Imagine rowing all the way from California to Hawaii, 2,400 miles over 62 days across the Pacific with nothing but two friends and some oars. Team Pacific Terrific broke records and came second in the Great Pacific Race. Megan Hoskin has such wonderfully evocative stories about what it feels like to be in the middle of the ocean when you’re closest fellow humans are the ones passing over in the plane and also about her mountaineering in Nepal, Ecuador and much more.

Her short film Why Row An Ocean is entered into the forth coming Four Seasons Film Festival. 

On this episode we cover:

Rowing across the Pacific from the US to Hawaii

No engines, no sails, no powers, just rowing

Cazz Lander

Eleanor Carey

Rowing for 62 days across 2,400 across the Pacific with no support

Becoming the first group of 3 to row the Pacific and the youngest group of 3 row any ocean on earth

:leaving from Monterey in California and arriving in Waikiki Hawaii

The 24 foot ocean owing boat – mostly open deck

At times it could be terrifying

None of them having any off-shore rowing experience

What possessed then to do this

The physical and mental challenge

The exhilaration of setting off

Knowing they would be entering huge storms soon after setting off

Their toughest conditions in 30 foot waves and 35 knots

Using a ‘parachute anchor’ and being at the mercy of huge waves

One of the boats capsizing

No help 1200 miles from land

The risk of being hit by a huge cargo ship

Panic calls to massive tankers

A ship on a direct course straight at them

People’s confusion about what they were doing

Seeing so many sunrise, sunsets, watching planets rise and set all nights

The overwhelming sense of being so far away from everything

Realising planes flying overhead were closer than anyone else in the world

Not seeing the waves coming in the black of nights

Being scared of the big waves

Seeing a huge waves forming a mile or two away from them and not knowing if they would hit

The airtight cabins at either end

Hoping the boat will self-right in the event of a capsize

Bunkering down for three days at the start of the race

Hyperventilating in the cabin due to lack of oxygen

Reaching the central point of the mid-Pacific at 1200 miles in

Loving every minute and not really wanting to reach land

The great dynamic of the crew of three

Finding someone crazy enough to be their third person after someone dropped out

Becoming the youngest group of three to row any ocean

The practical issues – ‘bucket and chuck it’

The training and preparation being harder than the actual rowing

Nutrition and food and calorie counting for the journey

Their treat picnic at the half way point – Amaretto, condensed milk and tinned pineapple

The privilege of being somewhere so remote and exploring nature

Following in the footsteps of great explorers like Christopher Columbus

The Indian’s having Melanesian DNA (as well as Indian Fijian)

The similar feeling of driving over Shooter’s Hill and seeing London!

The emotional moment they finally saw land

Looking forward to eating fresh food and having a toilet

The film of the journey and the Four Seasons Film Festival

Megan’s background in mountaineering

How when you climb a mountain you still have to get down

Climbing trees!

Having a knack of getting to a mountain in a white out and therefore no view

Breaking down mountain climbing into small hills

Respecting environments and knowing when your life is in danger

Being in the mountains in Nepal in 2015 when the earthquake struck

Slipping down a mountain in Ecuador

Her degree in World Music

How life has a soundtrack

Mountaineer Mollie Hughes listening to Britney Spears on Everest

Thinking of the jungle in the snow on a mountain

Listening to Moana when crossing the Pacific

Her future journeys – bigger expeditions, getting out into Antarctica or the Arctic