Thursday, March 28

Lia Ditton: Rowing Alone 5,500 nm Across the Pacific

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Lia Ditton, 38, wants to be the first woman to row alone and without support across the Pacific Ocean, some 5,500 nm from Choshi, Japan, to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Don’t bet against her. An ocean racer, in sailboats and rowing boats, Ditton already has 150,000 nm under her belt, and she’s racked up a number of firsts. Last month she was in Anacortes, Washington, training on her new boat.

Born in London, Ditton studied as an artist, and traveled to India and the Far East to learn how to carve in stone. In Thailand, she answered an ad looking for crew to sail back to Europe. She was hooked.

Ditton did her first solo across the Atlantic when she was 25; she was the youngest competitor and the only woman to sail in the OSTAR single-handed race in 2005. She then finished second in France’s single-handed transatlantic race, Le Route du Rhum. On land, she also found time to do some modeling, working in a New York charity event hosted by Sean Connery.

A friend and Olympic competitor introduced her to ocean rowing, and in 2010 Ditton became the 53rd woman to row across the Atlantic, from the Canary Islands to Antigua.

For the past three years she’s been living in San Francisco, preparing for the Pacific. She plans to leave Choshi next March, alone, heading for the Golden Gate. Stay tuned.

http://rowliarow.com/?mc_cid=e8184439a9&mc_eid=85d108f2ba

 

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