From Rick Shema, Weatherguy
FINISHED!
Roz has completed her first leg of her historic and record breaking solo row across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco, CA to Australia. The first leg was completed during the dawn hours on September 1st, 2008 crossing the longitude line of 157 50.550W at 0555 HST (1555UTC).
The final 12hrs of her voyage was amazing! Roz entered the Molokai Channel yesterday at about 1700 HST (0300UTC) positioned south of intended track. This put her more in the middle of the channel than along the east side of Oahu. Once south of track, winds and seas pushed Roz further south. The Molokai Channel can be unforgiving, even on an average day. There was no chance of regaining the north latitude and Roz accelerated through the channel picking up speed and advancing the expected finish from about 0900 (1900UTC). She smoked the last 18nm in less than 11hrs. That is about 60% faster than the voyage average speed.
Rita Savage (Roz’s Mum) and I have been operating at the Shema home “command center” for the last three days and have been in routine contact with Roz. The night before the finish, Roz called in every two hours as she progressed through the channel. Rita would receive position coordinates and I charted the location and send out broadcast email alerts to the support team. It soon became clear that her finish time was going to be earlier than expected, and further south of the intended track.
The latitude of the finish line crossing was about 4nm away Diamond Head buoy. The fact that she negotiated the channel at all is an amazing accomplishment, so I’m not too concerned where she crossed the finish line. However, the 20-25kt winds and 8-10 ft seas at her location was not a good spot for the many press, media, and film crews that were scheduled to record the event near Diamond Head buoy in about three hours.
Quick, scramble the Waikiki Yacht Club pilot boat! The telephone call to the boat captain (Jeff Hossellman) came early. Jeff rallied the local film and documentary crews and they were underway in less than an hour to be the first to greet Roz. Jeff’s task was to take Brocade under tow and move to Diamond Head buoy.
Roz experienced a glorious Hawaiian sunrise awaiting the pilot boat. She didn’t have to wait long. The boat was on-scene before 0700 and towed Brocade to Diamond Head where additional press, media boats, and spectator vessels were there to record and witness this historic event. Afterwards, Roz rowed to the Waikiki Yacht Club to a throng of friends, well wishers, media, and of course her Mum, who was the first to greet Roz as she stepped foot on the dock for the first time in ninety nine days.
Statistics
Finish Time: 01 September 2008 0555HST (1555UTC)
Time at sea: 99 days, 8 hrs, 55 minutes
Distance traveled: 2598nm
Average speed: 1.09kts
Final Report
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