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Rowing the Pacific … Miriam & Jess …

… this time last week (Saturday 18th) two young British women were battling gusting twenty knot winds as they rowed their nine metre vessel ‘Velocity’ towards terra firma in Cairns.

The previous day I had taken a little voyage myself … a fifty nautical jaunt on the 12.5 metre Reef Adventures boat ‘Lethal Weapon’ … in the opposite direction. The rationale was to journey out past the edge of the Great Barrier Reef into the Coral Sea to meet Miriam Payne (25) and Jess Rowe (28) on the last stage of their epic 8213 nautical mile row across the Pacific Ocean.

The girls left Lima Peru on the 5th of May. 165 days later they stepped ashore at the Marlin Marina in Cairns after battling storms, massive waves, technical issues that nullified all their electronics … and a lack of chocolate … setting a new record as the first all-female pair to row across the Pacific Ocean nonstop and unsupported.

Following a rather bumpy trip on ‘Lethal Weapon’ through choppy waters last Friday, we found Miriam and Jess rowing steadfastly towards the edge of the Great Barrier Reef … and I made many images (just five of them here below). An hour or so later we shot back to Cairns. The pics were syndicated by Agence France-Presse/Getty around the planet. Very nice to see my work in The Times, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Guardian (all UK) … and many more around the World.

Far North Queenland is developing as a mecca for ocean rowers. In late August I covered the arrival of the three Scottish MacLean brothers in Cairns at the culmination of their Pacific Ocean row.  Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan smashed the world record for the fastest human-powered Pacific Ocean crossing completing the journey in 139 days. In April 2023 I documented the arrival in Port Douglas of solo Australia rower Michelle Lee who spent a whopping 237 days rowing across the Pacific from Mexico unassisted and all on her little lonesome, to become the first woman ever to do so.

( Arguably Miriam and Jess’s feat was more impressive than their Scottish male counterparts when taking into consideration ‘manpower’ or ‘womanpower’. Although the three Maclean brothers were quicker at 139 days … just the two of Miriam and Jess managed the journey only 26 days longer .. do the figures and go girls ! )

I had the pleasure of meeting Jess and Miriam (again) on dry land at a Salt House reception on Wednesday eve. A nicer couple of young ladies you could not imagine … vibrant, down to earth and full of humility. Many Thanks for the opportunity to meet you and your families properly … and thanks also to Cairns PR Pip Miller and Dave Gray from Agence France-Presse for your support.

Good (great) news stories are so good to cover …

You may see more of my images of these two amazing young ladies and their huge adventure on my Instagram here … and my Facebook here .

Images © Brian Cassey

British rowers Miriam Payne (25 - in black) and Jess Rowe (28 - in blue) approach the outer Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea Friday, 17th October 2025. The pair left Peru on the 5th May in their vessel ‘Velocity’ to row the approximately 8000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. When they set foot on dry land in Cairns this weekend they will become the first women’s team and the first pair to row the Pacific non-stop and unsupported. Image © Brian Cassey
British rowers Miriam Payne (25 - in black) and Jess Rowe (28 - in blue) approach the outer Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea Friday, 17th October 2025. The pair left Peru on the 5th May in their vessel ‘Velocity’ to row the approximately 8000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. When they set foot on dry land in Cairns this weekend they will become the first women’s team and the first pair to row the Pacific non-stop and unsupported. Image © Brian Cassey
British rowers Miriam Payne (25 - in black) and Jess Rowe (28 - in blue) approach the outer Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea Friday, 17th October 2025. The pair left Peru on the 5th May in their vessel ‘Velocity’ to row the approximately 8000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. When they set foot on dry land in Cairns this weekend they will become the first women’s team and the first pair to row the Pacific non-stop and unsupported. Image © Brian Cassey
British rowers Miriam Payne (25 - in black) and Jess Rowe (28 - in blue) approach the outer Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea Friday, 17th October 2025. The pair left Peru on the 5th May in their vessel ‘Velocity’ to row the approximately 8000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. When they set foot on dry land in Cairns this weekend they will become the first women’s team and the first pair to row the Pacific non-stop and unsupported. Image © Brian Cassey

The Wet ‘n’ Windy Visit of Cyclone ‘Jasper’ …

… it’s raining heavily as I pen this … it is the ‘wet’ season after all … but nothing like the utterly torrential rains that Cyclone Jasper brought to Cairns and the far north in mid December.

Although the actual cyclone was somewhat lower on the scale as cyclones go … the rains that followed in Jasper’s wake were the most intense seen up here in many decades.

Breaking most of the very long standing rainfall records, metres high flooding and massive landslides caused absolute havoc … and as usual it’s my sometimes challenging job to cover the happenings photographically. As a freelance this gets a little complicated as the phone runs a little hot from calls from news publications and the ‘wires’ (news agencies).

Over the course of Jasper’s journey across the Coral Sea, it’s approach and crossing of the far north coast and it’s impact and aftermath thereafter … I found myself working for all of AAP (Australian Associated Press), AFP (Agence France Presse), NCA Newswire … and News Ltd. The images I made over the initial couple of weeks of turmoil were syndicated and published around the planet … some turning up in places and publications that I had no idea existed.

Jaspers effect on far north Queensland was massive. The Cairns northern beach suburbs of Holloways, Machans and Yorkeys Knob were inundated with metres of flood water … many residents escaping to their rooftops and eventual chopper rescue. Indigenous townships further north were so badly flooded that entire communities were evacuated. At least one was swept to their death. Metres of rain eroded mountains and caused numerous massive landslides that crushed buildings, covered main roads and changed the landscape … and that’s just part of the story.

Here’s links to just over a handful of the many publications where my work turned up over the cyclone event … The Arkansas Democrat Daily – USA, The Peninsula – Qatar, The Hindustan Times – India, The New Straits Times – Malaysia, RNZ – New Zealand, France 24, International – The News – Pakistan, Kuwait Times … and The Augusta-Margaret River Mail – WA Australia. They were scores more around the planet.

There’s a selection of my Jasper images (so far) below and here are short details of each for context … from top … as follows … 1. The Sanders family watch Jasper roll in across the Coral Sea at Holloways Beach … 2. Linda Applbee sits on the saturated contents stripped from their flooded Holloways Beach home … 3. Two Pictures on the wall … Steven and Caroline Cheng survey the flooding in their house of 38 years at Holloways Beach … 4. Evacuated residents leave the flooded Barron River bridge Cairns to return to their Holloways beach home … 5. Evacuated residents reunite with rescued family members at the Barron River Bridge Cairns … 6. (left) A discharged patient awaits outside the Emergency Department of Cairns Hospital behind a line of sand bags … (right) Tree surgeon Brice Stienstra removes a felled tree from Muddies Playground on the Cairns Esplanade … 7. (left) Rattled … Inundated ‘Rattle ‘n’ Hum’ bar on the Esplanade at Palm Cove as Jasper closes in … (right) 11 year old Cairns resident Jaxon Andrews tends to a cyclone battered and drenched white cockatoo … 8. (left) Ergon electrician Justin Pitts prepares to fix a power line victim of Jasper … (right) Motorists traverse flooded Cairns streets during torrential rains … 9. A massive tree snapped by Jasper on the Cairns Esplanade.

The first image of the waves at Holloways Beach turned up full TV screen whilst watching CNN … and the fourth image, made at the Barron River bridge in Cairns, was one of 23 images selected in the ‘Australia’s Best Agency Photography for 2023’ collection published by The Guardian. Nice …

Covering Jasper certainly wasn’t uneventful … my favourite lens became a victim of saturation … and I managed to fracture a vertebrae in a fall … minor stuff … and I’ve a feeling Jasper’s story isn’t quite over yet …

Images © Brian Cassey, AAP, AFP, NCANewswire