Picture yourself on a boat, a rather small specialty ocean rowing boat, with one to four other people, rowing for 2,800 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Monterey to Hawaii. Got it? If this stretches the imagination that’s fair enough – just 82 people in 33 boats have ever successfully completed the mission, which takes at least a month of round-the-clock rowing (and not an insignificant amount of luck with weather).
But soon a new group of hopefuls will take to the water – the 14 teams participating in the inaugural World’s Toughest Row Pacific Challenge are busy preparing in Monterey Harbor; their estimated departure date is June 12. “Our event truly tests the strength of human spirit at the mercy of mother nature,” Race Director Carsten Heron Olsen said in a statement.
World’s Toughest Row is not the only trans-Pacific rowing race – The Great Pacific Race, which began in 2014, now starts in San Franscisco but has launched from Monterey in the past. (The World's Toughest Row is not affiliated with The Great Pacific Race.) There are also those who attempt the crossing without a formal race – in May 2021 Heather Taylor set out to do it solo (the Weekly was there to see her off). While she did not make it all the way to Hawaii, a few weeks later a British team called Endurace Limits left Monterey Harbor and was successful in their mission. [TCL]