Imagine spending 257 days rowing across the Pacific Ocean, only stopping twice (in Hawaii and Samoa) between the United States and Australia to restock supplies.
That’s what the Coxless Crew did between April and January 25, becoming the first all-female team (and the first four-person team) to row across the Pacific.
The British crew traveled the 8,446 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to Cairns in northeast Australia by rowing 24 hours a day in two-hour shifts (each sleeping for 90 minutes at a time). Along the way, they encountered humpback whales, sharks, brutal storms, and the adventure of a lifetime.
The crew was aboard the Doris, a 29-foot boat that housed a cabin the size of a two-person tent. The boat’s battery charging system even got damaged at the beginning of the trip, which forced the team to return to California, costing them 16 days.
Laura Penhaul, Natalia Cohen and Emma Mitchell were on the boat the entire time while Isabel Burnham, Lizanne Van Vuuren, and Meg Dyos each rowed a leg.
They saw about 512 sunrises and sunsets, burned around 5,000 calories a day, and even ran into John Beeden on the water, who set his own record for a solo crossing just after Christmas.
One of the best parts? They finished as “true friends.”
Now they’ll focus their efforts on raising money for the two charities they support: Walking with the Wounded, and Breast Cancer Care.
