AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Kelsey Pfendler is on an epic mission.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIKTOK VIDEO)
KELSEY PFENDLER: I'm going to be launching from the Monterey Harbor and rowing 2,500 miles to Oahu, Hawaii.
CHANG: You heard that right. She is rowing across the mid-Pacific Ocean - solo. It is a feat only two women have ever completed. Kelsey Pfendler hopes to join their ranks as the first American woman to do so. She is more than 20 days into her journey, which she has been documenting on TikTok. And yes, there have been some real lows.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIKTOK VIDEO)
PFENDLER: So I've just been rowing against a westerly wind.
CHANG: But there have also been some incredible highs.
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PFENDLER: There's dolphins. There's dolphins. There's literally dolphins.
CHANG: Oh, my God. Kelsey Pfendler joins us now from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Hi, Kelsey. It sounds like I don't say aloha quite yet. You're still in the middle of the ocean, yes?
PFENDLER: Yeah, I actually crossed the halfway mark, so I'm officially closer to Hawaii than I am California.
CHANG: Congratulations. That in itself deserves some congrats. I mean, I get really seasick even on a cruise ship, so I could never do what you're doing. I take it you never get motion sickness?
PFENDLER: No, I mean, it definitely happens to me. After the first couple days, your body kind of just accepts what's happening, and I think most people get over it after the first week.
CHANG: After the first week (laughter).
PFENDLER: I think (laughter).
CHANG: Yeah, that's a long week for some people. OK, wait.
PFENDLER: It is.
CHANG: I just need to get my head straight 'cause when I think of a rowboat, I literally think, (singing) row, row, row, your boat gently down the stream.
I'm picturing something, like, way too small to be on an ocean, something that you might use to flee with on - if you're on a sinking ship. But can you describe what your boat is like? - 'cause I hear a motor in the background.
PFENDLER: Yeah, so my boat is called a Rannoch R25. It's a 24-foot fiberglass boat. So it's got two cabins. It's got a cabin in the front and a cabin in the back. Those are both watertight. And the stern cabin's where I live. That's where all the navigation equipment is and also has an autopilot.
CHANG: Wow.
PFENDLER: The autopilot doesn't make any forward momentum, but it definitely keeps me on track so I don't have to hand steer 'cause I can hand steer the boat with ropes that will move the rudder for me. But the autopilot just helps me keep on track so I can put more effort into rowing and less into steering.
CHANG: That is amazing. OK, can I just ask you, like, why rowing? Like, why did you decide you wanted to row thousands of miles across the ocean?
PFENDLER: I love rowing. I love hard things.
CHANG: (Laughter).
PFENDLER: I've been a river guide in Grand Canyon since I was 18 years old, and I just - I love the water.
CHANG: Yeah.
PFENDLER: I say, like, usually, I'm just looking for how to be in a boat in the middle of nowhere most of the time.
CHANG: How is being alone for days on end? How is that going?
PFENDLER: It's honestly - it's been really good. The first week was really challenging, especially because the conditions were so hard, and I was scared at times. And I was just completely exhausted 'cause I really wasn't sleeping at all the first week to get off the coast.
CHANG: Oh, yeah (ph).
PFENDLER: So that was hard because you have no one to kind of lean on emotionally.
CHANG: Yeah.
PFENDLER: But now I've really settled into it, and I've been loving it. I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks.
(LAUGHTER)
PFENDLER: It's been (inaudible).
CHANG: Am I, like, the first human you've talked to in - well, I guess, you have a team you've been interacting with, so it's not like I'm your first human interaction in days.
PFENDLER: You're my first, like, long conversation in a little while, but...
(LAUGHTER)
CHANG: Oh, my God, I'm so honored (laughter). How's that going? Does it feel weird? Are you wigging out that you're in conversation right now with me?
PFENDLER: It is interesting. Yeah, it's - it feels funny. It's definitely out of my daily routine 'cause I have usually just been rowing, like, 18 hours a day (laughter).
CHANG: Oh, my God. OK, wait, let's talk about your daily routine because obviously you brought some essentials with you in terms of food and water, enough to be able to survive 70 to 90 days, which is the estimated length of this epic journey. What are you actually eating? What did you bring for provisions here?
PFENDLER: It's a lot of dehydrated meals and, like, high-calorie snacks, so nothing that you would recommend to anyone trying to eat a healthy diet, but it is...
(LAUGHTER)
PFENDLER: ...Very high in calorie and just kind of dense food that's also lightweight...
CHANG: Yeah, yeah.
PFENDLER: ...Because you have to carry all of your weight.
CHANG: Totally.
PFENDLER: And it definitely becomes very apparent when there isn't a lot of wind how heavy the boat can be.
CHANG: So it's like hiking meals.
PFENDLER: Absolutely that, like peanut butter and protein bars and Pop-Tarts.
CHANG: Oh, my God. You deserve a Michelin restaurant meal when you land in Hawaii (laughter). I'm so curious, though. Like, you say some days you're rowing 18 hours straight. Like, you know, I'm just envisioning a repetitive motion for 18 hours. What are some other things that you're actually doing to not go insane?
PFENDLER: I mean, I love this. I really love rowing. So, like, the act of rowing isn't something that takes my sanity from me. It's really wonderful. It's kind of meditative. After a while, you just get into it. It does hurt the body a little bit to do something so repetitive...
CHANG: Yeah.
PFENDLER: ...All the time. Like, I wake up and I'm a little bit stiff and sore. But honestly, my body is kind of adjusted. I thought I was going to have a harder time with how little of sleep I'm getting because I'm only sleeping about, like, maybe four to 4 1/2 hours a day.
CHANG: Wow.
PFENDLER: That first week, I slept maybe, like, two hours a day.
CHANG: Wow.
PFENDLER: Yeah, it was really hard. It really got to me.
CHANG: Were you kind of a mess?
PFENDLER: Good thing I'm alone, right (laughter)?
CHANG: And - yeah, and you're alone.
(LAUGHTER)
PFENDLER: Well, yeah, the first week, I was definitely having some audio hallucinations.
CHANG: Woah.
PFENDLER: All the little sounds of my boats were, like, getting turned into people's voices, and, like, the boat was talking to me a lot (laughter).
CHANG: Oh, my God.
PFENDLER: But I'm here for a lot of reasons, but part of it is because I want to break the women's world record.
CHANG: Yeah.
PFENDLER: And I am currently about 500 miles ahead of the women's world record.
CHANG: Whoa.
PFENDLER: So...
CHANG: Oh, my God. OK.
PFENDLER: I - that's part of all of this for me, is trying to push myself to do the thing well and do it right and put all of myself into it because you only get one chance to do it.
CHANG: Kelsey, you are one brave, tough human being. I'm just kind of in awe picturing all of this right now. Can I ask you - I mean, as you said, you've spent so much of your life on the water. You rowed to Hawaii as part of a four-person team. You were also part of a crew on a sailboat that crossed the Atlantic. What is it about the open ocean that turns on your brain so beautifully, that makes you feel so good inside?
PFENDLER: Well, I mean, I love wilderness. I think there's nothing more humbling and special than putting yourself in a place that's so much more powerful than you. And there's no bigger piece of wilderness in our world than the open ocean. It's massive. And there is very much something spiritual for me about just being with a place that is so strong, so beautiful, so powerful and also just something that requires you to have humility in the face of what it really is.
CHANG: Yeah.
PFENDLER: I really do love it. I think it's insane how just beautiful it is out here and the fact that I am not in control of what's going on most of the time, and I think it really takes you outside of yourself when you give some recognition to that. I love it.
CHANG: That's beautiful. Well, Kelsey, good luck. Be safe. We are all rooting for you here on land.
PFENDLER: Thank you.
CHANG: Kelsey Pfendler is attempting to become the first American woman to row solo from Monterey, California, to Oahu. Thank you so much, Kelsey. It is such an honor and such a pleasure to be speaking with you in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
PFENDLER: Thank you so much for taking the time.
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