The First Four-Digit Rower
Day: 72 Odometer: about 2,304M
Position: N22 28’ W153 15’
Distance from start: 1,869M
Nearest land: NE shores of Big Island of Hawaii 176M due 219T
Waikiki Yacht Club by my course: 270M due WSW
ETA: September 9-10
RECORDS as running totals
Solo career total in days at launch: 845 now 917
Overall career total in days at launch: 928 now 1,000
Solo career total in miles at launch: 27,595M now about 29,899M
Overall career total in miles at launch: 31,083M now about 33,387M
==> Ralph Tuijn (NL) leads the last one with 35,635M
Actual distance rowed in miles will append to my existing career totals at launch in solo and overall categories, respectively. To become official, the London based Ocean Rowing Society must adjudicate the supporting GPX files from my chart plotter and YB Tracker.
—-oOo—-
Four digits? Really?
No, I did not lose a finger on this crossing, all of my fingers are still intact; rather, my overall total of days spent rowing on The Ocean reached that hard-to-grasp 1,000-day threshold as of today. Another 95 days further west, perhaps somewhere near the Marianas, I will have spent three years of my life rowing on The Ocean.
Being 60, that’s 1/20 or 5% of my life dedicated to this sport. Being married to Nancy for 18 years, that would be 1/6 or 17% of our time apart on Earth. Note that those three years are strictly time spent rowing on The Ocean, not including time away for land phases of my expeditions, or lately instructing sailing or racing sailboats or delivering yachts. She is my rock, my foundation from which I thrust forward then home is where she will be, for me to find my way back.
This 1,000 day total includes partnered rows that I have done, the last of which was itself a record setting crossing with the British young man Louis Bird during the 2016 edition of the Great Pacific Race. We became the fastest team to row the race course from Monterey to Diamond Head by Waikiki in the Classic Pairs category of rowboats.
My career total in days rowed solo is now 917. Some might conclude that I enjoy the solitude that The Ocean offers and they would be correct!
Both of these aforementioned totals are Guinness World Records which I intend to advance on each day that I may be blessed to get back on The Ocean in a rowboat.
Ever since I matched the overall career total by Peter Bird, the father of Louis, at the end of June just nine days after my launch from Crescent City, it has been sobering waking up to a new record every subsequent morning. Peter was a pioneer of our sport who was lost at sea in 1996 on his third attempt at rowing west to east across the Pacific Ocean from Vladivostok to California. A mainland to mainland row, which is what Peter was attempting, is still a feat yet to be accomplished; all west to east rows on the North Pacific have launched from the main island of Japan. Peter’s long-standing record was 937 days, set on the day we assume that he died.
You may have noticed that yesterday around noon, I gathered my para anchor and mobilized 12 hours earlier than I had suggested. Since the 26th, I had been on a CCW eddy which at first swept me west farther than I wanted to go, serving me what seemed like a barrel of lemons. When we realized that this was an eddy and received a lull in the winds, I was able to make lemonade out of it by first rowing due south on the western aspect of said eddy then hanging on its southwestern aspect by para anchor when the southeasterly winds blew for two days. You can see the outline of that eddy on my track over the last week.
The forecast was for E-winds starting around 2pm yesterday then ENE beginning around 8pm today. I had a hunch that those E-winds would back with the afternoon wind shift pattern that I explained in my last update dated Aug 31. From morning squalls onward, the breeze went from ESE to E to ENE by early afternoon. The seas quickly built up to 6-ft by mid afternoon pushing my rowboat and I rowed at 1.8-2.0 knot pace due SW.
Unshackled from her restraints, my rowboat knew where to go. I would have been happy with 245T and was ready to put in back to back 18-19 hour days to make that happen and yet I was achieving 205T-215T. By sunset, the wind eased, I settled on 235T and paced along comfortably. Last night the boat held 240T COG while I slept.
If you are not familiar, 270T is west, 225T southwest and 180T south. When I use WSW that would be between W and SW which is 247.5T, ENE is between E and NE at 067.5T — you get the idea.
Now I am back inside the EEZ of the US again (Exclusive Economic Zone — up to 200M at sea from any national territory, equidistant boundaries if distances are less than 400M and two or more countries are involved). With moderate ENE winds forecast through Saturday, descending toward Molokai will not be a problem. With that, my chances of reaching Waikiki increased dramatically. Who knew?
We will still prepare for a rendezvous at sea near Kahuku Point should I for some reason be forced to run up the north side of Oahu. However that is looking less likely by the hour.
I really hope that I can row into Waikiki. I would like to offer Louis and his mom Polly each a toast when I tie up once again at the floating dinghy dock of the Waikiki Yacht Club. That’s where Louis first set foot ashore after a most meaningful effort arriving there from Monterey. That effort surely served to help him better understand his father’s motivations and to make peace with his absence ever since Louis was a toddler. It was an honor to hold space for Louis to grieve and my duty to ensure that Polly would not receive that dreaded second phone call.
I may repost the following before I reach Koko Head to provide details on how to follow my approach.
I am hoping to time my arrival to daylight hours. For that I am willing to drop anchor and wait before entering the Ala Wai Boat Harbor channel. This may serve to reacclimate me from afar to the hubbub and the smells of city life after having been isolated for what will have been about 82 days.
Those in Honolulu, I hope you will be there to see me arrive…please join me! When I dock my rowboat at the Waikiki Yacht Club I would like you join me in raising a toast to what proved to be a more difficult row than I had anticipated and to the memories of Peter Bird and Angela Madsen, Para Olympian whom we lost recently while she was also rowing to Waikiki from California. And as you do, may you say aloud the names of Louis Bird and Polly Wickham in camaraderie so that their ears shall ring…
I now have my YB Tracker sending my position at the top of every hour. I will change that to every 15 minutes near Koko Head then to every minute at the Diamond Head buoy. You may need to refresh your browser window to see the rowboat progress on my tracking page.
Erden.
PS — Louis produced a documentary in his father’s memory after our row in the Great Pacific Race and tells his story. The below link is limited to a UK audience only I believe right now. VPN should be helpful to bypass that restriction.