Published on: Friday, January 14, 2005 |
CALLAO (Peru): Maud Fontenoy, the first woman to row a boat alone across the North Atlantic Ocean, launched on a more ambitious adventure Wednesday when she set off here on an unprecedented 8,000-kilometer solo rowboat crossing of the Pacific. Embarking in the spiritual wake of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, whose epic 1947 trans-Pacific raft trip is chronicled in books Fontenoy is carrying, the 26 year old Frenchwoman expected it will take her four to five months to reach her destination, Polynesia.
Fontenoy cast off from the Peruvian port of Callao on Wednesday in the Oceor, her 7.5-metre red and blue cedar-framed, fiberglass and kevlar rowboat, equipped with foodstores, GPS navigation and a satellite communication system.
The Peruvian Coast Guard will be her escort for the first day, helping to avoid cargo vessels and the pirates who prowl the South American coast. After that, she will be on her own until she lands, according to plan, in Polynesia in May or June.
With blonde hair framing an eager and smiling face, Fontenoy described herself before departing as simply "a little woman with a little boat". But such a description belies the determination of a veteran of the seas whose boat, during her 2003 Atlantic crossing, capsized 17 times in waves of 10 meters.
"I have always loved to do things on my own, and I am persevering," she said. However, she admitted, "I never cried so much as during my Atlantic crossing."
The first weeks of the journey will demand a tough regimen of rowing to get past the Humboldt current, which will push her northward.
Later, she expects to settle into a schedule of rowing, cooking freeze-dried paella or fresh-caught fish for her meals, navigating the Oceor, and grabbing 20-minute spots of sleep. "I get seasick at first, but it passes," she confided as she readied for her journey.
