This isn’t an easy blog for me to write. I am sorry to say that the YO! Row came to an end on 31 December 2017. What hasn’t ended is my intent to row the North Pacific. I own the boat. The training will continue. When I was in the boatyard taking off the YO! [...]
Wind buffets the car as the wipers pace from left to right. I had been advised against taking the coastal road. In the forecast weather there would be nothing to see and on the freeway in the rain there is surely even less. The heater is on, snacks laid out, phone plugged in. Googlemaps says 2 [...]
In December of last year, I was contacted by sassy sports entrepreneur and lawyer, Alana Glass who is also the pro sports contributor for Forbes! Alana had come across my story and wanted to include me in her list of Women to Watch in Sport in 2018. Big cheese!!! I was delighted. Here's the full [...]
Getting caught in a squall off the Berkeley shore is one of the most dangerous moments of my career. The ocean can be challenging, but it’s land that poses a bigger threat to any vessel. I learned many lessons and gained confidence from the experience. Bolinas and back…goodness me. I am exhausted just by the [...]
mav·er·ick ˈmav(ə)rik/ noun 1. an unorthodox or independent-minded person. Saturday 09 December 3am Alarm goes. Beddit tells me I've managed 5hrs 34 minutes of sleep and took 40 minutes to fall asleep. My clothes are laid out, my food and water bottles filled and ready by the door. I stretch and hit the road. 4:05am Off [...]
SF > Half Moon Bay Saturday 8th December - 32 nautical miles (10-15hr Row) I'm 90% sure I’ve got this, but what I’ve learned from my rows in the bay of San Francisco is that conditions can change in an instant. In my last 10hr+ row to Bolinas and back I struggled from sleep deprivation. For [...]
From Sausalito to Berkeley is a good 4hr row. Usually I go under Angel Island rather than over through Raccoon Straits. On Tuesday since my boat was at the San Francisco Yacht Club, I decided to take the Straits. The forecast was light, 10-12 from the E/SE. Hardly ideal, but I can row into 10-12 [...]
(Click here for Part 1) The only upside of being blinded by apocalyptic search light - three times - is that I rowed so far onto the bank of San Pablo bay that I found myself in flat water and surprisingly, in better current flow. You can see from the chart of my HR, how [...]
(Click here for Part 1) It's 6:30pm at night and I am wandering around Vallejo, sore, tired and desperately hungry. All three taquerias in my vicinity are closed. I follow my nose. This leads me to a Chinese restaurant, where the answer to everything is no. ‘May I order half a $12 portion of bok [...]
From the outset I knew that rowing to Vallejo was going to be tough. How much would the tide help me? I didn’t know. Could I row 18 nautical miles before the tide turned against me? I was going to find out. My route was a 36 mile roundtrip from Paradise Cay; my plan to [...]