Female Phineas Fogg biggest challenge yet

With 10,000 miles already under her belt Sarah Outen MBE is faced with the biggest challenge yet on her loop of the globe

In the last six months Sarah Outen, 26, from Oakham Rutland, has kayaked and cycled from London to Russia; crossing the formidable Gobi desert, camping in bear-inhabited forests and coming closer than she’d liked to poisonous snakes, but these challenges are nothing compared to the one that awaited her last week: – a cold kayaking marathon from the remote Russian island of Sakhalin to Japan.   When she takes up her paddles at 21:00 hrs (BST) on Friday she was fighting against the clock to cross La Perouse Strait; braving freezing cold seas, huge waves and strong currents. 

Find out how she got on in her own words: http://www.sarahouten.com/

To Sarah’s knowledge, the crossing has only been achieved once before in a kayak. 

Sarah Outen undertook the crossing of 24 nautical miles (28 statues miles, longer than a marathon), paddling at 3 nautical miles an hour.  With breaks for food the crossing took over 10 hours .

Sarah encountered big winds which in turn created large waves providing the very real threat of capsize.  The sea is freezing cold.  A strong current runs through the Strait which carried Sarah away from Japan – she had to fight against this to get to her landing point of Wakkanai on Hokkaido, the experience itself was like swimming across a fast river with the current sweeping the swimmer downstream before they can reach the bank.

There is limited data on currents and flow, so Sarah was kayaking ‘blind’.  Sarah and her kayaking camerawoman Justine Curgenven, gave the crossing their best guess and adjusted their bearing when the tide was stronger or different to expected.

Sarah and Justine were fighting the clock too – Justine’s visa expires in a few days time and little boats are forbidden from crossing to Japan in mid-October, so the pressure is on to make the crossing, there is no time to wait for optimal conditions.

Sarah’s story so far:

In 2009 at the age of 24, Sarah Outen MBE from Rutland, became the first woman and youngest person to row solo across the Indian Ocean.  Her 124 day journey from Australia to Mauritius in her tiny six metre boat captured the imagination of people around the globe, earned her three Guinness World Records and cemented her reputation as one of Britain’s most exciting female adventurers.
On the 1st April 2011, Sarah embarked on the most difficult and dangerous expedition ever undertaken by a woman: London2London: Via the World Plotting a route never before attempted, her record-breaking  20,000 mile 2 and a half year adventure will see her rowing the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans solo, as well as cycling across three continents.

• Nobody has ever rowed this combination of oceans in a single journey around the globe, solo or otherwise.  
• Only 2 men have ever rowed the North Pacific solo.  Sarah will be the first woman to row solo across the North Pacific from Japan to Canada.  
• Her record breaking endeavour is expected to last 2 and a half years and, true to the idea of a continuous journey, she won’t be coming home in between legs.  
• Sarah’s dangerous journey is unique.   She will be breaking records, blazing trails and sharing her adventure with school children as she goes, uploading blogs, video and engaging in live Q&A’s with classrooms around the world.   

Valere Tjolle
Valere edits and publishes the authoritative Sustainable Tourism Report Suite: Free offer for DMOs, CVBs, Tourist Boards HERE: