Sailing is not the only sustainable propulsion

If you don’t want to use an engine at all to move forward at sea, sailing seems the most obvious solution. But rowing is also possible. Although that is not always successful.

An Australian warship recently rescued a Lithuanian solo oarsman who had run into a tropical cyclone while trying to cross the Pacific from California. Aurimas Mockus was taken aboard the Royal Australian Navy’s landing ship HMAS Choules.

Oars recovered

“Due to the very adverse sea conditions, Mr Mockus’ boat could not be recovered, with the exception of two oars and some personal items,” the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which coordinated the rescue, said in a statement.
The 44-year-old adventurer had been trapped for three days in the Coral Sea, about 460 miles east of the coastal town of Mackay in the state of Queensland. He had rowed there in a closed boat non-stop from San Diego on his way to Queensland’s capital, Brisbane. He began the 7,500-mile journey in October and was days away from Brisbane when he encountered the storm. Brisbane is 500 miles south of Mackay by air.

Epirb activated

Mockus activated an emergency beacon after rowing into stormy seas and winds of 50 km/h caused by tropical cyclone Alfred, the rescue authority said. The authority dispatched a plane that made radio contact with Mockus. Mockus reported being “tired”, the authority said. The warship took Mockus to Sydney in New South Wales, where he was reunited with his wife a few days later. Mockus was attempting to become one of the few rowers to have crossed the Pacific alone and without stopping.

Not the first

Briton Peter Bird may have been the first in 1983. He rowed from San Francisco and was towed the last 30 miles to the Australian mainland. But he is believed to have rowed close enough to Australia to make the crossing.
Bird’s compatriot John Beeden rowed from San Francisco to Cairns in 2015, and is considered by some to be the first to make a truly successful crossing.
Australian Tom Robinson, in 2022, attempted to become the youngest person to cross the Pacific, albeit with a break in the Cook Islands. He set off from Peru and spent 265 days at sea before being rescued off Vanuatu in 2023. The 24-year-old’s boat capsized due to a wave, causing him to cling naked to the hull for 14 hours before he was rescued by a cruise ship that made a 124-mile diversions to reach him.

Most successful rower is a woman

Michelle Lee became the first woman to make the crossing in 2023, rowing from Ensenada in Mexico to Port Douglas in Queensland. She rowed 14,000 kilometres (about 8,700 miles) aboard a 7.7 x 2-metre carbon-fibre rowing boat, Australian Maid. During her 237-day crossing, she endured five hurricanes and four cyclones. When she could not row due to bad weather, she spent her time in a watertight compartment on board. ‘Extremely uncomfortable, but scared I never was,’ she later told.
The 50-year-old massage therapist from Sydney departed Ensenada, Mexico, on 8 August 2022 and arrived in Port Douglas, Queensland, on 5 April 2023. She had a special weather router that tracked her progress and advised her on favourable currents and winds whenever possible.
In 2019, she already rowed solo across the Atlantic in 68 days, which earned her the ‘Adventurer of the Year’ award from The Australian Geographic.

Sources: Clipping News, Latitude38, Solorower.
Headline image: Michelle Lee rowing on the ocean. ©Michelle Lee,
Other image: the rescue of Mockus ©Australian Defence Force.

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