roz savage

After a month and a half at sea, British ocean rower and environmental campaigner Roz Savage made landfall Friday in Papua New Guinea, completing her three-stage trip and becoming the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean.

"It's still sinking in that I've actually done it," Savage, 42, said in an e-mail Friday.

She set off in her 23-foot boat from Tarawa in mid-April on the final leg of her Pacific voyage. In total, she spent about 250 days alone at sea, rowing more than 8,000 miles and taking an estimated 2.5 … Read more

PORTLAND, Ore.--After rowing solo across the Atlantic Ocean and a good stretch of the Pacific for more than 8,400 miles so far, Roz Savage is getting better at finding pleasure in it.

"I won't say that I positively enjoy it. It's more like enjoying not banging your head against a brick wall anymore," Savage said in a recent interview. "Some people love it out there on the ocean. I'm a land creature."

So what's a land creature like her doing in a place like that on a 23-foot row boat?

Partly, to challenge herself. But mostly, to inspire people to take better care of the planet. This week, the ocean rower and environmental campaigner is temporarily trading her boat for a much bigger one, the National Geographic Endeavour, where she will speak at an ocean-themed TED Prize conference in the Galapagos. Next week, if conditions are right, she plans to set off on the final leg of a three-stage trip in her attempt to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific.

Savage admits she does not fit the description of your typical adventurer of old. As she puts it in her book "Rowing the Atlantic," she doesn't sport "a frost-encrusted beard," nor is she tall. She is just under 5'4" and blonde. Savage, 42, was born to Methodist preachers in Cheshire, England, and attended Oxford University, where she first took up rowing. For more than a decade, she worked as a management consultant and project manager. While she may not be a Shackleton or a Cook, she does have a name fitting of an explorer. (A student asked her during a recent visit to a San Francisco Bay Area school, "How did you come up with your stage name of Roz Savage?") … Read more

Roz Savage, the Brit who aims to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific, is back on land for the first time in nearly 100 days and is marking a milestone.

She arrived in Hawaii on Monday morning, completing the first of three legs of her journey across the Pacific Ocean. That's after setting off from San Francisco in her 24-foot rowboat known as the "Brocade" just before midnight on May 24. In all, she rowed about 2,600 miles.

Savage was met by family, friends, other well-wishers, and the media. After she landed … Read more

Ask Roz Savage what her favorite gadgets are aboard her rowboat and she's quick to answer.

"The ones that are still working."

The 40-year-old Brit has set out to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean, and she passed a milestone recently: She's now halfway to Hawaii. That's after setting off from San Francisco in her 24-foot rowboat just before midnight on May 24.

With under 1,000 miles left to go on the first leg of her voyage, she took time out late last week to talk via satellite phone. Her location? Somewhere in the Pacific. More precisely, around 140 degrees west.

So what's still working?

"The TomTom GPS is working. I consult that six times a day," said Savage, adding that she's been using it to update the ship's log. She got the TomTom GO 720 last year for her car. (Savage wrote in a photo caption on her blog: "The TomTom GPS from my car is rather confused to find itself in the middle of the Pacific.")

She also has a handful of iPods onboard, but she said she's only used one so far: the one that TWiT.tv's Leo Laporte loaded up with more than 300 audio books. (Laporte checks in with Savage a couple of times a week for the podcast series "Roz Rows the Pacific.") A few of the titles that have stood out so far include the fantasy novel A Game of Thrones and the nonfiction work A Crack in the Edge of the World, which covers the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

She has two laptops onboard, a MacBook and Panasonic Toughbook. Savage sends updates for her Web site via her satellite phone. (She also has a spare phone this time. When Savage rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in a race a few years ago, her satellite phone went dead about a month before she arrived at the finish.)

What's not working? Her energy-efficient Spectra desalinator that was capable of producing 25 liters of water an hour. "It's totally corroded." But she has reserve water supplies and a hand-pump water maker. Her onboard chart plotter also isn't working, so that's where the TomTom comes in. (In a blog posting Monday, Savage wrote: "The death toll on electronic components continues." Over the weekend it seems chargers for her satellite phone and iPod conked out. Luckily, she's got backups.)

Even so, as Savage has said, her boat is a little model of self-sufficiency. She has solar panels and a wind generator providing the power for her electronics. She is growing her own bean sprouts. So what could this mean for the world at large?

"Sustainability is rather limitless," said Savage. While she doesn't currently have a home, Savage knows what she would do if she did. "I would very much want to make it energy-efficient, self-sufficient." She said she finds value in being an example to people in different ways, and one aspect of that is embracing green energy. … Read more

Over the long weekend, some of us were slouching down in plush movie theater seats (flanked by a 24-ounce Icee and a tub o' popcorn ) and enjoying the latest adventures of Indiana Jones. Others, however, were setting off on an actual adventure.

British rower Roz Savage pushed away from San Francisco and set off under the Golden Gate Bridge just before midnight Saturday, in her second attempt to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific. Last summer, Savage set off only to be foiled by bad weather some two weeks into the trip. She was rescued by the Coast Guard … Read more

Roz Savage, who set out recently to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific, was airlifted from her boat about 90 miles off the coast of California by the Coast Guard on Thursday night.

Earlier this week, rough seas caused Savage's 24-foot boat to capsize more than once. By Thursday, everything was wet, many of her electronics were damaged and she had lost her sea anchor. After debating much of the day about whether to be rescued, Savage decided to cut her trip short. She was taken by helicopter to California, where she underwent medical tests, … Read more

My weather gauge is a man who resembles Locke on the ABC series Lost but has a tan deeper than George Hamilton's. His uniform never changes--sleeveless shirt and cutoffs. On warm days, he slouches in his beach chair in front of the apartment building down the street from me. If I see him sitting there, I know it's safe to go outside without a sweater.

Roz Savage's weather gauge is a bit more sophisticated. Savage, who aims to be the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean, relies on people like Rick Shema. Shema, heads … Read more

Summertime. It's the time of year when some heed the call to hit the open road, like CNET News.com's Daniel Terdiman. (Follow him on Road Trip 2007 as he travels through the Southwest, testing gadgets and taking in scientific and natural wonders along the way.)

For one woman, it's the open ocean that beckons. This time, it's the Pacific. And she's going to row. By herself. Roz Savage, a 39-year-old Brit, plans to set off from San Francisco next week in a 24-foot boat to row across the ocean in three stages, her first … Read more