Trans Pacific Ocean challenge - Coxless Crew row into darkness + Video
by pressure-drop.us on 22 Apr 2015
Coxless Crew - The Trans Pacific Ocean Challenge Pressure Drop . US
At 02:30 April 20th, four brave women pushed off from the docks in Horseshoe Cove, located in the shadow of the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. The British women rowed into the darkness and cold, foggy Golden Gate Straits on the beginning of the ebb tide, getting a bit of an assist from the pull of the moon and the sun as they began the first leg of their journey across the Pacific, San Francisco to Hawaii, a 2,400 nm trip as the crow flies. Add deviations from wind and current, the trip is closer to 3,000 miles.
Lead by 31 year old Laura Penhaul, a Physiotherapist for Paralympic Athletics from London are Emma Mitchell, a 28 year old Expedition Manager from Portsmouth , Natalia Cohen, 38 an adventure travel specialist and for this leg, 28 year old Isabel Burnham an intellectual property attorney. Their 29' long 7' wide carbon fiber ocean rowing platform was built for them by Rossiter Rowing Boats of the UK. She weighs near one ton loaded and carries 600 lbs of ballast in the form of water bottles in the hull.
The dream of the row was presented to Laura some three years hence as she was seeking a challenge 'outside her comfort zone' to push her limits as she witness's other women doing on a daily basis in her career. ' The Pacific Row presents a unique opportunity as no other all women team of four have completed the trip from SF to Cairns, Australia' Laura said' When asked why not just row the Atlantic she added' It's been done several times over by other women's team and the Pacific has not.'
'The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest ocean, bounded by Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. At sixty-four million square miles, it covers one-third of Earth’s total surface area.
Our row across the Pacific will be an unsupported three-stage row starting in San Francisco, California and finishing in Cairns, Australia. Stops will be made in Hawaii and Samoa and the entire expedition will cover 8,446 miles and take five to six months (weather dependent)!
Stops will last for approximately seven days at a time to restock the boat, repair and replenish supplies and for the team to share their story with the local, national and international media.
This route has only ever been completed by solo and pairs teams, never has it been done by a team of four and never has it been done as a continuous three stage row.'
With only 29 feet of boat and a very small cabin, designed for two, the concept is for two on and two off on the rowing rotation. When things get shitty, as they tend to do in the mighty Pacific, the four of them may have to squeeze into the cabin, hopefully, no one get claustrophobic! Bathroom breaks will occur in buckets on the rowing deck as will any meals to be cooked. With two well-padded rowing seats that roll on skateboard urethane wheels allow the rower to maximize lower body power in each stroke and the boat carries four spare oars should replacements be needed.
The all important water supply will be done via a solar power water purification, and should that fail they have a back up Katadyn manual pump unit, which produces just enough water to rehydrate the operator, so we are told, and if that fails, the ballast water can be consumed and replaced with salt water as the trip progresses.
The plan for the first leg was to push off SF and head west as far as possible as quickly as possible. Viewing the tracker the girls have already found the effects of the impending northwest currents and winds and have been pushed south early.
From Natalia's Blog:
Day one at Sea
'The adventure begins. Izzy and Ems rowed us out and under the Golden Gate Bridge at 2.30am. The plan is to get as far west/southwest as possible in the next 36 hours before the wind is due to pick up. What a long 24 hours day one has been. Feeling seasick seems to be taking its toll on the girls and Laura particularly. It’s so frustrating as there is not much I can do to support except distract and try to ensure that all of us are drinking lots of water. The wind has been mild and the sea calm. At one point, the water looked like black inky rolling hills and we spotted three dolphins, a sea-lion (who we named Bruce) and lots of birds that strangely look like penguins when in flight! We also had a little incident where Ems and Izz found themselves attached to a buoy. We had to go out the back port-hole and managed to cut us free. I feel ok just really tired…'
The next few days will prove the mettle of the ladies as the marine forecast indicates:
Small craft advisory in effect from 3 PM PDT this afternoon
Through late Friday night...
Synopsis: Building high pressure over the Eastern Pacific will result in moderate to strong Northwesterly winds today. The strongest winds will be mainly North of point Reyes with gale force winds over the outer waters. Seas will rapidly build today in response to these winds. Short period Northwesterly swells are expected by tonight.
Today
NW winds 10 to 20 kt...increasing to 15 to 25 kt in the afternoon. Wind waves two to five ft. NW swell six to eight ft at 12 seconds. Patchy fog in the morning.
Tonight
NW winds 20 to 30 kt. Wind waves four to seven ft. NW swell 10 to 13 ft at 12 seconds.
Wednesday
N winds 20 to 30 kt. Wind waves four to seven ft. NW swell 14 to 17 ft at 12 seconds.
Wednesday Night
NW winds 15 to 25 kt with occasional gale force gusts to 35 kt. Wind waves four to seven ft. NW swell 12 to 15 ft at 11 seconds.
Thursday
NW winds 20 to 30 kt. Wind waves four to seven ft. NW swell 11 to 14 ft at nine seconds.
Fri
NW winds 20 to 30 kt. Wind waves three to six ft. NW swell seven to nine ft.
Sat
NW winds 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves three to five ft. NW swell six to eight ft.
A major test for the Coxless Crew team and their little boat Doris, but certainly not the last challenge they will encounter as they continue on their epic journey!
Coxless Crew Open Ocean Row from Phinneas Photoboy on Vimeo.
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