May 2007

WEATHER STATIONS IN ACTION:

Vantage Pro2 Rows the Pacific with Roz, the Atlantic with Wave

There’s Roz on her tiny ocean-rowing boat Sedna. Behind her, you can see the anemometer of her new Vantage Pro2, which will accompany her all the way to Australia.

Our brave little weather stations are going where no weather station has gone before: out to sea on solo ocean row boats. Two solo ocean rowers, Roz Savage and Wave Vidmar, are heading in opposite directions in two little boats to row across the Pacific (Roz) and the Atlantic (Wave), with Davis Vantage Pro2s on duty all the way.

Roz Savage intends to become the first woman ever to row solo across the Pacific Ocean. How did she prepare for this feat? She rowed across the Atlantic in 2006! Roz plans to take her little boat, Sedna Solo, from San Francisco to Australia in three legs. On board for the 6,700 mile ride will be a Vantage Pro2, which will gather weather data while she is on the Pacific, to be fed back to her website and also to the UK Royal Navy to help improve the accuracy of the weather forecasts that they are providing.

The Vantage Pro2 is a good companion for Roz: it’s one tough cookie for another one. Roz’s website includes this reflection on her 103-day, 3,000 mile trek across the Atlantic:

“March 2006. I am 38, divorced, homeless, and alone in a tiny rowing boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. My last hot meal was two months ago, before my camping stove broke. My stereo is bust. I’ve had no human contact since my satellite phone stopped working several weeks ago. All four of my oars are broken and I’ve had to patch them up with duct tape and makeshift splints. I have tendonitis in my shoulders and saltwater sores on my backside. I have battled twenty-foot waves, sleep deprivation, self-doubt and depression. But I have never been happier.”

Check out Roz’s website to track her progress, check out more photos of Roz and Sedna in action, and even see a photo of Davis’ own Perry Dillon (scroll down to the journal entry for May 17), who installed the Vantage Pro2.

Wave Vidmar is going the opposite direction: he is attempting to row across the North Atlantic Ocean, from USA to Europe, likely ending in England, in his custom, high-tech, hand-made, 24-foot ocean row boat. Wave, 42, is no stranger to adventure. His recent, North Pole Challenge: North Pole Solo 2004, brought him to “the top of the world.” (In the process, he set several world records, including longest swim in the high Arctic -- over three hours!) You can read his daily log, how he traveled for three weeks on a broken leg/ankle, met polar bears, and dealt with minus 50 F degree (or colder) weather. Check out his website for more details.

For lots more information and a plethora of stats on ocean rowing, checkout the Ocean Rowing Society’s website.

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