February 8, 2012
The bold and the blistered |
| Reprinted from the 2008-2009 Rower's Almanac. |
|
If you think summitting Everest is the ultimate adventure, consider this: 3,050 people have climbed to the top of the world, but only about 250 have rowed across an ocean.
Even fewer have attempted the world's widest body of water, the Pacific. Erden Eruç and Roz Savage are in that elite group. Eruç's Pacific crossing is part of an even more ambitious plan to circle the globe under human power, and to climb the highest peaks on each continent along the way. The Cypress-born adventurer already has biked from his home in Seattle, climbed North America's highest mountain, 20,320-foot Mt. McKinley, and biked back home. That, together with a 4,000-mile row from Portugal to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, was just the warmup. In July 2007, Eruç shoved off from Bodega Bay California on an eight-month, 6,700-mile voyage to Brisbane Australia-the second leg of a voyage that will take him around the world by rowboat, bicycle and foot. http://www.around-n-over.org. Roz Savage has also rowed the Atlantic and is now challenging the Pacific. But on Septemer 23, 2007, the British adventurer was forced to abandon her boat 100 miles off the California coast when persistent storm winds threatened to drive her ashore. Her sea-anchor had failed, and the only prudent thing to do was accept a ride ashore on a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. Savage is planning on another attempt in the summer of 2008. |
