Cool story.
And thanks to Mr. Nolte, one of my favorite Chronicle writers.
Posted on 11/14/2009 1:00:54 PM PST by thecodont
(11-13) 17:44 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Friday the 13th was the luckiest day of the year for two British adventurers who passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday morning after rowing a 23-foot-long boat more than 5,000 miles across the Pacific from Japan.
The voyage took 189 days - more than six months - on a boat made of Kevlar and propelled only by muscle power. The two men were stalked by whales, tossed by storms, ran low on food and sometimes despaired. They did not sight land until Thursday, when the dim silhouette of Point Reyes appeared on the horizon.
"A once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing," said Mick Dawson, 45, the skipper.
Why did they do it?
"It hasn't been done before," said Chris Martin, 28, Dawson's rowing partner. The voyage apparently is the first unaided and unescorted transpacific voyage in a rowing boat.
Both men have rowed across the Atlantic Ocean before - Dawson did it twice and Martin once - but the immense North Pacific was an ocean apart.
"There is no comparison," said Dawson. "It's the difference between a skiing holiday vacation and trekking to the North Pole. Getting across the Pacific to San Francisco is incredibly difficult."
They took turns rowing, two hours on and two hours off every day, every night.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Cool story.
And thanks to Mr. Nolte, one of my favorite Chronicle writers.
Wow. What a feat.
Where was Queen Pelosi?
I’ll bite: why bother?
THanks for posting the story & link
Reminds me of the Tinker Belle, a 12 ft sailboat that crossed the Atlantic in the mid 60s - quite the deal in that day.
LOL - they could always make seafood chowder...
Barnacles attached to the stern of the Bojangles
..
Does anyone know how that young girl (I think she’s 13?) is doing??
If they would just plate those metal parts with cadmium, there would be no barnacles on them. As soon as the barnacle attaches and absorbs a bit of cadmium, it dies.
They sure took the long way to escape the National Healthcare System. Too bad it’s following them here. ;-)
pffftttt....whales don’t stalk boats nor people
oh yeah, we were out in the ocean and we had some whales stalking us...............NOT
Jessica Watson, the 16 year old Australian girl, is near the Equator, running about 10% ahead of schedule, and should complete the northern loop around the Line Islands this week.
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