The first stroke is always the hardest...

As I sit down to write for the first time I've realized that the idea of starting a blog seems about as daunting as rowing an ocean. Fortunately, rowing an ocean is exactly what I'm going to do, so here goes...

It's October 8th, 2006, my voyage will begin in the Canary Islands in 789 days, and there's nothing that I would enjoy more than to be able to turn the calendar forward about two and a half years and read this log from start to finish. So many questions would be answered- Did I make it to the finish? Did I make it to the start? Did I "make it" at all? Did I get discouraged, scared, behind schedule, and did I give up? How much debt am I in? How sunburned did I get? Who built my boat? When was it finished? How much did this trip cost? Did I meet my goal of raising $100,000 for charity? Did I have fun? How many amazing people did I meet along the way? If I knew then what I know now would I still want to row an ocean? I could go on and on...but I won't.

Clearly there's no way to turn the clock ahead by a few years, but in my mind I already know the answers to these questions (in case you were wondering: Yes, Yes, Yes, No, Lots, More so than I would like, It doesn't matter, In time, Lots, Yes, Yes, More than you can count, and Absolutely).

Though the day that I'll paddle out of the harbor of San Sebastian de la Gomera heading South before gradually putting extra pressure on my port oar to swing the bow of my little boat West towards home 3,000 miles over the horizon is still a long way off, I'm getting goosebumps and a knot in my stomach just trying to put those words to paper.

There's no doubt that answers to many of my questions will be found in the weeks and months to come and I hope to share my victories and failures both on this log and in person with anyone who wants to listen. In the next several days I plan to introduce myself and answer several of the most common questions that people have when they hear that I'm planning on rowing across the ocean (the most popular so far, "What do you do at night and how do you sleep?").


"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of shore for a very long time"
-Andre Gide (1869-1951)