British Female Adventurer Set For Second Pacific Solo Row Attempt
British adventurer Sarah Outen is back, less than one year after her failed attempt to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Canada.
Returning to the port of Choshi about 130 kilometres (75 miles) east of Tokyo and where she took off for the first time in June 2012, Outen says she's happy to start again on her unfinished business.
"It feels in a way like a bit of a homecoming, you know, coming back to the ocean. It feels like unfinished business. I am looking forward to it. I am glad to be back," she told Reuters as she made last minute preparations and trained for her upcoming trip.
Her last trip was supposed to take her 4500 nautical miles (8334 kilometres) across the Pacific Ocean but was cut short when her boat, then called Gulliver, was irreparably damaged in Tropical Storm Mawar after 26 days at sea.
She was rescued by Japanese coast guards and returned to the United Kingdom shortly after that in an episode in her life she says she isn't ready to forget.
"Your mind does sometimes think: "But what if it happened again?" I think it's important to confront that too," she said but added that uncertainty was the spice of adventure. "You can't predict what will happen. That is one of the reasons why I go on adventures to start with, is because you can't predict it. But, you know, I am confident and I am happy that my team and I have made the best possible preparations."
This time she's got a new boat - Happy Socks. It was strengthened to minimise the risk of water entering the cabin. Extra bailing pumps have been installed in the cabin too to avoid a repeat the same problems she faced last time.
Outen's also now stronger mentally, she says, as a result of that previous setback, though she says she regrets the pain she causes her family and friends which each adventure.
"The thing I regret is that it worries my family and friends and team. That's the bit that hurts me, is that in doing this I cause worry to my family and friends and, you know, I am really grateful for their support, and I am especially grateful for the Japan Coast Guard for coming to my assistance during that time," she said.
Outen says she's driven to take those risks and not let failure or the fear of failure stop her.
"Being out on the ocean, taking on something as extreme as this, there is no guarantee that I will make it across to the other side. There're too many things that could happen. It's a massive ocean, a huge challenge. But I believe, as I did last time, that I've got the best possible boat, team, training, and set up. I've come back stronger this year. So, I am going to give it my best shot," she said.
Outen is expected to leave Japan soon as she waits for the right weather conditions to help her reach the shores of Canada.
This is part of her London2London project in which she hopes to travel 17,700 kilometres (11,000-miles) around the world solely under human power - by bicycle, kayak and rowing boat.
The 27-year-old Briton already holds the Guinness World Record for her solo row across the Indian Ocean in 2009.
The solo row from Japan to Canada is expected to take at least seven months in her seven-metre-long (23-foot) boat.
What awaits her on the Canadian coast is a 5,100-kilometre ( 3,200-mile) cross-continental cycle trip to New England and a trans-Atlantic row back to London in the summer of 2014.
Presented by Adam Justice