Follow Roz Savage’s Solo Row Across the Pacific

In September of last year, we interviewed Roz Savage on our podcast show, Adventure Edge Radio. Savage had just finished a 2,300-mile solo row from San Francisco to Hawaii, the first leg of a three-stage, three-year project to solo row the Pacific Ocean. And now she’s back at it.

Savage is on day 17 of the second leg of her journey and is sailing from Hawaii to Tuvalu, adding another 2,620 miles to her attempt at becoming the first woman to solo row the Pacific Ocean. (She’ll conquer the last leg, 2,320 miles from Tuvalu to Australia, in 2010.)

To follow along, check out the Roz Savage blog. It’s updated daily and is an incredibly interesting read. She talks about World Ocean Day, which she enjoyed in the best possible way, what she eats on the boat, the sun, the birds, the environment and, of course, the rowing. You can also follow her on the RozTracker, an interactive map that pinpoints her exact location.

So far, Savage has rowed 464 miles and made about 195, 498 oar strokes (somehow the RozTracker can tell that – I don’t think she’s counting them).

Savage’s story is unique. She didn’t begin solo rowing until her mid-thirties, when she discovered she simply couldn’t spend one more day in an office building. She longed to do something adventurous and to promote awareness of environmental issues. So, in 2005 she set out on her first solo row, the 3,000 mile Atlantic Rowing race from the Canaries to Antigua. And in 2008, she began her attempt to row 7,600 miles across the Pacific.

She claims to be an “unlikely adventurer,” but she’s certainly an ambitious one.

Photo: Roz Savage passing Diamond Head just before arriving in Honolulu Hawaii after rowing across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco. Courtesy of RozSavage.com.