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Roz Savage in solo
row bid over Pacific | Adapted from Sunday Telegraph and from Roz Savage's blog (www.rozsavage.com): 18 May 2008
Following her successful solo crossing of the Atlantic in 2006, Roz Savage is bidding to be the first solo woman to row across the Pacific Ocean from California to Australia. Her 3-stage row launches in Summer 2008. A former City banker, Roz plans to launch her vessel from under San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on Wednesday 21 May on the first leg of her perilous 6,700-mile trip. She will row more than 2,400 miles to Hawaii in a boat not much bigger than a family car. The second stage will take her to Samoa and she hopes to complete her journey by reaching the east coast of Australia by 2009. The Pacific attempt is part of her plan eventually to circumnavigate the globe. Miss Savage said that an important reason for making the journey was to highlight the need for marine conservation. She is working with the Blue Frontier campaign for marine conversation. "I want to change the public's out of sight, out of mind mentality. People must realise, when they throw a plastic bag away, it will end up in the sea, in the stomach of an albatross, inflicting a slow and painful death" she said. Miss Savage has previously tasted both success and heartbreak as an ocean rower. She completed her 3,000-mile Atlantic crossing in 2006, but last year her life was saved when she was rescued by US the US coastguard on her first attempt at the Pacific record. "Lack of progress and the relentlessness got me down on the Atlantic," she said of her 2006 voyage."In really rough waves it was hellishly noisy."
Disaster struck during her Pacific attempt in 2007 after she had rowed 100 miles. She hit horrific storms and capsized three times in one day. Clearly not superstitious, she is using the same boat, The Brocade, a carbon fibre craft which is 25ft long and 6ft wide. "I hope it is a perfect showcase for sustainable energy sources," she said. "All the onboard electronics and communication gadgets are powered by six solar panels and a wind generator." Miss Savage will transmit video blogs and podcasts from her boat to shore. She has installed £50,000 worth of phone and communication equipment. "I realise that I face tough odds," she said. "Men are usually tall, powerful athletes as this allows them to get a bigger reach with the oar and move it through a greater body of water, creating greater movement and speed." Miss Savage used to row in a lightweights crew for Oxford University. Extract from Roz's blog: 18 May 2008, Woodside, California (www.rozsavage.com) Generally I attempt to maintain an attitude of Zen calm in the face of life's ups and downs. The Atlantic taught me, among many other things, that things are rarely as good or as bad as they seem, so there is no point getting too excited about the good, or too bent out of shape about the bad. But this last week has tested my Zen serenity to its limits. Last weekend there was a short-term financial crisis that seemed to threaten my expedition - or at least my ability to pay the satphone bill (on which my blogs, videos, and podcasts depend). On Monday the money appeared. Mid-week it seemed that some crucial pieces of kit had gone missing. After a sleepless night they were finally unearthed in an unexpected corner of the hangar where my boat is stored. On Friday a friend and I baked in a California heatwave as a we laboured to get various bits of electrical equipment working, including the location beacon (which sends back my position to this website), the onboard camera system (needed so I can record footage for our environmental documentary) and my stereo (needed to keep me sane!).
I won't say we "failed", as I was quite rightly reminded by comments on a previous blog that the f-word is simply a matter of interpretation, but I can safely say that we didn't succeed. And all other forms of assistance had dried up. Then yesterday the cavalry arrived in the shape of Rich Crow, the helicopter engineer who worked on my boat last year. He knows the electrical system better than anybody else. He was grumbling like mad as he crammed his frame back into my tiny cabin to investigate the problem, but he swiftly traced the likely cause to a battery that had run so low over the winter that even the bright sunshine hitting the solar panels could not bring it back from the dead. So each and every crisis has caused its fair share of despondency, only to be resolved the next day. Funny how help turns up just when I need it, and a timely reminder that life has a way of looking after me. So why worry? Be happy!
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