Merry Christmas and Status Report

Day: 80 — Position: N18 15’ W159 18’
Odometer since Waikiki: about 2,523M
Distance to Northern Marianas: 804M
Sea surface temperature: 82.6F - 28.1C

OCEAN ROWING RECORDS AS RUNNING TOTALS
Solo career total in days: 1,005 (New World Record)
Overall career total in days: 1,089 (New World Record)
Solo career total in miles by Waikiki: 22,173M now about 24,597M (New World Record)
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Overall career total in miles by Waikiki: 25,153M now about 27,577M
** Ralph Tuijn (NL) leads this with 35,635M

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Merry Christmas!

May this time until New Year’s Eve serve as an opportunity for reflection so that you can sort your priorities to define achievable resolutions for 2022…

As of today if everything goes according to my plans, the length of the route that remains to Hong Kong is about 2,700M. My odometer since my relaunch from Waikiki on Oct 7th is about 2,523M. The distance that I had rowed to reach Waikiki from Crescent City was 2,646M. These are lengths of my course over ground as in water under my keel. 

I don’t want to jinx it; however by this account, I am almost half way to Hong Kong from Waikiki, and I am also just about 2/3 done with this historic row which, when I make landfall on mainland, will be the first time in recorded history that a human powered vessel will have traveled across the Pacific Ocean from North America to Asia. There is no record either of such a crossing for the waters between Hawaii and the Marianas, or those from the Marianas to the Philippines. All human powered vessels in the past left from Hawaii then traveled southwest toward Australia.

Before I launched from Crescent City I had studied the available climatological data going back 10-15 years to get a statistical sense of what the Pacific may offer at a given location at a given time of the year. I then designed the most likely to succeed route across this ocean. Likely due to changing climate, in June/July the Pacific ridge formed farther west and farther north in than normal, bringing me more NW winds than expected almost derailing my crossing early on toward Baja Peninsula. I lost time in that battle to break free of the continent which later forced me to negotiate hurricanes forming to my southeast before I could reach Waikiki on Sept 10th.

I then spent time in Waikiki fixing my water maker to address air leaking in the system, replaced my chart plotter and made a few other repairs and improvements to my rowboat. I also attempted yet again to obtain a visa to China which I had been denied beginning as early as March due to the pandemic. I still don’t have a visa to China therefore I must land at Hong Kong which allows a visa on arrival, failing that change course toward Vietnam. 

One primary reason for staying a month in Waikiki was to time the seasons on this crossing. I worried about a storm in October or November yet we saw one nail me later on Dec 2nd costing me two spare oars and causing minor damage. I went over my routing and weather assumptions with Jason Christensen (https://racingthewind.com) during my time in Waikiki and felt validated about the winds and currents.

However the devil was in the details. I still did not have a feel for how the northwesterly winter swells would impact my course. If you noticed changes in my latitude as I progressed west from Waikiki, it is because I have been negotiating such swells and weather systems. At this time, I appear on schedule to reach the Marianas in the third week of January or later. This means more forgiving conditions and more easterly winds on the Philippine Sea in February and March, improving my chances of clearing the north end of the Philippines. 

The Philippine Sea between the Marianas and the Philippines receives strong persistent northeasterly winds in January which would have pressed my course further south and possibly tried to shipwreck me on Luzon Island. An alternate plan that I have in such a case is to route to Legaspi then overland to San Fernando City on the northwest side of the island before relaunching for mainland Asia. To improve my odds, I had to time my relaunch from Waikiki accordingly and pace myself until the Northern Marianas.

I have about 800M left before crossing the line of Northern Marianas. Other than my broken microphone plug for the mounted VHF, two missing spare oars and damage caused by the Dec 2 storm to my port side forward oar stand, everything is working on the vessel. I tested my handheld VHF shortly after the storm in talking to the 175m cargo ship Mauna Wili which passed within a mile south of me racing toward Guam at 23.6 knots. They were able spot me on AIS and I had been monitoring their AIS course on my chart plotter as they approached me from the east. That provided an opportunity for a good all around systems check after the knockdown in the storm, settling my nagging concerns.

I was careful to mask consistently and to avoid crowds before my launch. But the booster shots were not available until soon after my launch. With the omicron variant, and who knows what other emergent variants circulating on land until March, humanity will be a threat to my health upon landfall after five months quarantined alone at sea, more so than I to them. The Ocean Recovery Alliance team and the Turkish Consul General in Hong Kong are in touch with the local authorities for an exception to bypass their three week quarantine requirement for arriving tourists, presenting my five month self imposed quarantine as satisfactory. Regardless, perhaps I could be fortunate and receive a booster shot while staying on my rowboat on arrival at Hong Kong, then remain at anchor for a recommended duration until the same booster takes effect. We shall see how this will all shake down…

Two to three weeks after my launch I was no longer concerned about COVID on my rowboat. I had similar concerns after my launch from Crescent City as well. It takes about that long for the incubation period of any communicable disease before manifesting itself. So far I remain healthy and have 24/7 access to the remote medical services of World Clinic (http://www.worldclinic.com) should I have any health concerns. If the Personal Medical Kit that they provided should not solve my issues, we would escalate the response accordingly with their medical advice. I am grateful beyond words for the World Clinic sponsorship of my expeditions ever since 2007. 

Erden