The PaddlerUK magazine March 2015 issue 1 | Page 84

ThePaddlerUK 84

Sarah set off alone to row the Pacific Ocean to Canada

but 600 miles out her boat was damaged by a tropical storm, not to mention the mental damage to
Sarah who endured over 20 capsizes and water leaking into her boat for a 48 hour period. On her
second attempt to row the Pacific a year later, her rowing boat was the play thing of unseasonable
winds. She was pushed north and back towards Japan, finally realizing after four months that she
wasn’t going to make Canada before winter storms hit. Looking at a map and scratching around for
solutions, her eyes were drawn to a mysterious chain of islands 500 miles to the north, which are
dotted between Russia and Alaska.

I was sitting at my desk working in August 2013 when I had a phone call from the Pacific Ocean and a
friendly voice asked if I would kayak along the Aleutian Islands with her the following summer. It
would be from wherever Sarah landed in her rowing boat to the nearest road, so she could jump back
on her bike and continue her journey.

I didn’t answer straight away. I was doing calculations in my head about how long I’d need to be away for
and what whether the substantial challenges would be too much for us to take on safely.We’d be taking
on over 20 open water crossings of over 15 miles in an area of strong – but undocumented tidal
streams, in a virtually uninhabited archipelago, over 1,000 miles from the nearest coastguard station.