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| US woman sets off on attempt to row solo across Pacific | US woman sets off on attempt to row solo across Pacific |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| An American hoping to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific has left the Japanese port of Choshi at the beginning of a 6,000-mile journey to San Francisco. | An American hoping to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific has left the Japanese port of Choshi at the beginning of a 6,000-mile journey to San Francisco. |
| Only three other rowboats have made the journey, and no woman has ever done it alone from Japan to the US. Sonya Baumstein, from Orlando, Florida, waited for weeks to set out in her custom-designed green boat. She expects to arrive in California in September, rowing 14-16 hours a day when the weather allows and breaking her sleep to check her location. | |
| Having already rowed the Atlantic to the Caribbean, the 29-year-old has a good idea of what all those weeks at sea will be like. The worst, she has said, are moonless nights when she cannot tell where the waves are coming from or when they will smash into her. | Having already rowed the Atlantic to the Caribbean, the 29-year-old has a good idea of what all those weeks at sea will be like. The worst, she has said, are moonless nights when she cannot tell where the waves are coming from or when they will smash into her. |
| “It’s really frustrating because you have waves coming at you from every direction and you can’t anticipate by seeing them. So your oars are popping around and hitting your body. You end up getting soaked a lot and hurt more often,” she said. | “It’s really frustrating because you have waves coming at you from every direction and you can’t anticipate by seeing them. So your oars are popping around and hitting your body. You end up getting soaked a lot and hurt more often,” she said. |
| Baumstein rowed competitively in high school and at Wisconsin University, but was sidelined by a bad car accident. After recovering, she joined three men in rowing the mid-Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Barbados in January 2012. She has kayaked from Washington state to Alaska, standup paddle-boarded across the Bering Strait and cycled 1,800 miles from the Mexican border to Seattle. | Baumstein rowed competitively in high school and at Wisconsin University, but was sidelined by a bad car accident. After recovering, she joined three men in rowing the mid-Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Barbados in January 2012. She has kayaked from Washington state to Alaska, standup paddle-boarded across the Bering Strait and cycled 1,800 miles from the Mexican border to Seattle. |
| She likens the Pacific challenge to “climbing K12 without oxygen”, but she’s determined. “I worked three years of my life for this,” she said Sunday. “It’s 6,000 miles. It’s going to get bad at times. I just keep my eyes on the prize.” | |
| As she travels, equipment on her boat will take samples and measure water conditions to help understand climate change and other phenomena. | As she travels, equipment on her boat will take samples and measure water conditions to help understand climate change and other phenomena. |
| Baumstein will not have a support boat following her. The cost would have been prohibitive and the fuel spent contrary to the green nature of her endeavour, she said. Instead, she has a team providing support remotely from shore via satellite phone and GPS. | Baumstein will not have a support boat following her. The cost would have been prohibitive and the fuel spent contrary to the green nature of her endeavour, she said. Instead, she has a team providing support remotely from shore via satellite phone and GPS. |
| She expects to know of bad conditions at least 24 hours before she might need to tie everything down, adjust the ballast in her boat and take cover in the tiny cabin where she will eat and sleep. | She expects to know of bad conditions at least 24 hours before she might need to tie everything down, adjust the ballast in her boat and take cover in the tiny cabin where she will eat and sleep. |