4 hours ago
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One more day. One more day up and down the pitiless slide. One more day of blistered hands gripping unforgiving oars.
But after more than 8,000 nautical miles (15,000km) at sea – an epic five-and-a-half-month journey across the Pacific that included close encounters with whales, failing beacons and chocolate shortages – the sea had one more challenge.
A gusting 20-knot wind off Cairns kept pushing Jess Rowe and Miriam Payne’s tiny rowboat, the Velocity, from the terra firma that was now achingly close.
Friends and family waited ashore as a planned midday arrival became 2pm, then 4pm, then early evening. Finally, at 6.42pm, they came alongside at Cairns Yacht Club.
“Those final few hours were brutal,” Rowe said, finally standing on land.
“The wind was pushing us off the channel, and we honestly thought we weren’t going to make it. We ended up outside the channel and thought we might have to swim to shore. To finally be here, after talking about it for so long, just feels incredible.
“We still can’t quite believe it’s real. After so many days at sea, to finally see land, and the welcome we’ve had here in Cairns, is beyond words.”
The British pair – Rowe is 28 and Payne 25 – pushed off from Lima, Peru, on 5 May (an initial attempt in April was derailed by a rudder failure).
Over 165 days at sea, they averaged 50 nautical miles a day, rowing in tandem during the day, one rowing alone at night while her crewmate slept a bare handful of hours in a cramped cabin.
Kept alive with 400kg of mostly freeze-dried food, a water desalinator and an onboard growing unit for micro-greens, the pair have relied on a less-than-reliable solar system for a fraction of the power they’ve needed. For much of their journey across the vast Pacific, they’ve had no navigation equipment or beacon, turning them into a “ghost ship”, almost invisible to other vessels.
The pair have borne 9-metre (30ft) waves, navigated shipping lanes and endured raging storms that, at times, silenced all of their electronics.
And they’ve kept rowing, one stroke after another, across blazing hot days, under star-filled night skies. They have set a new record as the first all-female pair to row across the South Pacific Ocean, non-stop and unsupported.
And they have raised more than £86,000 (A$179,000) for the Outward Bound Trust.
The pair did their best to keep in contact with the world outside their tiny vessel. On “day 140-something”, they reported a “chocolate emergency” – down to their last two bars with still more than 1,600km (1,000 miles) to go – but allowed themselves the indulgence of breaking one open to celebrate England’s Red Roses winning the Rugby World Cup.
Payne, from a landlocked part of Yorkshire, had not been at sea until she rowed the Atlantic solo in 2022 in a record time. She now has a second ocean conquered. But there were moments, she conceded, when they feared they wouldn’t make it. As early as day six, a way across the world’s largest ocean felt impossible.
“Our power was dropping, the water-maker pipes burst, but after nine repairs, we managed a bypass and just limped along with little power for the rest of the crossing. Every time something went wrong, we just looked at each other and went, ‘of course it has!’ But we kept going.”
“It was really great to have Jess as a teammate. What was great was that we worked hard together, we problem-solved together, and we were always working towards the same goals,” she said.
Rowe is from Hampshire. Before her Pacific triumph, she rowed the Atlantic, hiked England’s South West Coast Path, climbed Mount Kenya and cycled across Spain. There might still be more.
“We had such a good time together, and we’re already excited to plan new adventures together as well. I wouldn’t have done it with anybody else.”
