Jacob Adoram, a former Air Force fighter pilot and lifelong adventurer, left Neah Bay in Washington State last July 7, starting an epic 7,145 solo, nonstop row across the Pacific to Cairns, Australia, without any support at all. He’s already set the world’s record for the longest time at sea on a solo rowboat (313 days) and that was last month. He’s almost within sight of Cairns now, making 1.3 knots, and he should land any day now.
In the selfie picture at the top, Adoram has just cut his beard. It was getting in his way. That was day 300, just two weeks after he was worried about his lack of progress. He expected the trip to take ten months, not 11, and had cut back his food ration. At that time, he was a bit down in the dumps, writing on his blog that “continuing to persist in a black hole of progress does create some level of anxiety.”
Then on May 14, day 313, he got broadsided by a huge wave when he opened the hatch door for some fresh air. A large steep wave crashed directly into the boat, filling the footwell with water and soaking his bed. There was so much water the bilge pump “is now broken beyond repair,” he wrote, “so it’s buckets and sponges here on out.” At that point he still had 700 nm to go.
Adoram is used to setting goals and achieving them. An Eagle Scout, he went to the Air Force Academy where he was a running back on the football team. He later flew 170 combat missions, and rode his bike across the United States. He has hiked and rowed in 35 countries around the world.
His boat, named Emerson, is 28 feet long with a beam of 5 feet and a displacement of 2,590 pounds. It’s made of carbon fiber and foam core. It has a forward cabin, which is his main living area, and a large wraparound window looking ahead. There’s a hardtop over the rowing station in the middle of the boat, with a large center window he can open to stand up. An aft cabin is filled with supplies.
Emerson’s equipment includes a watermaker and filters, battery, solar panels, Panasonic ToughPad, iPad, Iridium Go! With WiFi hotspot and sat phone, InReach Explorer with global sat com, Garmin plotter, jetboil fuel for food, a camp stove and, in case all the electronics nav instruments failed, a Davis Instruments sextant. Read more:
