I met the most prominent rower in the world today, Roz Savage. She’s the only woman to row across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, all solo. She wrote a book about her Atlantic Crossing. She was in San Francisco this week to prepare her boat to row across the Atlantic. She was super kind, gave me a bunch of tips and wished Arctic Row well. I wished her well also, her rowing expedition leaves in a couple days.
What an adventure!!! This weekend Justin Huskamp and I rowed 80 miles from San Francisco to Petaluma and back. The row was fast, scenic and cold.
The flood tide began early morning Saturday so we left with it at 6:00am. The flood tide ended by 10:38 when we reached the Petaluma entrance. The counteracting ebb tide against us was weak during our row up the Petaluma. The ebb tide that would push us home began at noon so we left as late as possible, 8:00am. Our late departure gave us fast current speeds, faster boat speed of 8 mph, but higher winds and thunderstorms. You can’t have it all.
Gear list
Like Yvon Chouinard says, “it’s not an adventure until something goes wrong”. Here’s what went wrong:
Waypoints:
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The boat was the “Valhalla”. She’s a fast, 22 foot long, 3.5 feet wide, lapstrake wooden rowboat built by boatwright Jeremy Fisher-Smith in 1979 at Tomales Bay. I love this boat and called Jeremy today to thank him for building the boat 30 years ago, when he was a 22-year old.
Stats for this row:
Future rows:
Thanks to:
Video:
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