The Pacific by oars alone

Equipped with a seven-metre (23 foot) boat, a pair of oars and a sliding seat, Fontenoy left last week from Lima’s rowing club de Regatas to follow the same 8,000-kilometre route that explorer Thor Heyerdahl completed in 1947 on the famous Kon-Tiki expedition to Tahiti.

Although Fontenoy’s boat is state of the art compared to Heyerdahl’s balsa raft she will carry few supplies to keep weight to a minimum. Stores are made up of 150 days of powdered food, three books, a sleeping bag, kettle, a small desalination unit for drinking water, navigation gear and a satellite phone. Fontenoy’s scarlet coloured boat, shaped like a racing car, has a sliding seat and oars in the middle section with a small enclosed storage area at one end and a cabin for sleeping at the other.

Leaving in the heat of the Southern Hemisphere summer means that Fontenoy plans to row in the evening and at night. Already in her first few days at sea she has been escaping to her cabin to avoid the mid-day above 30-degree temperatures.

Maud Fontenoy
© Benoît Tessier

There is no support boat following Fontenoy so the only help in case of trouble will be the hope that someone will spot her distress signal. In the middle of the Pacific help could be up to 10 days away.

However, life at sea is nothing new for Fontenoy who made her first Atlantic crossing on the family sailboat when she departed at the age of just one week old. Nearly 15 years of her life have been spent on boats and in 2003 Fontenoy rowed from Canada to Spain becoming the first woman to row the Atlantic Ocean from west to east.

Fontenoy is one of many adventurers who are part of the growing list of rowers that choose to dip their oars into open ocean waters. One of the best known ocean regattas is the Atlantic Rowing Race. This has become a biennial event and the next race, which departs in November 2005, will include a record 51 entries of solo, pair and quad boats.

Leaving later this month, Great Britain’s Tiny Little aims to row the Atlantic Ocean solo from east to west. Then at the start of February Victor Mooney of the United States will be the first to attempt to retrace the path that slaves from Africa were taken to the Americas. Mooney will row from Senegal, to Brazil and on to the United States.

Also aiming for a first, Simon Chalk of Great Britain will leave in April to complete a triple header. Chalk has already rowed the Atlantic and Indian oceans and aims to row the Pacific following the same course as Fontenoy.

If Fontenoy is successful she will become the first woman to cross the Pacific from east to west.

To follow Fontenoy’s progress go to: http://www.maudfontenoy.com

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