Episode 21 - Kelsey Pfendler

This week on the podcast, Lee is joined by Kelsey Pfendler, the American ocean rower who this summer became the fastest person ever to row solo from California to Hawaii.

Kelsey's route to the Pacific started on a river rather than an ocean. She took her first whitewater trip at 18, qualified as a guide in the Adirondacks, and spent the best part of a decade running multi-day expeditions through the Grand Canyon. Ocean rowing came later, after she met an Atlantic crew while sailing in 2019. Her first Mid-Pacific crossing was as part of a team of four, complete with a capsize, freezing nights and the loss of her only pair of shoes.

In May she left Monterey alone in a 24 foot rowing boat and reached Honolulu 43 days and 17 hours later, taking almost nine days off the outright record and becoming the first American woman, and the youngest person, to row the Mid-Pacific solo.

In this episode she talks about the preparation, the long days on the oars, and what it's like to be out there alone for six weeks with nothing but water in every direction.

Because rowing an ocean is mostly about the hours nobody sees.