American Woman Ends Bid to Row Across the Pacific

An American woman has ended her attempt to row solo across the Pacific Ocean just eight days into the attempt. Sonya Baumstein launched her bid back on June 7, departing from Choshi, Japan with the intention of reaching San Francisco, covering a distance of 6000 miles in the process. But last weekend she put out a distress call after her boat experienced several mechanical failures that put the entire journey into jeopardy.

According to a report from the Associated Press, Baumstein began her Pacific row by first experiencing sea sickness. That kept her close to the shore for a few days as she acclimated to her conditions. After that, she was able to find the Kuroshio current, which crosses the Pacific west to east, and would have aided her progress. At that point, all seemed to be going according to plan.

On Saturday, June 13, Sonya sent out a distress signal calling for assistance. At that point she was 250 km (155 miles) from shore. That is about the limit for a Japanese coast guard boat to conduct a rescue, and as she started to have issues with the boat, Baumstein decided it was too dangerous for her, and potential rescuers, to continue.

At some point early on the steering system on her row boat failed, and she was facing a very long journey without precise controls. Furthermore, the weather forecast looked ominous as well, so it seemed that the better part of valor was for her to pull the plug altogether. A passing freighter picked up her distress call and hauled her out of the water, and later handed her over to the coat guard.

As of Monday, Baumstein was on her way back to Japan. There is no word yet on whether or not she'll have another go at the crossing.

It should be noted that a number of reports indicated that Sonya was attempting to become the first woman to row across the Pacific solo, which we all know isn't true. Roz Savage completed that feat back in 2010, although she traveled east to west, and made the crossing in stages along a longer route.

Long Distance Swimmer Prepares to Attempt Pacific Ocean Crossing

Back in 1998, long distance swimmer Ben Lecomte became the first person to swim across the Atlantic Ocean without using a kick board, covering 3716 miles (5996 km) in 73 days. That was a grueling exercise in endurance and determination that cemented his place in the record books. But now, Ben is looking to take on an even more impressive challenge. In July, he'll set off on an even longer swim, as he attempts to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean, a journey that will cover more than 5500 miles (8851 km) between Tokyo and San Francisco.

The Longest Swim, as Ben has aptly named this project, will be undertaken to help raise awareness of climate change. In order to accomplish this feat he'll need to swim 8 hours a day, 7 days a week for 180 days, burning as much as 10,000 calories per day. A support will be with him at every stage of the journey of course, and he'll rest and take his meals aboard that boat as he progresses. In a recent interview with Red Bull, Ben says that his boat will be a special one too. Made completely out of wood, and 24 meters in length, it was built back in 1940, and fits well into his mindset of protecting the environment and recycling.

In that same interview, Lancomte talks about how he trains for such a long distance swim, how he manages to keep pushing himself forward for hours on end, and for days at a time, and what his goals are for the project. Namely, he hopes to attract as much attention to the challenges our planet faces due to climate change, and he thought the best way to achieve that was to undertake this massive challenge.

The Longest Swim is still a few weeks away from getting underway, and Ben will wait for the optimal conditions before he starts. You'll be able to follow his progress on his website, through Twitter, and on Facebook. It should be quite the journey to say the least.