If everybody had an ocean Across the U. S. A. Then everybody'd be surfin' Like Californi-a You'd seem 'em wearing their baggies Huarachi sandals too A bushy bushy blonde hairdo Surfin' U. S. A.  - The Beach Boys   The first storm of the winter was coming. The wind was picking up. Late afternoon, Captain Mike towed me to the [...]

"The dream," wrote Carl Jung in The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man (1934) "is a small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul..." I relaunched my boat on February 7th! Look at my face above - I was jubilant that afternoon, to escape the shipyard and slide my boat back into the water. She had been out for seven weeks. SEVEN [...]

Today I came across my Personal Philosophy, a multi-page document I filled out last year on the request of my sports psychologist Dr. Michael Gervais.       For my Wiki page click here.

My Dear World blog was one of those blogs you publish, then instantly want to retract. It's a bitter pill to tell the world that something didn't work out, you felt like you failed and are struggling to continue. Even after the messages started flooding in, my finger itched to press delete. Support came at me from every angle - [...]

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! stickers last month, passers-by would [...]

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 hours 30 minutes, but I [...]

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 article and below is my interview. [...]

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 memory having thrown sleep deprivation [...]

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 the dock at the SFYC.  [...]

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 knots it’s just not much [...]

(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 my HR increased during and [...]

(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 choy?’ ‘No.’ ‘May I get [...]

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 leave Sausalito for Paradise Cay [...]