THE GREAT ROW BOAT ACROSS THE PACIFIC 9600 KM CROSSING BEGAN FROM TOKYO TO SAN FRANCISCO BY AN ORLANDA, FL NATIVE SONYA BAUMSTEIN THIS DAY–THE CROSSING HAS BEEN COMPLETED BY THREE OTHERS AND SONYA TO BE THE FIRST WOMAN TO UNDER TAKE THE JOURNEY–TO BE COMPLETED BY SEPTEMBER–GOD SPEED

The best part of being on the ocean for weeks at a time, says Sonya Baumstein, is the stars. The worst? Being wet, all the time.

Baumstein, an athlete from Orlando, Florida, had been waiting for weeks to set out in her custom-designed rowboat from Choshi, a port east of Tokyo, headed for San Francisco. She finally departed on Sunday, and hopes to finish the 9,600-kilometer journey by late September and become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific.

Only three other rowboats have made the journey and no woman has ever done the journey alone.

Having already rowed the Atlantic to the Caribbean, the 29-year-old has a pretty clear idea of what all those weeks at sea will be like.

“The stars are incredible. They’re my favorite thing,” she said in an interview by Skype from her boat before her departure.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/u-s-woman-sets-out-from-japan-on-9600-km-pacific-crossing-by-rowboat