Roz Savage is the first to admit she’s not trying to “save the planet.” Despite all the abuses we heap upon it, Earth will be “just fine in several million years,” she says.
We humans, on the other hand, are making it increasingly likely that we’ll “drown in our own filth,” Savage warns. And to draw attention to just how bad we’ve let things get for this Big Blue Marble we call home, she recently rowed — that’s right, rowed — solo from San Francisco to Honolulu.
The 99-day, 2,324-mile trip started near midnight on May 25 and concluded with a pre-dawn arrival on Sept. 1 at the Waikiki Yacht Club.
A native of England, Savage rowed for the Oxford University Women’s Boat Club while at school and later went to work as a well paid management consultant. The work wasn’t fulfilling, though, and she eventually quit, moving to New York, where she did some photography before full wanderlust struck.
Her adventures started in 2003, with a three-month exploration of Peru. Three years later, she completed her first epic sailing journey: a 103-day crossing that took her across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Antigua.
Her ‘Frisco-to-Honolulu trip marks the first of three planned stages across the Pacific. Next year, she plans to tackle the Hawaii-to-Tuvalu stage. The year after that, it’s Tuvalu to Australia. If she succeeds, she’ll be the first woman ever to sail solo across the Pacific.
You can read all the fascinating details of Savage’s life, aspirations and adventures (including a day-to-day blog journal of her latest voyage) here. To get a little more information about her views on plastic waste — especially in the oceans — be sure to check out her entry titled, “How Long Does It Take a Rowing Glove to Biodegrade?”
Image credit: Photo courtesy of Roz Savage (copyrighted)
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