PORT TOWNSEND — A 30-year-old woman in a boat built in Port Townsend is attempting to enter the record books and become the first woman to row alone across the Pacific Ocean.
Sonya Baumstein — who originally hails from Orlando, Fla., but now spends much of her time in the Pacific Northwest — will attempt to row 5,700 nautical miles from Choshi, Japan, to San Francisco, a voyage she expects to take about 150 days.
She spent the past several months in Port Townsend building her boat, Icha, just before she left for Japan.
Although she had intended to leave Monday, Baumstein was still in Japan on Wednesday awaiting better weather to begin her solo voyage, according to Kim Carver, a friend who has volunteered photography and other support during the boatbuilding process.
Carver said Baumstein could begin her trip as soon as Thursday if conditions are clear.
On her Facebook page, www.facebook.com/SonyaBaumstein, Baumstein wrote that she had hoped to leave Tuesday after a typhoon passed 500 miles off the coast of Japan followed by a low-pressure system.
Until she could embark on her journey, she said she would post a photo of “me doing the absolute most frustrating thing on this vessel: working on my Watermaker (desalinate).”
Once she leaves, her voyage can be tracked in real time at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-track.
Among those impressed with Baumstein’s goal is Jake Beattie, Northwest Maritime Center executive director.
“It’s hard for me to even fathom the depth of strength, preparation, physical prowess and mental fortitude it would take to propel yourself across an ocean alone,” he said.
“It’s logistically impressive for all the ramping-up activity of designing the boat, building the boat and getting it over there.”
“Once that chaos of preparation falls away, it’s just you and the sea for months at a time with everything the sea can throw at you,” he said.
“I can’t think of a more impressive thing.”
When asked whether he would ever embark on such a venture, Beattie answered with an immediate and decisive “no.”
Icha was designed in Seattle and built in Port Townsend at SpinDrift Ocean Rowing over a period of several months.
The bright-green carbon composite vessel, which is 24 feet long and weighs 770 pounds, is outfitted for science and will take samples of salinity, temperature, depth, wind speed and GPS location every 10 seconds, with the results uploaded hourly to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The vessel has six oars on board — allowing for four spares.
Baumstein has 900 dehydrated meals and 180 drink supplements and is equipped with an electronic watermaker that generates 20 liters of fresh water from salt water in 10 minutes.
Baumstein also is carrying 60 liters of fresh water as a backup.
She will be rowing 12 to 16 hours each day at a speed of 3.5 knots, which is the speed of the Kuroshio Current, a strong current that flows past Japan.
Andrew Ryder, head composite boatbuilder at SpinDrift, said Baumstein is carrying biodegradeable soap and shampoo products so as to avoid impacting the environment with them.
“She’s pretty easy to get along with,” Ryder said.
“She’s a nice, genuine person, which is hard to come by nowadays.”
Although this is the longest jaunt she has attempted, this adventure is hardly Baumstein’s first.
On Aug. 1, 2013, she became the first person to cross via standup paddleboard the Bering Strait from Big Diomede to the Alaskan mainland, just north of Wales, Alaska, according to her biography on www.sonyabaumstein.com.
She rowed the Atlantic Ocean from the Canaries to Barbados during 57 days in December 2011 and January 2012, and seakayaked from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska, from June to August 2012.
From March to May that year, she rode a fully loaded tour bike from the Mexican border to Seattle.
She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wis., and a master’s at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
“There are always people that are looking to push themselves and connect with their own personal limits,” Beattie said of the voyage.
“This certainly does that.”
For more information about the voyage, see www.expeditionpacific.com.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
