Female US rower reflects on ‘surreal’ record-breaking journey from California to Hawaii

Kelsey Pfendler, 32, says she hopes her solo 2,400-mile trek across the mid-Pacific inspires other women to take risks

A Grand Canyon river-rafting guide who recently became the first US woman to row solo from California to Hawaii – traveling in record time – says she hopes her accomplishment inspires other women to push their limits and take risks.

“It’s really motivating to think [that], maybe one day, I will get to see another woman work even harder to do what I did,” Kelsey Pfendler, 32, told ABC’s Good Morning America program on Monday, three days after completing the record-setting journey across the mid-Pacific. “And it would be so special to watch.”

Pfendler set out on 21 May to become the first American, youngest and fastest woman to make the more than 2,400-mile (3,900km) rowing trek alone, according to her website .

She launched from Monterey, California , and pulled into a harbor in Honolulu on the night of 3 July in her 21ft rowboat, Lily.

An archive maintained by Ocean Rowing Society International – which adjudicates ocean-rowing achievements for Guinness World Records – showed that it took Pfendler just under 44 days to finish the journey, which was said to be unprecedented for a woman who was as young as her or from the US.

Her time was faster than both the previous comparable female record-holder’s 86 days as well as the male record-holder’s 52 days, as registered by both Ocean Rowing Society International and Guinness World Records.

“It was very surreal,” Pfendler said to ABC of having reached the end of her long-distance row. “It was hard to … soak in that I had actually made it.”

Hundreds of thousands of people tracked Pfendler’s progress on social media, where she shared the triumphs and tribulations of her trip.

Challenges included blistered hands, difficulty sleeping and struggles with stiff winds as well as intermittently unfavorable currents that she recounted in video diaries.

She also explained how she cooked, protected her skin from the sun, cleaned her clothes and made herself fresh water.

At one point, she documented how a US coast guard crew pulled up near her boat to speak to her by radio and sing “happy birthday” to her.

“This is so cool,” Pfendler says in a video of the moment. “This is so special for me – oh, my God.”

“It’s special for us, too,” one of the US Coast Guard crew members replies. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us, truly.”

Pfendler’s website says she has been a professional raft guide since she was 18. For the last eight years, she has led trips along the Grand Canyon’s Colorado River.

She told ABC that she didn’t “expect to get in that early” after embarking from Monterey – but she “picked up a lot of speed at the very end because there was some good current going into Honolulu”.

Pfendler also said that she was in awe of the forces of nature she encountered on her way.

“I was definitely scared at points,” Pfendler remarked. “But then you put that against some of the flatter days where you get to … actually soak in … how immense the open ocean is.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting