Good news for one of the athletes we have been following!

On September 6, 2009 Roz Savage, British ocean rower and environmental campaigner, made landfall on Tarawa, a small atoll in the Republic of Kiribati, successfully completing stage 2 of her epic bid to become the first woman in history to row solo row across the Pacific Ocean. She launched this stage of her voyage on May 24, from Honolulu, Hawaii. She spent 104 days at sea, bringing the total number of days alone at sea for her Pacific crossing to 203 days. Savage uses her ocean rowing adventures to help inspire action on environmental issues.

Savage was welcomed by hundreds of people at Betio Wharf on South Tarawa, where children greeted her with flower leis. “What a spectacular welcome – I’m so delighted to be here in Kiribati and to meet the wonderful people of Tarawa. Being here is especially poignant for me, knowing that this land and the people who live here are some of the earliest and most seriously impacted by the devastating effects of climate change.”


Savage’s voyage consists of three stages, each with its own environmental message. In Summer 2008, she became the first woman ever to row solo from California to Hawaii. Her 2,700-mile, 99-day journey took her through the outskirts of the North Pacific Garbage Patch.

Savage’s journey this year from Hawaii to Tarawa targeted climate change. She is a United Nations Climate Hero, and this December Savage will travel to Copenhagen where delegates from around the world will gather to negotiate a new global agreement on climate change. The third, and final, stage of Roz’s solo row across the Pacific will take place in 2010, and will take her all the way to Australia.