Left the Western Hemisphere with 17 Guinness World Records
Day: 35 — Position: N20 11’ W179 03’
Odometer since Waikiki: about 1,320M
Distance to Northern Marianas: 1,906M
Sea surface temperature: 82.6F - 28.1C
OCEAN ROWING RECORDS AS RUNNING TOTALS
Solo career total in days by Waikiki: 925 now 960 (New World Record)
Overall career total in days by Waikiki: 1,009 now 1,044 (New World Record)
Solo career total in miles by Waikiki: 22,173M now about 23,473M (New World Record)
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Overall career total in miles by Waikiki: 25,153M now about 26,453M
** Ralph Tuijn (NL) leads this with 35,635M
The numbers by the time I reached Waikiki are as recorded in the Ocean Rowing Society database. ORS uses the great circle distance between start and finish positions. They will adjudicate the additional time and distance that I will have rowed to my point of landfall on mainland Asia then append those to my career totals.
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Please note my position information above. Around daybreak local time on Nov 9, my rowboat crossed the Dateline at 180th longitude, leaving the Western Hemisphere and entering the Eastern. This means that on a given calendar date, I now see the sunrise before most of the world population.
As I approached N20 W180 where I crossed the Dateline, the depth contours under my rowboat gradually changed from 16404ft (5000m) to 13123ft (4000m) to 9843ft (3000m). Consider browsing the surrounding area on Google Earth which has nice depictions of the ocean floor. This is the Pacific Seamount over which I am navigating which may create some variability in the surface currents. I am taking it one day at a time… So far so good.
When I started my Pacific crossing at Crescent City on June 22, I had 15 Guinness World Records registered to my name all of which were related to ocean rowing except “the first solo circumnavigation by human power” and “the fastest circumnavigation by human power.”
The total of days that I have rowed alone on The Ocean, is a Guinness World Record that I have been advancing every day that I wake up on this crossing. As of today, I reached 960 days.
Within 10 days of my launch from Crescent City, I had the honor of matching the commitment that Peter Bird exemplified in our sport. I have carried Peter’s logo on my rowboat since 2007. The day that he was lost at sea while rowing from Vladivostok to California in 1996, the total days that he had rowed including doubles, had reached 937. He was attempting the first mainland to mainland eastbound crossing of this very ocean, a feat that has never since been attempted. By now I have advanced that total to 1,044 days, just 50 days short of three years of my life spent rowing oceans. This became my record #16.
I just received the word from the Ocean Rowing Society, the adjudicator of records for Guinness, that based on their due diligence I can now claim The Greatest Distance Rowed Solo on The Ocean in reference to the career total in miles that I have rowed alone until now. This became my record #17.
My total number of records will reach 19 when I claim the below upon safe landfall to hopefully conclude this crossing probably in Vietnam.
First person to row across the complete Pacific Ocean east to west mainland to mainland between North America and Asia
First person to row mainland to mainland across the three major oceans; Indian, Atlantic and Pacific
Hong Kong for now appears unlikely because China did not yet issue me a visa due to the pandemic; the response last spring by their San Francisco Consulate Visa Office was “no exceptions” even though I explained that I would arrive alone by rowboat after months of self imposed quarantine, complete with vaccinations and with willingness to comply with all additional quarantine measures that they may require on any arriving vessel. This would include the standard procedure established over the last century of waiting at anchor while displaying the yellow Q-Flag until cleared for landing. If I were to aim for Hong Kong and miss it, I would be in trouble without a visa. Lack of a visa remains a big problem which we still hope can be resolved before I enter the South China Sea.
I am asked sometimes whether I row for the records. Not really; however since I receive little media coverage, this roster of records has become a legitimate way to write history with third party adjudication.
Between 2007 and 2012, I completed my first circumnavigation by human power. I had set myself such a massive goal, that in order to complete it, I had to establish historic firsts and set 15 world records. The younger ambitious me did not know in 2007 whether I could complete that self imposed challenge, but along the way I grew to become the person who set those records. Therefore the same records became a running commentary to my circumnavigation journey; and this Johnny Cash tune “The Bug That Tried to Crawl Around the World” from his album “Everybody Loves a Nut” my theme song: https://youtu.be/8NoricqZMhE
On this crossing, my goal is to reach the foothills of Everest by human power before attempting to climb it as part of my Six Summits Project in memory of Göran Kropp. Not surprisingly, records fall again and new ones are established along the way.
Will I stop there? Unlikely. Elbrus and Aconcagua remain on my list and there is the Atlantic to be crossed on the way to climb Aconcagua. Health, resources and vaccine politics will obviously dictate my pace.
These projects are all-consuming so sponsors make them fathomable. Sponsors look at an athlete’s notoriety before judging marketing potential; the more famous or Instagram followers, the better. They then spend marketing dollars to promote their athletes which incentivizes print media to publish about said athletes. Without media coverage, our message at Around-n-Over fails to reach the classrooms with our target audience, living rooms with donors and other board rooms with decision makers. It’s a virtuous cycle that reinforces itself. Somehow, I have never gotten on that cart toward “fame.”
And if the winter winds and swells conspire to force a landing at the Philippine shores, then the magic threshold of 19 would not happen anytime soon. I would be happy with my 18 records and reconsider the whole campaign while I lick my salty wounds. Life goes on.
Erden.