Ocean rowing is the sport of rowing across oceans. The sport is as much a psychological as it is a physical challenge. Rowers often have to endure long periods at sea with help often many days if not weeks away. The challenge is especially acute for solo rowers who are held in especially high esteem within the sport. The history of ocean rowing is sometimes divided into two eras. The first 12 ocean rows are considered "Historic Ocean rows" as they were completed with very limited if any modern technology. The subsequent rows are described as "Modern Day rows".

Despite the now regular rowing races, fewer people have rowed an ocean as of 2006 than have climbed Everest or been into Space.

Atlantic Ocean rowing

The first ocean to be deliberately rowed was the Atlantic by Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo, two Americans born in Norway, in June 1896. The pair left Battery Park, Manhattan on 6 June 1896 arriving in Le Havre, France, 55 days and 13 hours later having covered 3,250 miles. The pair also stopped on the Isles of Scilly during their journey. Angus Adventures
The first deliberate solo crossing of any ocean was completed by John Fairfax of Britain on 19 July 1969. He rowed from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands to Hollywood beach, Florida in 180 days. In the same year Tom McClean, also of Britain, rowed from Newfoundland, Canada arriving in Blacksod Bay, Ireland on 27 July 1969. Despite having left almost 4 months after Fairfax he came within 8 days of beating Fairfax to the title of first solo rower of any ocean.

On 10 July 2005 the Vivaldi Atlantic four-man team (Nigel Morris, George Rock, Steve Dawson, Rob Munslow) set the record for fastest unsupported row from St John's Canada to the longitude of Bishop Rock lighthouse, UK. They left on 31 May 2005, arriving back on 10 July 2005 in a time of 39 days 22 hours and 10 minutes. The Vivaldi Atlantic four also became the first four-man team ever to row the North Atlantic West to East. This record still stands as the fastest unsupported row across the North Atlantic.

On 3 December 1999 Tori Murden of the USA became the first woman to row any ocean solo when she arrived in Guadeloupe, having set off from Tenerife in the Canary Islands 81 days earlier. In March 2006 Julie Wafaei of Canada became the first woman to row across the Atlantic from mainland to mainland.
The fastest unsupported row from USA to England was set in 2005 by The Ocean Fours (NL) (Gijs Groeneveld, Robert Hoeve, Jaap Koomen, Maarten Staarink) with the Vopak Victory. They left New York on 27 May and crossed the Bishops Rock longitude 60 days, 16 hours and 19 minutes later.

The overall speed record for rowing the Atlantic is held by a British and Irish team of 14 (Julian Barnwell, Leven Brown, Ray Carroll, Peter Donaldson, Oliver Dudley, Liam Hughes, Stuart Kershaw, Don Lennox, Peter 'PJ' Luard, Rob Loder-Symonds, Charlie Taylor, Mike Tooth, Reinhardt Von Hof, Jamie Walker) skippered by Leven Brown, who now runs rowing races and expeditions across the Atlantic via his company Ocean Row Events. The new time set in 2007 was 33 days 7 hours 30 minutes. Brown used the same historic boat, 'La Mondiale', that set the original record in 1992. After much work and refurbishment this beautiful old boat was ready to go to sea again and race two state of art modern lightweight boats both of which optionally sported smaller crews but were specifically designed to beat La Mondiale. An Epic 'informal' race took place from the Canaries to the West Indies that saw storms and tactical guile. La Mondiale, despite her age, crossed the finish line first some 3 days ahead of the nearest rival.

La Mondiale was subsequently lost at sea in 2009 due to the loss of her rudder, all hands were safe, but one of the sports most historic boats was 'retired' by the ocean, proudly unbeaten.

Atlantic rowing races

Rowing the Atlantic first became mainstream when the first Atlantic Rowing Race was launched by Sir Chay Blyth, after reflecting on his own ocean row that propelled him to international renown. This was the Port St. Charles, Barbados Atlantic Rowing Race. Thirty double-handed teams lined up at the start line in a "one design" rowing boat just outside of Los Gigantes marina on Sunday 12 October 1997. The race was won by Kiwi Challenge, rowed by Rob Hamill and Phil Stubbs after 41 days at sea. Second place went to the French crew of Atlantik Challenge, Joseph Le Guen and his partner, a double convicted murderer, Pascal Blond.

Later Atlantic rowing races:

• Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Race 2001 - Won by Matt Goodman & Steve Westlake in

• Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race 2003 - Won by James Fitzgerald & Kevin Biggar in

• Ocean Rowing Society's Atlantic Rowing Race 2004 - Fours event won by Queensgate (GB); Pairs event won by Christopher Morgan and Michael Perrins in Carpe Diem (GB)

• Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race 2005 - Overall race won by Clint Evans and Chris Andrews in (GB)

• Shephard Ocean Fours Rowing Race 2006 - Inaugural North Atlantic Rowing Race won by team (Jordan Hanssen, Brad Vickers, Greg Spooner, and Dylan LeValley) rowing James Robert Hanssen

Pacific Ocean rowing

Following his successful Atlantic ocean crossing, John Fairfax set off from San Francisco in California on 26 April 1971 with Sylvia Cook. After three stops (in Mexico, Fanning Island and the Gilbert Island of Onotoa), the two arrived on Hayman Island in Australia 361 days later on 22 April 1972. In doing so Cook became the first woman to row any Ocean.
One of her commercial sponsors was Yardley of London who had just introduced a new creme based moisturized make-up named "Next to Nothing". Headlines in the trade papers of the cosmetics industry touted "Woman rows the Pacific wearing 'Next to Nothing' ".

In 1976 Patrick Quesnel completed a crossing from Washington State to Hawaii, a journey of 2200 miles which took him 114 days.

In 1977 Colin Quincey became the first to cross the Tasman Sea, the segment of the Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand. He departed Hokianga, New Zealand, on 6 February 1977 and 63 days later arrived at Marcus Beach, Australia on 10 April.

The first person to row the width of the Pacific Ocean solo was Peter Bird of Britain. Bird set off from San Francisco, California and arrived at the Great Barrier Reef Australia 294 days later on 14 June 1983. Bird would later die attempting the west to east journey across the Pacific.

Controversially, Briton Jim Shekhdar later made the claim to be "the first person to row across the Pacific single-handed". Shekhdar had rowed across the Pacific non-stop, solo and unassisted arriving in Australia on 30 March 2001. Some within the sport felt that Shekhdar had not given due credit to the achievement of Peter Bird and the term "unassisted" also came under some scrutiny.
Erden Eruç is currently rowing across the Pacific. He departed San Francisco, California on 11 July 2007, bound for Australia. Eruç has been plagued by unfavorable currents and is having difficulty crossing the equator (more specifically the ITCZ). Eruç previously rowed across the Atlantic ocean.
Roz Savage rowed from San Francisco to Hawaii in 2008, the first woman to do so solo. She plans to continue to Tuvalu in 2009 and thence to Australia in 2010.

Indian Ocean rowing

The Indian Ocean was first crossed by Anders Svedlund of Sweden in 1971. He set off from Kalbarri in Western Australia on 29 April 1971 and arrived near Diego Suarez, Madagascar, 64 days later on 23 June.
Sarah Outen, a 24 year old Briton, left Fremantle, Western Australia on April 1, 2009. Rowing her 19ft boat Serendipity, she arrived at Bois des Amourettes, Mauritius, 124 days later on August 3. She became the first woman soloist to attempt and successfully complete the crossing. She is also the world's youngest solo female ocean rower.

In 2009, the first Indian Ocean Rowing Race is planned by

Teams from around the world started rowing from Geraldton, Western Australia to Mauritius on 19 April 2009. The teams vary from solo to pairs to fours and one group of eight who are planning on breaking some records.

A second race is planned for 2011.

Ocean rowing in popular culture

The British rock band Marillion released an eighteen minute song called "Ocean Cloud" on its 2004 album Marbles based on Donald Allum's almost fatal third crossing of the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland in 1987.