea. 5,000 nautical miles. Overjoyed.”
His tracker shows that he has landed in Penrhyn, an atoll in the northern Cook Islands. Followers and fellow ocean rowers were quick to congratulate him on the milestone.
Before setting off, he said he intended to stop in Tahiti, the Cook Islands, and Tonga before reaching his final destination -- Brisbane. However, he bypassed Tahiti, so this is his first stop. He has made no announcements regarding how long he plans to stay on land before setting off on the next leg of his journey.
Round the World
Ellen Magellan Expedition
Ellen Falterman began her row around the world on September 3. If she completes it, the 27-year-old will be the first person to complete a global circumnavigation entirely by rowing.
Unlike many ocean rowers, she is not aiming for a speed record. She estimates this journey will take her seven years, and she will stop at multiple points along the way.
She began on the Trinity River in East Texas and followed the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. This brought her to the Florida Panhandle. She has just spent nine days rowing across the Gulf of Mexico to South Florida.
As a solo female traveler, she has chosen not to have a public tracker for her journey. Instead, she updates followers on social media. Recently, she has noticed the seasonal change.
“Definitely feeling all the wintertime transition, as I think back to the start of this expedition in September -- the heat, the sun, the bugs -- to now. The waning new moon phase coincided with the cold snap, and it seemed like the nights suddenly became dark, long, and cold. And my living quarters turned from a cabin into a cave.”
Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge
Sir Chay Blyth founded the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge in 1997. It was initially known as the Atlantic Rowing Race and touts itself as “the premier event in ocean rowing” and “the world’s toughest row”.
Soloists, pairs, trios, and quads vie to complete the 4,800km crossing from La Gomera, Tenerife to Nelsons’s Dockyard English Harbour, Antigua.
Rowers in each team row for two hours and sleep for two hours, around the clock. On average, each rower drinks 10 litres of water, burns 5,000 calories a day, and loses around 8kg during the crossing.
A UK team known as The Four Oarsmen set the record for the TWAC in 2018. It took them 29 days, 14 hours, and 34 minutes. The winners of last year’s race, Swiss Raw, finished in 34 days, 23 hours and 42 minutes. The four-man team from Switzerland was the first winner from an inland country.
On December 12, 43 crews made up of 127 rowers from 17 countries started the 2022 race. The current race statistics are as follows:
Leading overall: Shut up and Row
Leading five: Row hard or Go Home 5
Leading four: Shut up and Row
Leading trio: Dark Trio
Leading pair: Dream Boats
Leading soloist: Nothing Ventured
After just one day on the water, the leading boat has covered an impressive 175km. There are six soloists, 10 pairs, nine trios, 16 fours, and two fives in this year's race.
Lots of explorers embark on Antarctic expeditions, but few have been as ambitious as the 2023 mission planned by Antonio de la Rosa.
The Spanish adventurer presented the details of his multi-pronged journey this week at the Spanish Geographical Society (SGE). Starting in January 2023, he plans to row 1,000km across the Drake Passage from the tip of South America to Antarctica.
Then de la Rosa will rig a sail on his small craft for another 2,000km before crossing a final 50km on foot.
The first leg may be the hardest. The Drake Passage can be the roughest body of water on Earth.
His Antarctic adventure will likely require 40 days to complete. The Spanish Geographical Society said a feat like this has never been done.
"If Antonio de la Rosa completes it, it could be a true achievement of courage and determination worthy of the explorers of other times," the organization said.
Facing dangerous seas — alone
Few parts of the ocean elicit as much dread among sailors as the Drake Passage. Five professional rowers and athlete Colin O'Brady discovered that in 2020 when they crossed the tumultuous sea in an eight-metre boat. Decades earlier, adventurer Ned Gillette and crew also rowed to Antarctica. These have been the only previous times a party has dared to row the Drake Passage.
It also became one of the most terrifying ordeals of the Shackleton survival story, as the crew barely survived the Passage's titanic waves.
Now, de la Rosa intends to face that fury all by himself.
The Spanish athlete said he's been training for several years for this expedition. But in some ways, he's been preparing for it all his life. De la Rosa enjoyed a long career in quadrathlons, which combine swimming, canoeing, cycling, and running.
He has also pulled off several previous adventures. Those include crossing the Pacific Ocean in a paddle surf boat in 2019, traversing 1,000km across Finland in 2018, and completing the first solo navigation of the Arctic Circle in 2016, using only an inflatable paddle-surf board.
On Tuesday, de la Rosa spoke frankly about the dangers he will face, and how he hopes to overcome them.
“Sixty to seventy percent of the chances of success for this expedition are psychological," he said, according to La Vanguardia. "In the end, you have to be physically prepared, but when those waves of eight or 10 metres arrive and you can't paddle, that's where psychological strength comes into play."
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Following in Shackleton's footsteps
Rowing 1,000km across the Drake Passage solo would be enough for most — but not for de la Rosa.
On reaching the Antarctic Peninsula, he will attach a triangular sail and navigate to Elephant Island, then continue to South Georgia island.
Elephant Island to South Georgia was the penultimate leg of Sir Ernest Shackleton's incredible journey of self-rescue in 1914. When de la Rosa arrives on South Georgia, he hopes to trek across the island, as Shackleton did, as the final portion of his own journey.
You can follow along with de la Rosa's journey through the live tracker on his website.
"Now all that remains is to wait with determination and a lot of optimism," de la Rosa said.
Since our last round up two soloists have continued to battle their way across the Pacific Ocean to their home country of Australia.
This is one of the quietest times of year on the world's oceans. Across the Atlantic Ocean, it is hurricane season, which should finish by the end of November. At the same time, the trade winds will pick up, and more ocean rowers will take to the seas. The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge will begin once we move into this period of calmer weather.
Though hurricanes also hit the Pacific Ocean, they are less common in the South Pacific, where both rowers are currently located.
Michelle's Pacific Row
Michelle Lee is rowing alone from Ensenada, Mexico to Sydney, Australia. She has now been at sea for three months and is approximately halfway through her crossing. Lee hit a few big milestones in the last month. At the end of October, she entered the South Pacific. And on October 20, she surpassed the amount of time she spent rowing on her previous Atlantic Ocean crossing.
One of the biggest challenges for her has been the lengthy solitude. To pass the time, she has 37 audiobooks that she is slowly making her way through. She also took a ukulele with her, one of her only luxury items. When she stops rowing for the night, she likes to sing and play a little.
Conditions for this row have been very different from her Atlantic adventure.
“[Here] I've never had the wind behind me as it should be," she wrote on social media. "I don’t get a chance to do anything...it's too freakin' hectic. The priority is to keep the boat heading the right way.”
Once, a storm kept her in her sweltering cabin until she felt she was going stir-crazy. She decided to row, despite the wind.
“I ended up rowing in 20-knot winds and big seas," she wrote. "It was so awesome. Like breaking new barriers. Now I know I can row at 20 knots. It was a confidence builder."
It also turned out to be excellent practice, because the high winds persisted for the next four days.
Tom’s Pacific Row
Tom Robinson is rowing from Lima, Peru to Australia. After 133 days at sea, he has covered 52% of the journey. The Ocean Rowing Society estimates that he will finish in March 2023. Robinson has not given updates on his journey since he set off.
Before setting off, he intended to split his journey into four stages: Lima to Tahiti, Tahiti to the Cook Islands, the Cook Islands to Tonga, and Tonga to Brisbane. This would allow him to resupply at a number of places en route and make any necessary repairs to the boat. But he has already passed Tahiti, and his tracker shows no indication that he stopped here. It is unclear why he changed his plan.
On September 3, Ellen Falterman began rowing alone around the world. If she succeeds, the 27-year-old East Texas woman will become the first person to complete a global circumnavigation entirely by rowing.
Throughout the 56,000km journey, Falterman -- who sometimes calls herself Ellen Magellan -- will link all manner of waterways into a continuous route. She estimates that the expedition will take seven years.
She says that there are two sides to setting out on such a journey. “Any time you think, ‘Why has this never been done before?’, you should think, ‘If not me, then who? Why not me?’ There are probably reasons why no one has done this before but this is my path. I just feel so right about it. The doubts are overshadowed by the light of the golden thread I am on.”
She began on the Trinity River in East Texas and has been following the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway for the last three weeks. Her starting point was never in doubt. It is where her brother lost his life in 2016 in a plane crash. This expedition is dedicated to him.
This has taken her three years of planning and working two jobs to save enough for the trip, including her $60,000 slightly used rowboat, with cabins fore and aft. She claims that it can hold up to 12 months of food, and she may need that sort of storage during her long Pacific crossing.
Like some other solo woman travelers, Falterman doesn't have a tracker -- at least, not a public one. During her first week of rowing, she was also largely silent on social media. “I just had to row for a while, get the fresh air between my ears, let my mind get right,” she explained later.
She has a general route planned but admits that this may change along the way. At the moment, she is rowing to Key West, then heading toward Cuba. Enter the first bureaucratic hurdle and potential route change. Currently, it is illegal for private American vessels to enter Cuban waters, although that may change in the near future. If not, she will reroute to Portugal.
From she is able to row via Cuba, she then continues through the Panama Canal and heads across the Pacific to the Marquesas Islands and Tahiti.
Next, American Samoa, Thursday Island, and Darwin, Australia. From there, she crosses the Indian Ocean toward Mauritius and Duran, then follows the African coastline to Cape Town. There, she traverses her third ocean, the South Atlantic.
After crossing to the remote volcanic island of St. Helena, between West Africa and South America, she trends north to Barbados. Finally, she meanders back toward Texas through the Gulf of Mexico.
To count as a circumnavigation, Falterman must start and end at the same point, cross all lines of longitude, and cross the equator.
She is not aiming for speed records, nor does she have daily distance goals.
“You could probably walk around the earth faster. Everything I will be doing depends on the water and the weather. I row about 2.5 knots per hour. On flat water, I can go about 20 miles a day,” she told the Blue Bonnet News.
Along the way, she will have to stop to resupply, sit out hurricane seasons, and avoid dangerous rowing conditions. Currently, she is well west of Hurricane Ian, which is hitting Florida so hard.
Through the journey, she hopes to promote the idea of women as independent, capable solo travelers. During her research, certain statistics shocked her. Over 200 men but just 18 women have completed a solo ocean crossing. As a pilot, she is aware that women hold only 7.9% of aviation certifications. She believes this is partly due to how girls are raised to view women.
Falterman herself is not new to human-powered ventures. In 2014, she canoed 650km along the Amazon Basin. Two years later, she cycled from the UK to Greece. In 2017, she kayaked the Missouri River. Then in 2019, she canoed the Upper Missouri River. Most recently, she canoed alone from Missouri to Texas. She has definitely put in her time in a boat.
Over the next few years, she will be putting in a lot more.
A portion of Falterman's course is above. You can see her entire route here.
Since our last roundup, five crews have been battling their way across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Three of them hope to finish this month.
Pacific Ocean
Solo Row to Hawaii
Carlo Facchino has been at sea since July 5. Over the last 72 days, he has rowed from San Francisco to Hilo, Hawaii. He will reach land in the next few hours.
During the first half of the row, he faced regular storms and poor weather and broke his water maker. The second half has been a vast improvement. In mid-August, he escaped from the northwesterly current that was slowing him down and began riding the westerlies.
“I can tell because the resistance goes from molasses to butter," he said. "My oars glide right through.”
A few days later, the currents and trade winds aligned to help him move in the right direction. This was a huge relief since rowing against the wind was not only slow but put a lot of strain on his back.
The later sections of his row brought some problems. He developed a number of sores from sitting on the seat too long, an occupational hazard of rowing. It forced him to adjust his daily routine since rowing for four hours at a time was too painful. He cut some foam from his mattress as a seat pad.
The second issue is the lack of water. The water maker is generating less than expected so showering and washing clothes are a rare luxury.
This is Facchino’s third ocean row. In 2016, he was in the Great Pacific Race as part of a foursome. One of his teammates at the time was Cyril Derremaux, who is currently kayaking across the Pacific (see below). The four broke the speed record for crossing the mid-Pacific.
Then in 2017, he took part in the Polar Row from Svalbard to Jan Mayen. His team set a record for the northernmost latitude ever reached by a rowing boat -- 79º55'50"N. (Kayakers have been further north, and Will Steger once tried unsuccessfully to drag/paddle a canoe to the North Pole.)
Solo Kayak to Hawaii
Cyril Derremaux is kayaking from California to Hawaii. If he completes the journey, he will be the second person to do so. The first was Ed Gillet, whose 1987 journey was the inspiration for Derremaux.
At the end of last month, Derremaux changed his endpoint. He was initially going to land in Waikiki but has now decided to finish in Hilo, which is a little closer. He calculated that with rationing, he had 29 days worth of food left and it was going to take 35 to reach Waikiki. Landing in Hilo should allow him to reach Hawaii before he runs out of food.
The last 94 days have taken a toll on his body and he has lost a lot of weight. His biggest challenges at the moment are the intense heat and the waves, which strike his craft constantly.
His water maker also broke on day 46. Since then, he has spent almost an hour and a half a day generating fresh water manually. Like Facchino, he has enough to drink, but limited water for washing himself and his clothes to remove the salt.
Tom’s Pacific Journey
Tom Robinson is rowing from Lima, Peru to Australia in his handmade boat. He started on July 2 and the Ocean Rowing Society estimates that he will finish in February 2023.
He has not updated for months, but hIs tracker shows that he has covered 4,700km since setting off. He is splitting his journey into four stages: Lima to Tahiti, Tahiti to the Cook Islands, the Cook Islands to Tonga, and Tonga to Brisbane. Robinson is currently in the middle of stage one, by far the longest stage.
If he completes the row, he will become the youngest person to row alone across the Pacific.
Michelle’s Great Pacific Row
Michelle Lee is rowing solo from Ensenada, Mexico to Sydney, Australia. She started on August 8 and spent the few first weeks struggling through headwinds and difficult currents. She commented, “I’m making very slow progress. But progress nonetheless.”
At one point, the weather was so bad that she was contacting her meteorologist/navigation adviser every four hours to reassess how best to tackle the next few hours. Conditions are improving slightly now, but the first few weeks threw many contrary currents and wind directions at her.
In 2019, Lee completed the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge in 68 days and became the first Australian woman to row any ocean solo.
Atlantic Ocean
Project Empower
Damien Browne is currently the only person rowing across the Atlantic. The Irishman is trying to row from New York to Ireland. The journey initially began as a pair, but when his partner left in June because of a medical issue, Browne made the difficult decision to continue alone.
In the first section of his journey, he faced several storms that pushed him off course while he was adjusting to rowing solo. Though this did improve for a while, he once again finds himself battling the weather and sea state. Last week, during one rough patch, he covered less than two kilometres in three hours. To stop himself from drifting too much, he has spent days with his para-anchor deployed while hunkering in the cabin.
His main concern at the moment is hurricanes. The remainder of his journey will take place during hurricane season. NOAA has estimated that there will be 14 to 20 named storms this season, of which 6 to 10 could become hurricanes. The first one, Hurricane Danielle, has already formed. It should pass Browne to the north with a sufficient margin but is still causing 40-knot winds and huge swells.
Browne hopes to reach Galway by the end of September. So far, he has covered 5,400km in 82 days. He has a further 800km before landfall.
Jakup Jacobsen and Edmund Berg have been rescued off the Cornish coast in the UK. A storm damaged their boat and they launched their emergency life raft and set off their EPIRB. The pair drifted in their life raft for five hours, and were rescued 1,480km from Lands End.
The British coast guard received the EPIRB alert at 5:10 GMT on Thursday August 18. They contacted the closest merchant vessel, which changed its course toward the life raft.
An RAF Poseidon P8 flew out to help locate the life raft. It is the first time that this particular aircraft has served in search and rescue.
The vessel Nordic Qinngua eventually rescued the pair, who had sheltered inside their cabin for two days because of bad weather.
On Thursday, this escalated. “A hard blow to the side of the boat from a huge wave did however cause damage, and we decided is was no longer safe to remain on board,” they reported on social media.
While various news articles have claimed that their boat sank, the pair say that there is no evidence of this. They still hope to be able to recover it.
They began their 7,500km journey on May 28, bound from Florida to Denmark's Faroe Islands, north of the UK. They planned to complete the journey in 70 days but progress was slow due to constant headwinds. Also, they began their journey as a trio but the third crew member, Neil Blackeby, had to leave in June 4 because of a medical issue.
Their last update suggested that they were making good progress and had covered about 5,500km of their journey.
Since our last roundup, one crew has set a new speed record across the Pacific and another has abandoned an attempt to circumnavigate Great Britain.
Pacific Ocean
Latitude 35: Libby Costello, Sophia Denison-Johnston, Brooke Downes, and Adrienne Smith have bested the women’s time for rowing from California to Hawaii. The four women covered the 4,444km in 34 days, 14 hours, and 20 minutes. They broke the previous record, held by a foursome from the UK, by 12 hours.
At first, setting a record was not their priority. They simply wanted to go as fast as they could without sacrificing their well-being. But they were admittedly thrilled to have done so well.
The entire time, they rowed in two-hour shifts.
“Our crossing was way more fun than any of us expected,” Downes said. "We had a speaker on deck that we would play most of the time. We would all jam out together and sing."
All four women are athletes. Costello, Denison-Johnston, and Downes are competitive rowers, the latter two on an international level. Smith hadn’t rowed before but is a triathlete.
All four took on different roles within the team. Denison-Johnston was the skipper and medic, Costello was the technician, Downes took charge of navigation and nutrition, and Smith handled logistics.
Throughout the row, they battled seasickness, exhaustion, salt sores, and storms. Yet the most emotional part of the journey was the last few hours.
“We kind of recognized it was the last time that we were going to have just the four of us, maybe ever,” Costello said as they finished.
Solo Row 2 Hawaii: Carlo Facchino started his solo row from the Golden Gate Bridge to Hawaii on July 5. After 37 days at sea, he has covered 2,130km, the halfway point. He estimates that he will finish the last week of September. Facchino says that the first half of this route is usually more difficult than the second. "I’m hoping the second half speeds along with the trade winds," he says.
He has faced ever-changing winds, a hurricane, and consistent rain at times. Then his watermaker cracked in three places. Using plastic bags and tubing, he managed to jury-rig a fix. He has also started rationing food. He had enough for 70 days but is now concerned he might go over this.
This is not Facchino's first time rowing an ocean. He took part in the Great Pacific Race in 2016 as part of a foursome. One of his teammates at the time was Cyril Derremaux, who is currently kayaking across the Pacific.
Solo Kayak to Hawaii: Cyril Derreumaux is kayaking, not rowing, across the Pacific from California to Hawaii. He started on June 21 and reached the halfway point of his journey earlier today. He is paddling between 32 and 40km each day. But has also been drifting between 10 and 16 km a day when he is resting, often in the wrong direction.
He is trying to emulate Ed Gillet’s famous solo kayak along the same route. As with Gillet, it now looks like the journey will take longer than expected, and food may become an issue. He had hoped to finish in 70 days and brought enough supplies for 80 days. But his pace has been slower than expected, and he has taken 49 days to reach this far.
Derreumaux is already rationing food. He joked that he still has plenty of toothpaste left, so if things get really bad, he'll be able to complete the journey "Ed-Gillet style”. Gillet ran out of food and was nibbling toothpaste by the end of his epic.
The kayaker has faced other problems besides a slow pace. Two weeks into the trip, the tubing that held the steering line disconnected and was letting water into the cabin. He woke up in a wet sleeping bag.
Derremaux has also battled sea sickness, contended with lots of ocean traffic, had to spend several days on the sea anchor, and has issues recharging his batteries.
Tom's Pacific Journey: Tom Robinson is rowing from Lima, Peru to Australia in his handmade rowing boat. The 23-year-old both designed and built the Maiwar himself. He has split his journey into four stages: Lima to Tahiti, Tahiti to the Cook Islands, the Cook Islands to Tonga, and Tonga to Brisbane.
Robinson is currently in the midst of stage one. He has not provided any updates so far, but his tracker shows that he has covered 2,000km. If he completes the row, he will become the youngest person to row alone across the Pacific.
Atlantic Ocean
Project Empower: Damien Browne is now in his eighth week at sea. This row from New York to Ireland began as a pair, but his partner had to leave in June because of a medical issue.
In the first six weeks, three storms slowed his progress and pushed him off course. Since then, the weather has improved and his mileage has increased. On August 8, his tracking device stopped working, but his land team says that he is still moving. The saltwater has corrupted his charging unit, apparently. He has now rowed 3,990km. His biggest challenge at the moment is the persistent south wind.
Riding the Gulf Stream: This trio is rowing across the North Atlantic from Florida to the Faroe Islands. Jakup Jacobsen (58), Edmund Berg (51), and Neil Blackeby (60) all have previous rowing experience. They had initially planned to row from New York but changed their route so that they could hitch a ride on the Gulf Stream.
They started the 7,500km journey on May 28 with a plan to finish in 70 days. But as with so many other rowers, headwinds and bad weather have slowed them down. So far, they have completed 68 percent of the distance. They estimate that they will arrive in the Faroe Islands on September 7.
Around the UK
Emergensea Duo: Charlotte Fleury and Adam Baker abandoned their circumnavigation of Great Britain on July 31, after 71 days and 2,700km. The couple had to give up because of persistent bad weather around the UK coast that would halt progress for the foreseeable future.
Fleury and Baker began rowing two years ago when they signed up to do two of the world's toughest rows. Earlier in the year, they completed the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. In the last eight months, they have been at sea for 122 days. As practicing doctors, their time off has finally run out.
Both have lost a lot of weight over the course of their double challenge. Adam Baker has dropped 18kg and Charlotte Fleury has lost an astonishing 23kg.
Since our last update, there have been four rescues, one medical evacuation, and one new speed record.
Pacific Ocean
Tom’s Pacific Journey: Tom Robinson is rowing solo from east to west across the South Pacific. The 23-year-old began in Lima on July 2 and is attempting to row to his native Australia. So far, he has covered 640km.
If he succeeds, Robinson will be the youngest person to row alone across the Pacific. He is planning to row for 10 hours a day, and to divide his journey row into four big legs: Lima to Tahiti, Tahiti to the Cook Islands, the Cook Islands to Tonga, and Tonga to Brisbane. Unlike most rowers, he is using a 7.3m vessel that he designed and built himself.
Robinson did not get off to a smooth start. He waited in Peru for over a month for his boat to arrive. When it did arrive, complicated customs paperwork delayed him further. It has cost him almost $15,000 to transport the boat and get the appropriate documentation. Finally, he had to wait for naval authorities to authorize his exit.
Solo Kayak to Hawaii: Cyril Derreumaux is kayaking, not rowing, alone across the Pacific from California to Hawaii. He started on June 21 and has paddled 685km so far -- almost one-quarter of the way across. This is his second attempt at the challenge. Last year, he required rescue because of bad weather and boat damage.
After three weeks at sea, he says, “I am more in awe of Ed Gillet and what he has accomplished.” In1987, Gillet became the first to kayak from California to Hawaii, using an off-the-shelf kayak. He was the inspiration for Derreumaux's journey.
Though Derreumaux has made good progress, it has not been without difficulty. In early July, winds pushed him in the wrong direction. It was more of a struggle not to lose distance than to make progress. Swells made him seasick, and he felt very weak. Despite this, he is in good spirits, and his body is holding up.
Atlantic
Project Empower: The Irish pair of Damien Browne and Fergus Farrell started their row from Manhattan to Ireland on June 14. Just 12 days later, Fergus left the boat because of a medical issue. Browne has decided to continue alone. So far, he has covered 1,316km, though not all in the direction of Ireland.
Over the first nine days, southerly winds and low-pressure systems hit the pair as they tried to battle their way into the Gulf Stream’s current.
Then on June 28, Farrell was evacuated with exhaustion, low blood oxygen percentages, and tightness in his chest. A Singapore tanker responded to the emergency calls, and four hours later, Farrell boarded the tanker. He continue with them for two days until they docked in New York. He then went to the hospital.
Browne, now alone, admits that “There is lots going on emotionally. It’s a big adjustment.”
He is also rowing into slow and difficult conditions that he now faces alone. When he stops for a short break, the wind blows him backward.
The Black Sea
A four-person team has broken the speed record for rowing across the Black Sea. The British-Romanian team of Danny Longman, Roland Burr, Alex Dumbrava, and Gregg Botterman covered the 1,200km in nine days and 18 hours. This was 38 hours quicker than the previous record.
The team set off from Mangalia, Romania and landed in Batumi, Georgia. The entire time, the team rowed in shifts of two hours on and two hours off. "It's very much a mental game with these endurance events," Longman told the BBC. "But everyone got stuck in and did really well.”
Though they faced unfavorable winds and some battled sea sickness in the early days, the journey went fairly smoothly. One of the hardest parts, they admitted, was starting in the first place. The group started training four years ago. They had planned to do the row, in 2020 but the pandemic forced a long delay.
Around Great Britain
Albatross: The mixed six is made up of event owner William de Laszlo, ex-Olympic rower Andrew Triggs Hodge, Kat Bruce, Ed Russell, Darren Saunders, and Albert Farrent. Originally, they were one of three crews taking part in the GB Row Challenge event, but they are now the only ones left on the water.
All three crews had to be rescued between June 25-26 because of unseasonal storms in the Irish Sea. Days later, Albatross and SeaLegs restarted, but on July 5, Team SeaLegs had to be rescued for a second time, with "eight-metre swells and 30+ knot winds driving us to shore,” they explained on social media.
Now only Team Albatross remains on the water. The team has rowed 2,835km and is now on the home stretch to London, which they expect to reach within the next 48 hours.
Emergensea Duo: This husband-and-wife pair are rowing around mainland Britain. They started at Tower Bridge, London on May 22 and are working their way clockwise around the island.
On June 22, 30 days after setting off, they reached Scotland. Then for three days, both rowed for 20 hours each day to pass the halfway point. The weather has not been kind: In the first 30 days, they had to spend two weeks at anchor because of riotous weather. Now, whenever they have good conditions, they try to claw back some lost time.
On July 3, they reached John O’Groats, the most northerly point along their route. They have now begun their southward leg. “The West Coast of Scotland has been one of the most epic parts of this trip with such beautiful scenery,” they wrote. But wind and tides have again erected hurdles, forcing them at anchor again for several days, even as the UK basks in a heat wave.
The coastguard has rescued all three crews taking part in the GB Row Challenge because of dangerous conditions. "All three GB Row Challenge boats encountered an unseasonal storm front stretching from the Bristol Channel north through the Irish Sea and the North Channel," said the GB Row Challenge in a statement.
Three crews, three rescues
The crews all contacted the coastguard to seek assistance in fairly quick succession. Within 48 hours, all were rescued from a variety of tricky situations. The first crew to seek assistance was All Systems Row. Their onshore team contacted the Coast Guard to report that they had lost communication with the crew.
A passing ferry confirmed the position of the boat and noted that the crew was safe but fatigued, and concerned about the worsening weather. The five-strong team decided to row towards Wexford, Ireland with the coastguard monitoring them. On route, the storm damaged their rudder and the crew had to be towed to land.
The Albatross team called for help on Saturday afternoon. A gale-force-eight wind and rough seas hit the six-person team along the coast of Northern Ireland. Unable to continue, the Red Bay RNLI Lifeboat rescued them. Team member Darren Saunders told the BBC that it was "one of the hairiest states I've ever been in."
The Coast Guard rescued the final crew today. The Sea Legs group was caught in the most dramatic situation, when their vessel fully capsized. Though the boat self-righted, the crew was unable to continue rowing. After reaching land, a medic checked over one crew member because of injuries sustained when they capsized.
Well prepared, despite needing rescue
The Coast Guard released a statement regarding the incidents: "The rowers were well prepared, they had all the appropriate safety equipment, a VHF radio, and a satellite phone but they still got caught out. Most importantly, they had a shore contact, who was able to raise the alarm when they lost communications with the first vessel."
GB Row Challenge has confirmed that all participants are now "safely in harbor and resting". Teams Sea Legs and Albatross say that they plan to continue rowing as soon as race organizers have checked over the boats.
The GB Row Challenge is a 3,500km row around mainland Great Britain, starting and ending at Tower Bridge in London. All three crews started the race on June 12 and were making excellent progress until the unexpected storm.
On June 21, Karlis Bardelis reached Africa and has almost completed his human-powered, round-the-world journey. The last stage of his circumnavigation saw him row 4,800km from Malaysia to Somalia. He was initially supposed to land in Tanzania but changed his plan in the final days of his journey. He has not divulged why, but updates on his journey suggest it was because of damage to his boat.
[Editor's note: A later story explains the last-minute change of plans.]
A six-year journey
Bardelis began his epic journey in 2016. He started in Namibia and rowed, as part of a pair, to Brazil. In 2018, he restarted in Brazil and cycled on a tandem bicycle to Lima, Peru, with his then-girlfriend. They pedaled the 5,400km in 102 days.
Starting in 2018, he solo rowed 26,000km across the Pacific, landing in Malaysia after 715 days. He became the first person to row from South America to Asia.
A long wait
Bardelis had planned to continue, but COVID forced him to pause his circumnavigation. He flew back to Latvia and waited.
A year and a half later he was back in Malaysia, ready to recommence his challenge. When he arrived in December 2021, his boat, Linda, had suffered some water damage. He made repairs and then figured out the final stage of his journey. Rowing across the Malacca Strait was almost impossible due to strong headwinds. To avoid this, he cycled 850km across Malaysia to Kuala Perlis, the new starting point for his final row. He pushed off in January 2022.
His next stop was Sri Lanka. There were two reasons for this, he needed to cross an antipodal point, and he wanted to pick up Dimitri Kieffer. Kieffer paused his own circumnavigation to join Bardelis and learn the ropes of ocean rowing. The kindred spirits rowed together for nine days before Kieffer hopped off the boat in the Maldives to continue his own expedition. Bardelis tackled the remaining 3,900km solo.
A tough home straight
The last stage of his journey has been fraught. The first few weeks saw winds push him the wrong way. Next, he had to cut one of his anchors loose as he was unable to retrieve it from the deep corals it was stuck in. On numerous occasions, he had to row for over 20 hours straight to ensure his boat did not drift backward.
At the start of June, he still had 1,000km left to paddle. Huge waves and strong winds were throwing him off course and he began to question if he would be able to land in Tanzania. “I really don't know where I will land, but one thing I know for sure, it is 1,000km until Africa,” he wrote on social media.
Just days later the situation worsened. The metal binding that held his steering rudder in place broke. He attempted to fix it using a rope but it was far from ideal. On June 12, with 407km left, his boat capsized. He lost his glasses, water pot, toilet bucket, and sunscreen to the ocean.
On June 21, he landed in Kismaayo, Somalia. There are few details about his final few days at sea, or his landing in Somalia, other than that he is safe.
Bardelis is now making his way back to Latvia.
Since our last update, one crew has completed their ocean crossing, a race around Great Britain has begun, and one duo is trying to break an Atlantic speed record.
Completed
Team Neal Marsh: Ralph Tujin (NL), Kevin O’Farrell (IE), Robert Collins (IE), and Simon van der Hoek (NL) completed their row from Portugal to French Guiana on May 30. They completed the 5,700km journey in 54 days and 35 minutes.
In the first few weeks of their journey, they experienced rough weather and had to spend several days on their para-anchor. Once, rather than sit out the storm on the boat, they spent the day in Gran Canaria. They later stopped in Cape Verde for medical advice after Tujin injured his leg.
In the final few weeks, their batteries stopped fully charging and they couldn't figure out why. To maintain their autopilot, they had to turn off their AIS (Automatic Identification System) and plotter. With no AIS, they had to scan the horizon every 20 minutes day and night. They also used their electrical water maker every two days. In between, they made water manually.
Underway
Project Empower: The Irish pair of Damian Browne and Fergus Farrell had planned to start their row from New York City to Galway, Ireland on May 18. Unfavorable winds forced them to delay. They eventually began on June 14.
Over the last six days, they have rowed 475km. The pair are aiming to break the speed record across the North Atlantic from west to east. This means completing their row within 55 days.
GB Row Challenge 2022:
The GB Row Challenge calls itself ‘the world’s toughest rowing race’. Crews race 3,500km around mainland Great Britain, starting and ending at Tower Bridge in London.
The event is run by two rowers who have completed the course themselves. William de Laszlo did it in 2005 and set a course record. Jim Bastin completed the race in 2017. Bastin has rowed the mid-Atlantic and believes that the row around Britain is harder. Rowing so close to land means that crews face changing tides, shipping lanes, and tricky coastal navigation.
Laszlo and Bastin want the event to have an environmental purpose, so all boats are collecting marine data en route.
Three crews
This year, three crews are competing. All have athletic backgrounds:
- Albatross: The mixed six is made up of event owner William de Laszlo, ex-Olympic rower Andrew Triggs Hodge, Kat Bruce, Ed Russell, Darren Saunders, and Albert Farrent. They are currently in first place and have covered 745km.
- Sea Legs: The mixed five include Chris Howard, Emma Wolstenholme, Jason McKinley, Sophie Harris, and Lamin Deen. They have covered 707km.
- All Systems Row: The all-female five are currently in third position. The team of Andrea Harwood, Charlotte Cooper, Lia Evans, Stephanie Toogood, Jessica Plail has covered 660km.
EmergenseaDuo: Charlotte Fleury and Adam Baker set off from Tower Bridge, London on May 22. They are also rowing around mainland Great Britain but not as part of the GB Row Challenge. The pair are trying to complete two of the world’s toughest rows in a year. In January, they completed the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Now, just months later, they are back on the water.
The husband and wife duo are both emergency medicine doctors. They are raising money for a number of healthcare charities.
“One of the hardest parts of this row around GB is the meticulous daily route planning that...allows us to navigate tidal streams, buoyage, and busy shipping lanes safely,” they said.
Currently, they are in the Irish Sea. Over the past few weeks, the couple has battled everything from storms to heat waves].
Almost ready to go
Toms Pacific Journey: Tom Robinson (23) is getting ready to start his row across the South Pacific from Peru to Australia. He hopes to start in the next few days. If he succeeds, he will be the youngest person to solo row the Pacific.
He has been in Lima, Peru for over a month, waiting for his boat Maiwar to arrive. It finally came on June 5. Since then, he has been preparing for the long journey ahead.
Robinson is splitting the row into four legs: Lima to Tahiti, Tahiti to the Cook Islands, the Cook Islands to Tonga, and Tonga to Brisbane. Adding another element to his journey, he is rowing a 7.3m vessel that he designed and built himself.
In our last update, just two rowing expeditions were still underway. One has finished, one continues, and a few others are waiting to start.
Completed
Zerow-Emission: Julen Sanchez completed his row on April 17. He began in Portugal on November 29 but had to pause in El Hierro 13 days later to make minor repairs after a large storm. He restarted on December 24. Over the course of 131 days, 9 hours, and 30 minutes, he rowed across the Atlantic.
His journey has not been easy. On February 9, he lost the use of his third and final phone. Since then, he used passing ships to forward his updates home.
He had planned to stop for a second time in Puerto Rico to check his technical equipment and get a new phone. Just days before he was due to land, his family received news that he had decided to press straight for the U.S.
A particularly tricky section came at the Great Bahama Bank. Here, the shallow waters are rife with sandbars and rocks. Rowing through them was not his initial plan, but northerly winds forced him through. Sanchez did not sleep for 48 hours to make sure he safely navigated through this difficult passage. After completing his row, he said, "the beauty of this spot...was breathtaking and worth all the navigational hassle."
His row is part of a larger challenge: to complete a zero-emission trip from Europe to America. On the first leg, he cycled from Paris to Portugal. The row was his second leg. He will now complete the journey by cycling to Pittsburgh.
Currently at sea
Team Neal Marsh: Ralph Tujin (NL), Kevin O’Farrell (IE), Robert Collins (IE), and Simon van der Hoek (NL) are rowing across the Atlantic from Portimao, Portugal to Kourou, French Guiana. After 34 days at sea, they have covered just over 2,800km.
After a good start to their journey, the winds started to pick up and change direction, forcing them to deploy their para-anchor. During the first 10 days, they had to spend several days on the anchor, waiting for swells and unfavorable conditions to pass.
On day 12, they made it to the Canary's most southern island, Gran Canaria. To avoid four-metre-high waves, they followed the coastline to calm water. Here, they again waited out the weather. Rather than sit in the boat, they spent the day on the island. The next morning, they set off again.
When they initially stopped in Gran Canaria, Tujin stepped on a weak point in the jetty. His leg went through it and his shin slammed into a steel edge. Days later, it was still swollen, with a deep cut. Concerned about infection, they adapted their route to seek medical advice in Cape Verde. After 24 hours on the island, and assured that his shin would heal, they set off again.
About to begin
Tom's Pacific Journey: Tom Robinson has landed in South America and is getting ready to start his journey across the South Pacific from Peru to Australia. This would make Robinson, 23, the youngest person to solo row the Pacific.
Robinson expects the journey to take nine months and plans to split it into four legs. The first will be from Lima to Tahiti, the second from Tahiti to the Cook Islands, the third from the Cook Islands to Tonga, and the final leg, from Tonga to Brisbane. Robinson will row in Maiwar, a 7.3m craft inspired by 19th-century whaleboats that he designed and built.
North Atlantic Challenge: Peter Harley is planning to row from Virginia to France. He would be the first person to row this particular route. He had intended to start earlier, but the weather forced a delay. He now hopes to start on May 15. At 61 years old, Harley is not setting himself a target end date, but he estimates the journey will take three to four months.
Project Empower: Beginning on May 18, Damien Browne and Fergus Farrell will row from New York City to Galway, Ireland. The Irish pair are trying to become the fastest to row across the North Atlantic from west to east. The current record was set in 1896 by George Harboe and Frank Samuelsen, who rowed from New York to the Isle of Scilly in 55 days and 13 hours.
When most people go out paddleboarding, the objectives are modest: grab a little exercise after work, drink a few beers, and catch the sunset on the water.
When Casper Steinfath does it, it’s a full-on adventure sport. The Danish paddler has pulled off a feat or two in the past, so to hear it from him, his current objective didn’t faze him much — in theory.
As I write this, Steinfath is circumnavigating Denmark on his stand-up paddleboard. The 1,400km "Great Danish Paddle” will take him around the peninsula and across it, too.
(What he’ll do for the long carry isn’t exactly clear. If he plans to carry his paddleboard the whole way, he’s got a long trip ahead of him: the southern border of the Danish peninsula is about 100km long.)
At first, Steinfath saw his task as a personal tour of his home country — a way to reconnect with his homeland.
“I dream of rediscovering my backyard and meeting people along the way, and I guess this project is sort of an excuse for that,” he told Red Bull, one of his sponsors.
He even planned to take his time exploring, meeting people, and enjoying in the local culture along the way. Steinfath is a professional paddleboarder, and with the Professional World Championship for paddle surfing (APP) tour coming up, the trip amounts to training. Asked again why he was doing it, the 28-year-old joked, “so food tastes better!”
All told, the paddler planned for 40-50 days out. Now nearing 40 days in, his tone has somewhat changed. The hardest part of the trip may have come on day 19, a 79km traverse across the Sea of Kattegat.
He battled huge swells and wind there, plus oil tankers, ferries, and seaplanes in the open ocean. The passage took him and his brother 14 hours to complete.
“It was one hell of an adventure inside the adventure, that’s for sure!" the young athlete commented.
Previously, Casper Steinfath has taken forced rest days due to rough seas — metaphorical and literal. On his Instagram-transmitted “Captain’s Log,” he issued the report for day 14 of the trip.
“It was 0km today, full-on recovery mode,” he said. “Right now, I’m in my tent in my sleeping bag. I’ve been here most of the day. I think, in general, the last two weeks are catching up to me. It’s been more physical than expected.”
He found himself paddling directly into a snowstorm on one previous day-long junket.
“This is turning into more of a challenge than I expected today. I’m paddling basically straight into a snowstorm. Not exactly what I expected this morning,” Steinfath says in the post. Soon, a wave crashes in, just off his starboard side.
Ultimately, the waterman resigns himself to the journey. In an interview with The Inertia, he said, "I have 6-10 hours a day on the water thinking, ‘What the f*ck am I doing?’ I really envisioned a glamorous, heroic trip, but the reality is, I’m laying on the beach in a tent, frozen -– way beyond what I signed up for.
"But at the same time, I know it’s cliché, but the journey is really the destination. Every single morning I need to psyche myself up mentally and somehow find the energy to get back on the water.”
You can track Steinfath’s activity via his near-daily Instagram posts. He hopes to finish the route in about another three weeks. It starts and ends in his hometown of Klitmøller.
Victoria Evans has shattered the female speed record for rowing across the Atlantic. The 35-year-old British lawyer rowed the 4,900km from Tenerife in the Canary Islands to Barbados in just 40 days and 19 hours. She cut a staggering nine days off the previous record, held by Kiko Matthews.
Evans set out from the first to break the record. From the moment she began on February 11, she rowed 12 to 14 hours a day. She slept at most six hours each day, in 20 to 30-minute catnaps. She did not want the boat to drift while she slept.
The trip has not been easy. Evans faced big swells driven by following winds. Although these pushed her in the right direction, accelerating down big tailing waves was unnerving. It felt too fast and unsafe.
Then the swells started pushing her north, while she was doing everything possible to move south. After three weeks, the weather started to ease up and she was able once again to focus on her pace.
Problems overcome
Evans faced other problems as well. She suffered from a flare-up of shingles. Once, she accidentally locked herself out of her stern cabin, where her autohelm and liferaft were located. On another occasion, a wave crashed over her as she was transferring her kit, soaking everything, including electronics.
On March 10, her EPIRB went off, frightening her family. You usually activate EPIRBs manually in an emergency, but they also go off automatically when completely submerged. The waves constantly flooding over the deck set the device off.
Evans had planned the expedition for last year but as with so many of us, the pandemic put her project on hold. Building up to this year's attempt, Evans quit her job to train full-time.
According to the Ocean Rowing Society, only 163 crews have attempted this route. Just 30 have been soloists. She is one of only 11 women to successfully cross the Atlantic from east to west. The fastest male rower completed the distance in about 35 days.
Many would assume that Evans is a hard-core athlete. However, she admits that she avoided sport until her mid-20s. She didn’t set foot in a rowing boat until this challenge.
“Sport used to seem like this other, unobtainable world," she told Red Bull. "I was self-conscious and unfit.”
This began to change when she moved in with a friend who liked running. A few years later, she moved to Switzerland and began hiking, cycling, and skiing.
She attributes her newfound confidence to this lifestyle. Having suffered from eating disorders and depression in the past, she believes sport has been “transformational…it’s allowed me to redefine what I’m capable of.”
On her website, she notes that “women’s sport is at the start of a revolution,” but that there is still a long way to go.
The war in Ukraine has forced climbers, rowers, and trekkers whom we have written about in the past to abandon their adventures and focus on staying alive. Some have fled, some are currently fighting for their country. All of them, in one way or the other, are contributing to Ukraine's cause.
Some foreign adventurers are also trying to help the besieged country, especially those from neighboring states, for whom the invasion has hit close to home. Here is a recap of what some familiar ExplorersWeb figures are doing.
The Ukrainians:
Alpomania's CEO Valentyn Sypavin was in the Andes when the war broke. By the time he returned to Santiago, Chile, his son and wife had fled Ukraine for Germany. They met briefly in the Czech Republic. Since then, Sypavin has moved around, looking for a school for his son, while trying to solicit medicine from his many international contacts to send to Ukraine. His office in Kharkiv was destroyed by a rocket fired from Russia, just 40km away. Business had been going well: He had 15 clients booked for Everest, Lhotse, and Kangchenjunga this spring.
Mikhail Fomin, from last year's Annapurna III team, is safe with his family. During the first days of the war, they fled to Italy. The whereabouts of his two partners, Viacheslav Polezhaiko and Nikita Balabanov, are unclear. Their activity on social media is confined to sharing posts about fundraising initiatives, or from those seeking goods for the cause. Fomin himself is busy collecting funds. "Now it is time for many Ukrainian climbers to wear soldier's helmets instead of super-lightweight BD or Petzl stuff and to protect Ukraine," he wrote.
Oleg Ivanchenko of Extreme Guides, based in Odessa, is also sharing messages from his compatriots asking for logistical support. He supports a movement launched last week by Irina Galay to ban Russian climbers from joining expeditions abroad in places like Nepal. Galay is in western Ukraine, serving with the defence forces. It’s not appropriate for Russians to climb while their government is waging war, the NoPeaceNoClimb group argues. "All the Ukrainian climbers have canceled their expeditions, so should the Russians. As soon as the war is over, we will all...climb."
Helping however they can
Sources in Ukraine have told ExplorersWeb that a significant number of Ukrainian athletes are actively fighting, but they are keeping discreet about it. Many others are doing their best to carry on working, despite the siege. They are trying to keep the country's economy going somehow.
Early this year, we covered Alina Kosovska's landmark winter trek across the Carpathian Mountains. She has since joined the military effort near Kyiv. In between driving her country, hunting for generators and spare vehicle parts, she has remained active online. She is selling an online book about her trek to raise money for the defense effort. "I want [the book] to see the world somehow, even if I don't live to win [the war]," she posted on Instagram.
Foreign climbers
Many Eastern European nations bordering Ukraine and Russia are on guard. Says Lithuanian climber Saulius Damulevicius, "I never wanted to bear arms...But if an aggressor steps on our land, I must be ready to fight. Therefore, I joined the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union." Damulevicius has also been raising funds for Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict.
Medicine and supplies
Oswald Rodrigo Pereira of Poland has joined forces with Alex Txikon, his partner from the recent attempt on winter Manaslu. Txikon has organized a bus filled with supplies, medicine, and warm clothing provided by his sponsors. He drove to the Polish-Ukrainian border to drop off the supplies, then returned with refugees for whom an NGO has found hosting homes in Spain. Txikon has made four such trips so far.
Meanwhile, Pereira managed to cross into Ukraine and drop off some of the goods directly. "It felt like I was back in Warsaw 1939," he wrote. Other climbers have been involved in similar initiatives, such as Damien Parisse of France.
Ocean rower Fiann Paul lives in Iceland, but he was born in Poland. He felt so connected to events in Ukraine that despite a lack of military training, he applied to go there to fight. He duly filled out an application through the embassy, and it was forwarded to the commander in charge of foreign volunteers. The commander took the time to write back, in broken English: "My friend, thank for apply, but we do not want to risk you ass you do not have any combat experience." Instead, Paul is trying to help Ukrainian emigrés through his family in Poland.
Russians muzzled
Finally, Russian climbers who previously came out against the war have been ruthlessly silenced. Russia has declared Facebook and Instagram "extremist organizations" and banned them. Protesters can face up to 15 years in prison. Some had barely time to delete their posts before the platform was closed to them. "I hope for your understanding," one of them wrote on social media just before the ban closed the platform down, "and I also hope you remember what was written here."
Since our last rowing roundup, Mission Atlantic and the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge have ended. There has been plenty of action, Karen Weekes became the first Irish woman to solo row the Atlantic, and several teams are battling fierce conditions.
Independent Atlantic rowers
Shecando 2021: Karen Weekes arrived in Barbados on February 24. She began her row in Gran Canaria and covered the 4,800km distance in 80 days, 9 hours, and 45 minutes. She is the first Irish woman to complete an unassisted, solo row across the Atlantic.
She began with an aim to row for 16 hours a day. However, the changeable weather meant this was not always possible. An early storm forced her to spend several days on para-anchor.
Speaking to the Irish Times, she explained that the worst moments came from the searing heat, which felt like her "brain was on fire".
United We Conquer: Jack Jarvis has covered 6,050km, roughly 90% of the distance from Portugal to Miami. When he completes the final 10%, he will be the first soloist to row this route across the Atlantic.
Alone for over three months, Jarvis has managed to stay in good spirits by listening to 26 audiobooks and rationing treats for specific milestones.
In the last few weeks, his pace has slowed. First, he dealt with blistering heat and no wind, then headwinds. Recently, storms have forced him back into “para-prison”.
Forget Me Knot: This three-man crew of Dirk Von Delft, Johnnie Ball, and Stefan Vine are rowing across the Atlantic from Portugal to French Guiana. After 44 days at sea, they have covered 3,400km, 59% of their journey.
This week, they hit a personal best for daily distance: 140km. This is especially impressive considering the team has no previous rowing experience. After weeks of horrendous weather, the trio is now trying to make the most of better conditions.
The last few weeks featured big waves that left everyone consistently soaking wet. This, in turn, left their hands and feet in bits. To keep up morale, they currently have a bet about which day they will arrive in South America.
Rame Océan: Patrick Favre (FR) and Matt Dawson (U.S.) are rowing from Spain to Guadeloupe. The pair started on January 31 and have been at sea for 38 days.
At first, they struggled with a lack of wind. It was so still that not only were they moving slowly, but the heat was baking them. Luckily, since the last week of February, the wind has picked up, and their speed has increased. They passed their halfway point on February 26. They estimate that they will arrive in about two weeks.
Sea Change Sport: Victoria Evans is rowing solo across the Atlantic from Tenerife to Barbados. After 39 days at sea, she has covered 3,100km, 67% of her total distance.
Her weather has been so bad that she has switched her rowing pattern to six hours on, two hours off. Unlike those who have experienced too-calm seas, she has faced big swells and fast water. Although these pushed her in the right direction, sliding down big tailing waves was unnerving. It felt too fast and unsafe. Currently, the swells are pushing her north, while she is doing everything she can to move south.
Evans has also faced other issues. All of her kit, including electronics, got soaked when a wave crashed over her while she was transferring items from cabin to deck. She has suffered from shingles, which have flared up during the row. At one point she was locked out of her stern cabin, where her autohelm and life raft are located. Despite the issues, she continues to push forward.
Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge
The final few crews have crossed the finish line in the TWAC. Every year, soloists, pairs, trios, and quads race to complete the 5,000km crossing from Tenerife to Antigua. This year, 36 crews took part.
All entrants set off on December 12, and the winning Swiss Raw team crossed the finish line after 34 days, 23 hours, and 42 minutes. The foursome of Roman Mockli, Jan Hurni, Samuel Widmer, and Ingvar Groza was also the first team from an inland country to win the race.
The final crew to cross the finish line was Project X, a pair from Switzerland. Marina Hunziker and Sonja Graf completed the row in 75 days, 10 hours, and 6 minutes. Asked how they coped during their 75 days at sea, Hunziker said: “If your attitude is right, you can choose happiness. It’s challenging out there, it’s painful and sometimes you think you’re going to lose it, and then suddenly you’re back on track.”
The winners from each race class are as follows:
Overall winners: Swiss Raw (34 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes)
Winning five: Five in a Row (36 days, 4 hours, 42 minutes)
Winning four: Swiss Raw
Winning trio: East Rows West (37 days, 17 hours, 59 minutes)
Winning pair: Two Rowing Finns (41 days, 11 hours, 14 minutes)
Winning soloist: Ocean Rower (55 days, 1 hour, 9 minutes)
Mission Atlantic
Mission Atlantic has also finished up. The smaller event is only open to serving members and veterans of the military.
Organizers stress that it isn’t a race and that they merely provide support for teams wanting to row the Atlantic independently. The 4,815km route runs from Gran Canaria to Barbados. Two crews set off on December 22.
Atlantic Dagger: This four-man team of Connor Patterson, Oscar Stone, Mitchell Hutchcraft, and Jason Gardiner completed their row after 48 days, 4 hours, and 17 minutes. Though the route they took was slightly longer, they managed to avoid the bad weather that slowed their competition.
Cockleshell Endeavour 2021: Michael Turner, James Bevan, Dominic Thorne, and Ryan Tipping arrived in Barbados on February 20. The crossing took them 59 days, 13 hours, and 57 minutes. Though they were initially out in front, they crossed the finish line 11 days after their counterparts.
They chose a more direct route, but bad weather and unhelpful trade winds dramatically slowed their pace. Toward the end of the row, they began to run out of food. The crew had planned for 51 days of food and an extra five days' worth of meal replacement drink powders. This meant they had to ration food over the last few days.
As they stepped onto dry land, they said, "Our bums are sore, our muscles are aching…everyone is exhausted but utterly elated."
Pacific Ocean
Erden Eruç: Eruç started his row on October 6 in California. He is aiming for Hong Kong. At 11,000km, it is the longest ocean row currently underway. After 6,000km he paused for the second time in his journey, this time in Guam, so he could make repairs to his boat.
He re-launched from Guam on February 20 but is still unsure if he has made the right decision. He wanted to row clockwise around Borneo to the Java Sea, hoping to stay away from tropical depressions and storms. However, he thinks he started a few weeks too late. The weather is changing more rapidly than expected. The veteran sailor admits that "the volatility of these patterns was a bit of a surprise to me."
He is unsure if he will be able to complete the crossing and currently is heading for Legaspi in the Philippines. There, he will decide if he can complete the row or if he has to pause and return next season.
Rowing and cycling
Zerow-Emission: Julen Sanchez has been rowing for 95 days en route from Portugal to Miami. This is part of a much larger project, a zero-emission journey from Europe to America.
He began by cycling 2,800km from Paris to Portugal and is now rowing the 7,500km from Portugal to Miami. Once he reaches Miami, he will cycle the final 2,500km to Pittsburgh.
Updates on Sanchez’s progress have been limited. On February 9, he lost his third and final phone. He is relying on passing vessels to relay messages home. So far, they have confirmed he is doing well. At one point, he considered stopping in Puerto Rico to get a new phone. He has since decided to continue directly to the U.S.