Trans-Pacific rower reaches Marquesas

Agence France-Presse
Monday, March 28, 2005


HIVA OA, French Polynesia Maud Fontenoy is the first woman to row solo across a broad stretch of the Pacific Ocean, having arrived in French Polynesia at the end of a journey of nearly 8,000 kilometers that took 73 days.
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The 26-year-old Frenchwoman - also the first woman to row across the North Atlantic Ocean alone, in 117 days in 2003 - crossed the 138.5 longitude line just north of the Marquesas island of Hiva Oa at 4 a.m. on Saturday.
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She had to row for several more hours, however, before she could land at Hiva Oa, where she was welcomed by about 300 people in a colorful ceremony.
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Fontenoy said her journey, which she completed a month earlier than expected, had been "an exercise of will to prove that even a woman has the determination and physical qualities to make a solitary crossing of this scale." She said earlier that she had mixed feelings about returning to land after so long at sea. "It is a moment that I dreaded, the return to the world of people after more than 70 days of solitude," Fontenoy said by radio just before the finish. "But it is a moment that I have waited for so long that I can only be delighted."
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Fontenoy cast off from Callao, Peru, on Jan. 12 in the Oceor, a 7.5-meter, or 25-foot, cedar-framed, fiberglass and Kevlar rowboat stocked with food and equipped with GPS navigation and a satellite communication system. Her route followed that of the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, whose epic 1947 trans-Pacific trip with five crew members on the raft Kon-Tiki took 101 days.
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She used the southern equatorial current, which runs from South America to Polynesia, to finish ahead of schedule. President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin of France sent telegrams to congratulate her.
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See more of the world that matters - click here for home delivery of the International Herald Tribune.
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< < Back to Start of Article HIVA OA, French Polynesia Maud Fontenoy is the first woman to row solo across a broad stretch of the Pacific Ocean, having arrived in French Polynesia at the end of a journey of nearly 8,000 kilometers that took 73 days.
.
The 26-year-old Frenchwoman - also the first woman to row across the North Atlantic Ocean alone, in 117 days in 2003 - crossed the 138.5 longitude line just north of the Marquesas island of Hiva Oa at 4 a.m. on Saturday.
.
She had to row for several more hours, however, before she could land at Hiva Oa, where she was welcomed by about 300 people in a colorful ceremony.
.
Fontenoy said her journey, which she completed a month earlier than expected, had been "an exercise of will to prove that even a woman has the determination and physical qualities to make a solitary crossing of this scale." She said earlier that she had mixed feelings about returning to land after so long at sea. "It is a moment that I dreaded, the return to the world of people after more than 70 days of solitude," Fontenoy said by radio just before the finish. "But it is a moment that I have waited for so long that I can only be delighted."
.
Fontenoy cast off from Callao, Peru, on Jan. 12 in the Oceor, a 7.5-meter, or 25-foot, cedar-framed, fiberglass and Kevlar rowboat stocked with food and equipped with GPS navigation and a satellite communication system. Her route followed that of the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, whose epic 1947 trans-Pacific trip with five crew members on the raft Kon-Tiki took 101 days.
.
She used the southern equatorial current, which runs from South America to Polynesia, to finish ahead of schedule. President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin of France sent telegrams to congratulate her.
.
.
See more of the world that matters - click here for home delivery of the International Herald Tribune.
.
< < Back to Start of Article HIVA OA, French Polynesia Maud Fontenoy is the first woman to row solo across a broad stretch of the Pacific Ocean, having arrived in French Polynesia at the end of a journey of nearly 8,000 kilometers that took 73 days.
.
The 26-year-old Frenchwoman - also the first woman to row across the North Atlantic Ocean alone, in 117 days in 2003 - crossed the 138.5 longitude line just north of the Marquesas island of Hiva Oa at 4 a.m. on Saturday.
.
She had to row for several more hours, however, before she could land at Hiva Oa, where she was welcomed by about 300 people in a colorful ceremony.
.
Fontenoy said her journey, which she completed a month earlier than expected, had been "an exercise of will to prove that even a woman has the determination and physical qualities to make a solitary crossing of this scale." She said earlier that she had mixed feelings about returning to land after so long at sea. "It is a moment that I dreaded, the return to the world of people after more than 70 days of solitude," Fontenoy said by radio just before the finish. "But it is a moment that I have waited for so long that I can only be delighted."
.
Fontenoy cast off from Callao, Peru, on Jan. 12 in the Oceor, a 7.5-meter, or 25-foot, cedar-framed, fiberglass and Kevlar rowboat stocked with food and equipped with GPS navigation and a satellite communication system. Her route followed that of the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, whose epic 1947 trans-Pacific trip with five crew members on the raft Kon-Tiki took 101 days.
.
She used the southern equatorial current, which runs from South America to Polynesia, to finish ahead of schedule. President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin of France sent telegrams to congratulate her.