Three Years!
Day: 86 — Position: N18 36’ E157 38’
Odometer since Waikiki: about 2,622M
Distance to Northern Marianas: 706M
Sea surface temperature: 81.9F - 27.7C
OCEAN ROWING RECORDS AS RUNNING TOTALS
Solo career total in days: 1,011 (New World Record)
Overall career total in days: 1,095 (New World Record)
Solo career total in miles by Waikiki: 22,173M now about 24,687M (New World Record)
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Overall career total in miles by Waikiki: 25,153M now about 27,667M
** Ralph Tuijn (NL) leads this with 35,635M
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I entered 2022 on my yellow rowboat at around 13:31UTC on 31 December 2021. That was ahead of everyone that I know personally, given how far east that I still am, so close to the International Dateline.
As of today, the total number of days that I spent rowing on The Ocean including the two-person adventures that I had in 2005 and 2016, reached 1,095. That is exactly three years! 1,011 of that was by myself on this yellow rowboat.
Those three years are not only a measure of my commitment to the sport of ocean rowing, but also of Nancy’s immense patience while I pursued my passion. Ever since our wedding day in Alaska in June 2003 after I descended from Mt McKinley, a significant portion of our marriage was spent with me on expedition. Without the foundation that she has been in our relationship, I could not have thrust forward. Words do not do justice in expressing to Nancy my gratitude.
I am 60 years old now which means that I lived 5% of my life within the confines of a small rowboat with an unrestricted expansive view of the horizon and the sky. Not to mention the daily toil of physical exercise, the exposure to elements and the mental duress of keeping the expedition on course, there are obvious limitations to life onboard a rowboat. I have everything that I need to survive a long time on this rowboat without outside help,. To achieve that, food is rationed and restricted, sometimes feeling repetitive. My deck is smaller than the floor of a solitary jail cell. My cabin is like a two person tent. I don’t have the creature comforts as in a yacht like a refrigerator, a shower or a sitting toilet. The boat never stops moving; I cannot take a step unless I am on all fours to maintain three point contact at all times…
However what turns my journey into a human interest story, makes it resonate with strangers that I have yet to meet on faraway shores and deems it worthy of assigning records, is exactly the sum of those small sacrifices that I have made by choice. The deliberate choices that I make leaving the sails, the engine and the comforts of a yacht behind, in order to travel by human power alone, gives my journey a different meaning, touching hearts upon arrival at distant shores. There is magic in my journey that engenders kindness from strangers who do not stay so for long; my journey never fails to provide…
My rowboat is like a spaceship essential for my survival much like Mother Earth is for humanity and for all the fellow creatures which share this rock with us. Humanity is on a consumption binge, pursuing a wasteful existence, preferring gluttony as though we have infinite resources. Humanity is consuming more resources faster than the Earth can provide, outstripping its ability to sustain life in the long term. We have only One Earth and we have no Planet B. If we could only make deliberate choices as humanity to pare down our demands and to slow our pace of consumption, we could achieve a more sustainable lifestyle, support more of humanity at a higher standard of living and create that sorely needed breathing room for our fellow creatures. We may even find that humanity can do with less, allowing us to rewild tracts of land and sea to create a viable home for other species which would also be a gift for the future generations.
Although this big spaceship full of humanity will not be docking at any distant shore at any time soon, would that not be a more meaningful existence for us today?
I hope 2022 will be a better year than last.
Erden