A team of four women broke two World records when they set foot on land in Cairns this week. Rowing to raise $350,000 for Walking with the Wounded and Breast Cancer Care, the British women set off from San Francisco nine months ago and now stand as the first four person crew to row across the Pacific as well as becoming the first team of women to do so.
The nine month journey consisted of rowing two hour shifts, two at a time, while the remaining two rowers napped. They did this seven days a week only stepping on land in Hawaii and Samoa for a week at a time, breaking the entire 8,500 mile trip into three legs. Just as impressive as any other fact about their journey – they did it with no support crew sailing by their side.
The trip was expected to take six months but delays between Hawaii and Samoa set them back to the eventual nine month mark. And the rowers recorded it all, with the footage going to the upcoming documentary Losing Sight of Shore. Altogether, the accomplishment is just one of less than 400 successful rows across an ocean.
