First Woman To Row The Pacific Ocean Solo
It's official. England’s Roz Savage has completed her 7,000-mile solo crossing of the Pacific Ocean this past Thursday, finishing up in Madang, Papua New Guinea.
Savage's journey started out some 2 years earlier in San Francisco California and at the end she was "Exhausted, sore, stiff, but will be elated once I've got the energy". She split the journey up in to 3 separate legs that saw her spending a total of 249 days at sea alone.
Leg 1 of the journey started on May 25 2008 in San Francisco with Honolulu, Hawaii as the destination. She made that crossing in 99 days. The following year she left Honolulu for Tarawa, a small atoll in the Republic of Kiribata, That crossing took 104 days. The Final leg of her trip was from Tarawa to Madang and started back on April 20th. 48 days later she pulled in to the small Papa New Guinea Island to complete her crossing.
Savage has also rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. In 2005, Savage became the first woman to complete the Atlantic Rowing Race – solo. In doing so she became only the 6th woman ever to complete the feat.
Savage's boat was 23 feet long and decked out with all the necessary gear to get her across the ocean. During the voyage she grew her own food, bean sprouts, and made her own water using filters. Solar power was used to power much of Roz’s electronics.
This was not Savage's first attempt at the Pacific crossing. In 2007 she was turned back after multiple capsizes and had to be rescued by the US Coast Guard just outside of San Francisco.
Part of Roz’s reason in undertaking the mission was to raise awareness about global warming. Savage wants every person to understand that everyone’s efforts count no matter how small. “You might think that your effort is just a drop in the ocean. But a drop spreads ripples.” says Savage.
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