All-female crew break Pacific record rowing from San Francisco to Hawaii
- Four Americans from Latitude 35 rowing team reached Hawaii in 34 days, 14 hours and 11 minutes
- Group “never sacrificed each other’s well-being to go faster” – and had way more fun than they expected
Four women from the United States have set a new Pacific record after rowing from San Francisco to Hawaii in 34 days, 14 hours and 11 minutes.
“The thought and possibility of a world record was intriguing but as a team we were just trying to go as fast as we could, and a lot of that is dependent on the conditions,” said one of the rowers, Brooke Downes.
“But we never sacrificed each other’s well-being to go faster. We went as fast as we could and I’m thrilled that was fast enough to also set a world record.”
The four rowers – Downes, Sophia Denison-Johnston, Adrienne Smith and Libby Costello – were unsupported, carrying all their own food and making water with a desalinator. They rowed in non-stop shifts – two hours on, two hours off – so a pair were always rowing while the others slept.
“Our crossing was way more fun than any of us expected. We had a speaker on deck that we would play most of the time. We would all jam out together and sing every kind of genre we had downloaded,” Downes said.