LAST POST - from ROZ blog - for the time being
OCTOBER 11th - Leaving Mauritius for LA
OCTOBER 3rd.
Due to difficult currents and un-helpful winds, Roz has decided not to arrive in the dark. She hopes to arrive on the morning of the 4th.
ROZ CAN SEE THE LIGHTS OF MAURITIUS - 33 miles to go.
Landfall, if all goes to plan, should be within 24 hours!!
OCTOBER 2nd - BREAKING NEWS: Roz only has 39.4 miles to row to make history!
OCTOBER 1st
At 1400 UTC 71 nautical miles to go. Approx 38 miles covered in last 24 hours.
SEPTEMBER 22nd!
ROZ has finally announced her intended destination -post# 131.
She has about 380 miles to row, and intends to be there in early October - so we can now begin the chant - GO ROZ GO!!!!
You can follow her route on this web page
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The first few strokes!
From Roz's blog
"Setting out around March 31, 2011, I will bid to row 5,000 nautical miles from Fremantle in Australia to the west coast of India, aiming to arrive at the Gate of India monument in Mumbai. This would round off the “Big Three” – Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans – making me the first woman in history to do so.
This will be my longest single row to date, and is estimated to take five to six months.
The route may seem surprising, and indeed the original intention was to aim for Zanzibar in Africa. However, given recent problems with pirates operating in the waters off the east coast of Africa, I decided after extensive consultation with my weatherman to aim for Mumbai instead.
The winds and currents are likely to help in this choice of route. Once in the Arabian Sea, the conditions will shift from the southeast to the southwest, allowing a long, looping arc to the west coast of India."
Some facts ~
Atlantic Row
Miles rowed: 2,935
Oarstrokes: about 1,000,000
Time alone at sea: 103 days, 5 hours, 43 minutes
Pacific Row
San Francisco to Hawaii 2008:
Miles rowed: 2,324
Oarstrokes: about 1,000,000
Time alone at sea: 99 days, 8 hours, 55 minutes
Watermakers broken: 2
Hawaii to Kiribati 2009:
Miles traveled: 3,158
Oarstrokes: about 1,335,834
Time alone at sea: 104 days
Number of times across the Equator: 2
Kiribati to Papua New Guinea 2010:
Miles traveled: 2,248
Oarstrokes: about 460,000
Time alone at sea: 46 days
Average daily miles: 49 (compared with previous best ever daily mileage of 42)
Totals ~
Miles rowed: almost 11,000
Oarstrokes: almost 4 million
Time alone at sea: almost a year (two days short!)
ROZ SAVAGE ~ ROWING TOWARDS A GREENER FUTURE
Link to Roz's Blog
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Reader Comments
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As Ylee said, at least they weren't pirates.
I too have been watching Roz and reading all her posts on FB. She is soon to reach her goal. She will be on the talk circuit the rest of her life. I would love to go to hear her in person. I have followed her on all her crossings. I just can't imagine capsizing and still managing to continue. She is the modern day pioneer woman.
Roz continue your sucess and watch out for the big ships.
Mum is in the air and on her way to greet me. Enormous gratitude to all who made it possible!
Wishing ROZ White Rabbits and a Very Happy ROWING few days and a safe Month:)
I owe you an explanation. I’m not very good at making Announcements (with a capital A). Maybe it’s in the interests of Ultimate Flexibility (UF), but my plans tend to kind of dribble out into the public arena, and occasionally dribble back in again. So I never formally announced that I was going to do the North Atlantic in 2012 – it just appeared on the map on my home page – and I have never formally un-announced it either.
But you may have gathered, from a few passing comments under “Other Stuff”, that I no longer intend to row from New York to London next year. And it is time that I explained why. There are many reasons, each of them strong in its own right, and adding up to a very definite decision – or, at least, a very definite decision as far as the immediate future goes. UF Rules!
1. Mission Accomplished
When I first envisioned becoming an ocean rower back in 2004, I intended to row around the world. Turns out, that isn’t possible. Small rowboats aren’t allowed through big commercial canals like the Suez and the Panama, and southern capes are dangerous. Also, rowboats are very much at the mercy of winds and currents, which tend to go in circles within each ocean rather than conveniently linking up into a global conveyor belt, and there are too many cases of “you can’t get there from here”. So I settled for rowing across the “Big Three” oceans – Atlantic, Pacific and Indian. With a bit of luck and a following wind, I will very soon accomplish that.
2. Sedna Solo (Retd)
It became apparent early on in the Indian Ocean voyage that Sedna is past her prime. Water is seeping into previously watertight lockers. The marine ply of her deck needs completely replacing. Not a single piece of electronic equipment is fully functional. Even the electrical system itself is working courtesy only of a few inches of electrical tape and a rhino clip. It would require a huge, costly, and time-consuming overhaul to make her seaworthy again.
3. Immovable Deadline
The point of doing the 2012 row was to arrive in London in time for the 2012 Olympics. It would be touch and go whether I could get there in time. I wouldn’t be able to leave from the US until after the spring storms, and the opening ceremony is on 27th July. Arriving late would defeat the whole purpose, and from what I have read about failed expeditions, tight deadlines make for poor decisions and increased risk. When I thought about it some more, the venture seemed excessively “do or die” – literally.
4. A Pearl In The Storm
When I called my mother on the satphone from the Pacific last year and told her about my bright idea to row the North Atlantic, I thought she would be quite blase about it, having already endured four of my voyages. But there was a resounding silence on the other end of the phone. Then, last Christmas, she gave me a copy of Tori Murden’s book, A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean (See all Memoirs) which you may recall from my blog “Beginner’s Guide to Boat-Rolling”. The storm in question took place on the North Atlantic – as, indeed, did “The Perfect Storm ” The crossing from North America to Europe is notoriously rough, cold, and foggy – not to mention chock-full of commercial shipping traffic. It can be done, of course – Harbo and Samuelson did it, as did Blyth and Ridgway, Oliver Hicks, and Maud Fontenoy – but it’s just not nice.
5. Time Out
Globally, there seems to be a sense of accelerating change. I am already wondering how the world will have changed during the 5 months I have been at sea this year. I have sometimes felt a little frustrated at being so far removed from any news sources. It’s hard to keep your finger on the pulse when you’re quite possibly the world’s most remote human being [link to that blog]. I feel the need to be contactable and in contact with what’s happening in these fast-moving times.
Plus, this year, it troubled me when Mum broke her leg and I couldn’t be there. What if it had been something more serious, and it would be three months before I could get to her? She isn’t getting any younger, and if something bad happened I’d never forgive myself.
6. Time For A Change
After 6 years and 15,000 miles, I’ve probably taken this ocean rowing thing about as far as I can – both personally and “professionally”, i.e. in my environmental campaigning.
Personally, my steepest learning curve was during my first crossing – the Atlantic. Since then, each voyage has become progressively deeper inside my comfort zone. I am not learning as much any more. It is time to find myself a new challenge that will stretch me anew.
Other Stuff:
1000 blogs! Phewee. Makes me feel quite exhausted just thinking about writing 1,000 blogs! And I suppose that half of them have been written at sea – one for each of my 500 days out here
GO ROZ GO!!!!!!
She will arrive approx. 10:00 AM Pacific, Oct. 3rd.
GOOD LUCK ROZ!!!
I thought that last night would be my last night on the ocean. I rowed on and off throughout the hours of darkness, taking catnaps as necessary to keep my energy levels up. The night was rough and blustery, and I snuggled my face into the hood of my orange waterproof jacket as the waves crashed and splashed around me. Stars shone hazily through the clouds, and phosphorescence glittered from the ocean as if in response. The only other lights were the faint glow of the compass between my feet – and the lights of Mauritius, glinting alluringly from the horizon behind me. At last, after 150 days at sea, land was in sight.
I ploughed on, hoping I would be able to make enough miles overnight in order to ensure landfall today. But by 5am local time, as sunrise approached, I still had 27 nautical miles to go. At current rates of progress, I would arrive in Grand Baie shortly after sunset tonight.
Making landfall in darkness is not ideal. Strong reasons for a daylight landing are dictated by safety, logistics, customs regulations and media-friendliness. But to make landfall before the sun sets at 6.05pm I would have had to average better than 2 knots all day – and the rare occasions that I’ve managed that on this voyage I’ve had a strong current helping me along, which I don’t have here.
I was reluctant to give up on my dream of making landfall today. I looked at my GPS, and my logbook, and back to the GPS again, optimistically trying to make the numbers work, but they just wouldn’t. No matter how motivated I might be to feel terra firma beneath my feet, it just wasn’t going to be physically possible.
I rang Tony Humphreys, my landfall logistics manager, to confirm my prognosis. Poor man – I’ve never spoken to him before, only emailed, and here I was calling him at 5am. But he sounded fresh and alert, and agreed with my calculations. We made plans for a landfall early tomorrow morning, 4th Oct, which will be exactly 5 months after I left from North Island in the Abrolhos.
As I write, I am about 20 tantalizing miles from the nearside of Mauritius, and 26 miles from Grand Baie on the leeward side. The wind is pushing me towards land, but I have to try and drag my heels to hold off my arrival until after sunrise tomorrow morning. I can’t put out the sea anchor to slow my progress, as there is a weak current flowing to the southwest, trying to sweep me onto the fringing reefs of the windward coast. The sea anchor would only exacerbate the effect of the current. I need to maintain a precise course due west in order to hit the bullseye of the narrow Quoin Channel.
Conditions are rough and grey this morning, so unfortunately I won’t be spending my day sunbathing. More likely I’ll be hiding out in the cabin, popping out once in a while to tweak the rudder. Once in a while, no doubt I will steal a look towards the silhouette of Mauritius on the horizon, and think of Mum and my team waiting there for me, and wish that I was with them.
Just read Roz's update this morning. Tomorrow morning she will end her life on the ocean. Just hope she avoids the reefs etc. Will be waiting for news. So proud of her and glad the funds were gathered so her mom could be there on shore waiting for her.
Roz would be happy to know that Long Beach and Los Angeles have banned the use of plastic bags in their areas. Paper bags are offered, but you get charged .10¢ for each one you use, encouraging folks to take in their reusable bags. I have plenty and have had plenty for years now, and while I'm very good at taking them in the markets, I'm getting better at taking them into other stores.
I bet she is looking forward to a life off the water - at least for awhile!
5 Meters to Qualifying - 31 minutes ago
Roz holding oars up. Horns still blowing. Roz Savage has officially Qualified!... - 20 minutes ago
ROZ HAS QUALIFIED! Horns are sounding. Coast Guard sounding their horns. ROZ HAS QUALIFIED! - 10 mins ago
SHE HAS DONE IT!!!!!"
WELL DONE ROZ!!!
SO PROUD OF OUR ROZ!
She says she is "hanging" up her oars!
I just wish I could have been there. I have followed Roz since she first rowed across the Atlantic in 2005.
If she has really "hung up her oars", I might have to close Sadielady!!!
I’ve done it! After 5 months and 0 days at sea, I am absolutely over the
moon to be back on dry land, surrounded by friends and wellwishers -
and, of course, my dear mother. I have just become the first woman to
row across the “Big Three” oceans of the world – the Atlantic, Pacific,
and Indian.
I’d like to thank all my blog readers for your unwavering support over
the course of this very, very long final voyage. You have been a source
of tremendous inspiration, encouragement, information and amusement. I
hope that you were able to participate in at least part of my final
countdown to landfall, no matter what time zone you are in, and that you feel a vicarious pride in my achievement. We’ve been through a lot
together – the highs and lows, capsizes and pratfalls, triumphs and
setbacks.
To mark this momentous occasion, I’ve put together a summary of the
highlights – and lowlights – of Eat-Pray-Row, my solo crossing of the
Indian Ocean. As I started writing it, I found that almost all of my
notable moments started with an F. So here we have it – Roz’s Effing
Guide to Eat-Pray-Row.
To read the rest of the Highlights /lowlights click here
Barely a week after I arrived in Mauritius, it was time to hit the road again. Places to go, people to see, but it was with a heavy heart that I bade farewell to this beautiful island.
The pool where I had my morning swim
I have met many wonderful people here – with special thanks to Michel and Anne Bourgeois at 20 Degrees South, Pipo at the Grand Baie Yacht Club, Jean-Edgar Merle who has helped out in so many ways as well as throwing a fantastically decadent dinner party for me and Team Roz, Nicholas Weiss who hosted an afternoon event for me at his home on the east coast, and the TV folks at MBC.
I’d like to say a bit more about 20 Degrees South. There is a certain kind of hotel that I daydream about as I row across oceans. I very rarely stay in hotels, generally staying with friends whose company I cherish, and to save on cost and environmental impact – but I have to confess that there is nothing like the feel of crisp, white sheets tautly stretched across a comfortable hotel mattress to make me feel truly blissful. Just imagine how good that feels after 5 months of sleeping in an increasingly itchy and malodorous sleeping bag!
So where to next?
I am writing this blog en route to Los Angeles, where tomorrow I will be meeting Diana Nyad, the amazing 62-year-old ultra-distance swimmer, to further the acquaintance we started via Skype last week (video here, filmed at 20 Degrees South). On Thursday you can catch me at a Green Drinks/Surfrider event. At the Trashers Ball I will be making a short presentation – and my debut as a model! I’ll be wearing a trashy creation by designer Marina De Bris (geddit?!) and my good friends from the 5 Gyres Institute, Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins, will also be on the catwalk.
Then on Friday I’m off to San Francisco. ALL ARE WELCOME for celebratory drinks at Greens Restaurant in Fort Mason from 5pm until about 9pm on Friday, 14th October.
After a round of meetings in San Francisco I’m off to New York, from 22nd to 26th October. No plans as yet for any public appearances or events there, but I will keep you posted if that changes.
And finally…. my apologies for general bloglessness for the last 5 or 6 days. I had a wonderful time in Mauritius but it was exceedingly busy, and this is the first moment I have had to myself. From now on I should be able to post a blog every 3 or 4 days. And, of course, I will still be podcasting with Vic over at Roz Roams every week. So stay tuned!
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