Rowing across an ocean is an incredibly challenging endeavor. After all, it requires the rower to spend hours each day working the oars, often for weeks at a time. Isolated and alone, it takes dedication and determination to make a solo journey across a body of water that at times seems endless. There is a reason that fewer people have rowed across one of the Earth's oceans than have been in space. Quite simply, it is really tough to actually complete such a voyage.

That isn't stopping Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov from trying. According to ExWeb, Konyukhov intends to make a solo row across the Pacific, non-stop from Chile to Australia. Fedor believes that it will take him roughly 200 days to complete the crossing, which will cover approximately 8000 nautical miles (14,816 km).

The Russian, who is a polar skier, mountaineer, and sailor, says he'll set out on his Pacific crossing in December. Leaving from Valparaise, Chile, he'll first have to navigate through islands and atolls off the coast of South America, before he makes his way out into the deep ocean. As he approaches Brisbane, Australia, he'll encounter more islands and the massive Great Barrier Reef. In between, Fedor believes he'll have to dodge potentially nasty storms that could potentially bring an end to his voyage at any time.

In order to successfully complete this ocean crossing in 200 days, Konyukhov will need to average 40 nautical miles (74 km) per day. That doesn't sound like a lot, but considering the challenges he'll face out on the water, particular as the grind of rowing begins to take its toll, covering those distance can get extremely difficult. High winds and turbulent seas will work against him, even in the spring of the Southern Hemisphere when things are better than other times of the year. Hopefully he is well prepared for those difficult conditions, as he will be hundreds of miles away from rescue should anything go wrong.

Expect to hear more in a few weeks as Fedor gets closer to his departure.

A four-man team of rowers is gearing up for an ocean going adventure in the summer of 2014 when they hope to make a crossing of a portion of the Pacific Ocean, traveling from California to Hawaii over a five-week period and covering more than 2100 nautical miles (3889 km).

The team, which consists of Fraser Hart, Sam Collins, Colin Parker and James Wight, will be taking part in the first ever New Ocean Wave Great Pacific Race in which they hope to be the fastest team to row from Monterey, CA to Honolulu, HI. Calling themselves Team Pacific Rowers, they'll hit the water next June along with all the other entrants into the event, most of whom will row in shifts for 24-hours per day as they attempt to complete the ocean crossing.

The boys are currently looking for corporate sponsorship and are even holding a contest to name their boat as they gear up for the event next summer. With eight months to go until the race, I'm sure they're also busy training, getting their gear together and prepping for five weeks at sea.

I've written about the Great Pacific Race a time or two when it was first announced. Obviously it is still some time off, but I will certainly be covering it more fully next summer once the teams all gather in California and hit the water. There is a similar race held in the Atlantic each year (in fact, it begins in a little over a month) so it'll be interesting to see how this new event goes over.

Another milestone in the world of adventure that went relatively unnoticed on Sunday was Sarah Outen's return to the Pacific Ocean.  The British adventurer was finally able to relaunch her London2London Via the World expedition after having it halted due to storms last spring and delayed this year due to weather as well.

London2London is Sarah's attempt to circumnavigate the globe completely under her own power. The expedition began on April 1, 2011 when she set out down the River Thames in London, paddling a kayak into the English Channel and across that body of water to France. Once there, she hopped on her bike and started riding east, crossing Europe and Asia in the process. Last April she set out from Japan to row across the Northern Pacific, but a tropical storm rolled in, damaging her boat and forcing her to abandon the attempt. It has taken her a year to recover from that incident as she needed to find a new boat and launch her next Pacific crossing at the most opportune time.

Sarah returned to Japan in March but had to wait until weather conditions improved once again. She is now a few days into the journey and making solid progress thus far. The Pacific crossing is expected to take six months to complete.

Once she has reached Canada, Sarah will then return to her bike and cycle across parts of that country and the U.S. Once she completes that coast-to-coast journey, she'll return to her rowboat once again to cross the North Atlantic, returning to where she started back in London. That probably won't happen until sometime next year.

It's good to see that Sarah is back out on the ocean at last. We've always known that she is a tough and focused individual but her resiliency and dedication in the wake of the challenges that have come her way is certainly inspiring.

Sarah Outen is preparing to resume her human powered attempt to circumnavigate the blog and is now simply waiting for a weather window to depart on the next leg of her journey. That leg will be a 7500-nautical mile (13,890 km) solo crossing of the Pacific Ocean that begins in Japan and ends in Canada.

As you may recall, Sarah began her journey on April 1 of 2011, embarking on an expedition that she called London2London via the World. After kayaking down the River Thames and paddling across the English Channel, she then proceeded to ride her bike across Europe and Asia, before making a short kayaking journey into Japan. She originally expected the L2L to take about 2.5 years to complete and upon arriving in Japan, it appeared that she was actually a bit ahead of schedule. That all changed when she started her Pacific Row last summer.

While out on the water, just a few days after departing, a tropical storm hit Sarah's position, damaging her boat and requiring the Japanese Coast Guard to come to her assistance. That incident was a setback that required Outen to regroup and find a new boat. It has taken until now for that to happen, and at long last she's ready to begin again.

Unfortunately the weather hasn't been all that cooperative thus far and it may be a few days before she can finally depart. Storms have been hitting the Japanese coast, making it impossible to launch right now. But Sarah is very patient and she'll wait for the right time to get underway. The forecasts indicate it could be the end of the week before she gets a few consecutively good days that will allow for the re-launch.

The Pacific crossing is expected to take about six months to complete and upon her arrival in Canada, Sarah will once again return to her bike for a scenic ride across North America. When she finishes that leg of the journey, she'll return to her boat once again and row across the Northern Atlantic, return home to London where the entire adventure began.

Good luck and godspeed Sarah. I hope you can get to pulling those rows again soon.

One of the greatest adventure stories ever is, without a doubt, Kon-Tiki. The book tells the tale of Thor Heyerdahl and his epic attempt to cross the Pacific Ocean on a simple raft, covering more than 4300 nautical miles in the process. When I heard they were making a film of this story, I was anxious to see it, and while it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film earlier this year, it is just now making its way stateside. The film opens on April 26 but you can get a sneak peek in the trailer below. It looks absolutely spectacular and everything you'd expect from this grand adventure.

Filmmaker/Explorer/All-Around Great Guy James Cameron has donated his Deepsea Challenger submersible to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in a bid to spur more underwater exploration and research. The Challenger is the same vehicle that Cameron used last year on his record setting dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of that epic adventure to the lowest point on the planet, located some 11 km (7 miles) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Cameron, whose filmography includes the likes of Avatar and Titanic, became just the third person to visit the Challenger Deep and the first to do so solo. He spent seven years and $8 million on building the sub, which captured footage for an upcoming 3D film about the dive. Despite some rumors about making another voyage to the bottom of the sea however, the director has not gone back into the depths.

In donating the vehicle to the WHOI, Cameron also joined the organization's advisory board. Researchers at the institute will use vehicles advanced lighting and camera systems as part of their own programs as they continue exploring trenches in both the Atlantic and Pacific. Cameron will consult with engineers there on those systems as well as others that he helped develop for his dive.

It is hard not to have massive respect for Cameron. He is highly successful in his day job, to say the least, and yet he has a passion for science and exploration that is tough to deny. I get the impression he makes hundreds of millions of dollars making films for Hollywood so he can fund his other projects. And when he's done with his high tech toys that he personally helped develop, he passes them along to others who can benefit as well. We should all be so lucky to have that flexibility in our lives.

Back in 2007, Lindsay Scallan travelled to Hawaii to enjoy that tropical paradise and take in a little scuba diving while she was there. She took with her a small Canon Powershot camera to capture the moments from her trip and she even had an underwater housing to use while she was on a dive. But while on an evening scuba excursion she accidentally dropped the camera and lost it in the sands at the bottom of the ocean. She searched for the device as long as she could but couldn't locate it in turbulent seas and sadly she returned home to Georgia without her photos, camera or expensive dive housing.

At the time she was sure that her camera was long gone and would never be seen again, after all what are the chances that someone would find it in the sea? And if they did, how would they ever know to return it to her. But someone did find it, just not where she expected. An employee of China Airlines came across the camera, still in the waterproof housing, last month when it washed up on a beach in Taiwan – thousands of miles and six years removed from where it was lost.

The person who found Lindsay's Canon Powershot then contacted Hawaii News Now and asked them to help find the person the camera belonged to. The website posted Lindsay's photos online and they were later spotted by a friend of hers who told her about the story. When she saw the images she says she was "floored." She couldn't believe that her missing camera was located so long after it was lost and so far away no less.

China Airlines has offered to fly her to Taiwan to claim the camera but Lindsay says she just started a new job, so she isn't sure she'll be able to get away. Instead, she may have to settle for having the camera shipped to her so she can review all of her long lost vacation photos at last.

Pretty amazing story. It also serves as a reminder of just how connected our planet is. Something lost in the ocean can travel a long way before its journey finally comes to an end. Oh the things that camera must have seen as it crossed the Pacific this past six years.

I have to admit, I have a soft spot for expeditions that plan to set off in search of nebulous adventures. The kind that don't have a lot of concrete goals per se, but are just looking for adventure in what ever form it arrives. That happens to be exactly what three filmmakers have in mind when they launch their "Finding Guapo" voyage later this year. The team is setting off to shoot a documentary on what they say will be "about life, adventure, nature, sailing, diving, freedom, but mostly about madness."

The men will be joined on this voyage by a mysterious adventurer who is simply named "Guapo." I don't know a lot about Guapo, but from what I have heard, he sounds a bit like he Dos Equis Most Interesting Man In the World.  In addition to being both a scuba and sky diving instructor, he is also a mountaineer who has climbed the big mountains of the Americas. A few years ago he also sailed solo from New York to New Caledonia, a tiny island located in the South Pacific, which he ended up making his home. In short, he is a free-spirited adventurer who goes where his wanderings take him.

It turns out, Guapo was planning on being in Mexico for a short time later this year and our intrepid filmmakers at KRAKEN decided they wanted to make this documentary with him during which they would be sailing across the Pacific Ocean. The current plan is for them to set sail for Australia, but as you'll see in the video below, those plans are in flux. They four men are going to see where their whims, and the tides of the Pacific, take them as they go looking for the adventure of a lifetime in the hopes of making a film about their travels.

To help fund this endeavor the men have set up an Indegogo campaign. They hope to raise $15,000 towards creating the project, although they're off to a bit of a slow start at the moment. With nearly a month to go however, they'll hopefully reach their goals.

Good luck to Guapo and the rest of the crew!


Finding Guapo - Indiegogo from Kraken Productora Tentacular on Vimeo.

Have you ever wanted to row across an ocean? If so, you'll definitely want to read this post. 

Earlier today, adventurer Alastair Humphreys, who rowed across the Atlantic last year,  posted a call for a crew to row across the Pacific next year. Alastair, who says rowing one ocean was enough for him, has shared a message from Philip Cavanagh who is looking to put together a team to compete in the Pacific Ocean Rowing Race that is scheduled to take place between California and Hawaii in 2014.

The note reads as follows:

Philip will be participating in the first Pacific Ocean row in June 2014, and is looking for crewmates. The race is a 2,100 nautical mile row from California to Hawaii, and the boat will be powered by human strength alone. Everything needed for the row will be onboard, and the crew will receive no assistance during the race. 

To join the crew, you do not need rowing experience! All we want is a sense of adventure, a desire to succeed and the will to do something extraordinary! 

The shift pattern will be a demanding 2 hours on 2 hours off for the duration of the race. (Which means you’ll be able to sleep 50% of the time… glass half full!)
If you’d like to express an interest, or would like more information, contact Philip at Philip.cavanagh3@gmail.com

 So there you go. If you're looking for a big adventure next year and rowing across a giant body of water sounds like something you'd like to try, then drop Phillip a note and find out more of the details. This could be a fantastic opportunity for the right person.

A four-woman rowing team is gearing up to take on the Pacific Ocean next summer. The crew, which consists of Annabel Hancock, Laura Penhaul, Becky Scott and Wendy Hilton, intend to set out on their three-stage crossing next June, departing from San Francisco on what is expected to be a six month long, 8500+ mile (13,680 km) journey.

The Coxless Rowers will spend their first 50 days out on the water by rowing from their launching point to the Hawaiian Islands, covering more than 3000 miles (4828 km) in the process. Following the completion of that stage, they'll move on to the second, 2600+ mile (4185 km), 60 day row that begins in Hawaii and ends in Samoa. Finally, they'll wrap things up with a third leg that well cover some 2810 miles (4522 km) between Samoa and Cairns, Australia.

The ladies are hoping to become the first all female team of four to row across the Pacific. As we all know, Roz Savage did it solo a few years back, but in her case she rowed one stage per year over the course of three years. The Coxless Rowers are hoping to push straight on through, manning the oars in two-hour shifts, 24-hours per day while out on the ocean.

At the moment, the team is focused on their training and getting their new boat read for the sea. They hope to take possession of that boat sometime in December and begin testing it out on the water in January after it has been completely outfitted. That should give them plenty of time to be ready for their June 2013 launch.

Follow their progress on their website, Facebook page and Twitter feed.