53-year-old UK Special Forces veteran Tim Crockett and his 18-year-old son Harrison just spent the last 48 days on a 24-foot rowboat rowing all the way from SF to Hilo, Hawaii, and they’re the first father-and-son team to ever accomplish this.
There are celebrations going in Hilo, Hawaii on Monday, though the two people with the most to celebrate are probably asleep in bed, and not getting up anytime soon. Those two people are the father-and-son rowing team of 53-year-old Tim Crockett and his 18-year-old son Harrison, as the Chronicle reports the two of them successfully rowed 2,400 nautical miles from San Francisco to Hawaii. The two departed from the San Francisco Bay on June 3 (they actually left from Sausalito), and almost 48 days later, they arrived on the Big Island of Hawaii late Sunday night.
“After 47 days, 14 hours and 53 minutes at sea - Tim and Harrison successfully made land in Hilo, Hawaii yesterday evening!” their sponsor said in a Monday Facebook post. “And their big smiles whilst they tucked into their first proper meal in nearly seven weeks, is the kind of wholesome content we needed to see!”
Those sponsors announced in a Sunday night Instagram post that “Harrison is the YOUNGEST person on the planet to have rowed the mid-Pacific [route] and these are the first father and son pairs team to ever do this.”
Yes, their boat is called The Kraken, and the duo's epic journey was part of a campaign called Tame the Kraken. They’re launching a program to raise funds for veterans with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries that will be known as “Row to Recovery.”
Here we see the kind of food you’re stuck eating when you spend 48 days out in the Pacific Ocean. It seems they made the best of that, but for those 48 days at sea, the two had to alternate 12-hour rowing shifts, endured blisters and salt sores galore, had to make boat repairs on the fly, and of course, deal with the physical threats of massive waves, sharks, and whales.
The record-setting nature of the Crocketts’ trip still has to be verified by the Ocean Rowing Society. But for now, Tim and Harrison Crockett are back on dry land, and probably won’t be doing any more boating for a while.
Image: Tame the Kraken via Facebook
