Female US rower completes historic solo journey from California to Hawaii

drsalt

great how the article doesn't explain any of the interesting aspects of this

justinhj

There's a good book "The Pacific Alone" about a guy that did this in a kayak

yieldcrv

Why do these extreme rowing and sailing boats look so weird Its always a form factor I’ve never seen before Where can I learn more about this scene?

vmg12

I used to row and even the tiniest of waves could make it annoying. You'd slide to the front of your seat and try to insert your oar and catch air instead of water. Then if you overcompensated by trying to insert your oar farther in you'd catch a crab (having the oar ripped out of your control). This is on a lake with tiny waves. Rowing across an entire ocean is absolutely amazing.

CharlesW

It's kind of buried here, but Kelsey is the fastest human to do this. She beat the male record holder's time by 6 days.

a-uz

Kārlis Bardelis has rowed the Pacific, India and South Atlantic Oceans and cycled everything in-between. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2025/11/record-bre...

ChrisArchitect

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48790512

mobilemidget

All i think about when people row, kayak or swim these distances in these waters is 'SHARKS'. Which i read and saw enough about that the chances of meeting one isnt that big, but my brain still associates these activities/areas with it.

ProjectArcturis

I wonder what was going on in her life that made her say, "I want to spend the next 43 days rowing alone across the ocean."

mailship

kelsey still holds the record btw, but yeahh another runner up is insane

reenorap

I happened upon her via Instagram around day 10 and watched her every day. It was really interesting watching her go through this every day and her authentic posts about what she was feeling. It’s truly great seeing people achieve their goals like this, she is amazing!

koolba

That’s incredible. What does one eat and drink on a trip like this? The article talks about her cooking. With a fire or one of those little butane stoves? Can a small canoe carry enough water for a trip like this or do you rely on rain water too?

SwellJoe

My first thought on hearing about this was, "what's that boat like? I wanna see the boat." Not to take away from Pfendler's incredible achievement. She's amazing. But, I'm the kind of nerd that immediately went to "surely that is a logistical nightmare, how are you going to carry enough supplies for months at sea in a boat that a human being can propel across the ocean at a decent speed?" It's a bigger boat than I imagined, at 21 feet long and 5.5 feet wide, and 730 pounds. It also has cabins at either end for storage and sleeping. She gives a brief tour of the inside of the boat here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZBUJ2VJvp_/ And, she also discusses some of the technical problems she had in some other videos in the series, like not being able to run her desalination machine because not enough sun and having to dip into her emergency water rations. The athletic side of a thing like this is incredible, but I always want to know the logistics.

MYEUHD

How does a small boat cross the ocean without sinking when waves can be over 30 meters tall[0]? [0]: https://recon.sccf.org/parameters/wave-height

xyst

Impressive feat. I doubt hn readers could last a single week in wilderness let alone a couple months at sea.

jjcm

This is no joke. I've done the crossing from Moloka‘i to Oahu (~45 miles) in a canoe several times, and those open ocean waves can get very nasty (largest I've dealt with were around 15m tall). I can't imagine the mental endurance required here, let alone the physical. My longest crossing took 9 hours, and I was completely drained by the time I touched shore. 44 days is absolutely insane. Such a huge accomplishment.

KellyCriterion

How does it work when she needs to sleep and not loose track?

wolvoleo

I have to watch that. I can't comprehend how someone can live in a canoe for 44 days let alone bring enough supplies to survive.

dmix

News coverage showing her boat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D5XrFQHCuE

trashface

This rower also has some best-in-class publicists since I have been reading headlines about it for a week