50 year old Sydney masseuse Michelle Lee gently shipped her oars in Port Douglas Wednesday April 5th 2023 to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean … an epic feat that spanned 240 days.
Michelle left Ensenada Mexico in her row boat ‘The Australian Maid’ on August 8th 2022 with approximately 14000 kms ahead of her, much of it dodging numerous Cyclones (Hurricanes) and the unexpected. It was not only the weather that impacted her progress … she was shadowed by large sharks across the ocean (one decided to visit Michelle by jumping into the boat) … and currents and tides slowed her last run in to the Australian coast changing landfall from Cairns to Port Douglas.
She had previously defeated the lesser shorter challenge of rowing across the Atlantic in 68 days … a feat that led to her being named the 2019 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.
I was contacted by the event media consultant Liz Inglis to help cover Michelle’s Australian arrival … and contacted AAP who gladly snapped up the opportunity. Below are just a tiny portion … five … of the large set of photographs I made of her arrival. More can be found on my Instagram feed (10 images) at https://www.instagram.com/p/CqtmLTBB7U3/ … and on my Facebook page (12 images) at … https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10160849699665984&set=pcb.10160849701405984.
My full set of 43 images may be found on the AAP website at … https://photos.aap.com.au/search/Michelle%20Lee%20port%20douglas
Amongst many other media, The Guardian run a nice story on Michelle’s journey and arrival accompanied by some of my pics here … https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/05/bit-of-a-battle-michelle-lee-reaches-queensland-after-rowing-out-of-mexico-240-days-ago .
The images of Michelle’s landing in Aus have been syndicated widely around the planet over the last few days.
Images © AAP/Brian Cassey @australianassociatedpress
