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One more day. One more session navigating the pitiless slide. Another round of raw palms gripping unforgiving oars.

However following over 15,000 kilometers at sea – a monumental half-year voyage across the Pacific that included intimate meetings with marine giants, defective signaling devices and sweet treat crises – the waters delivered a last obstacle.

A gusting 20-knot wind approaching Cairns continuously drove their compact craft, the Velocity, off course from land that was now painfully near.

Loved ones gathered on land as a planned midday arrival shifted to 2pm, subsequently 4pm, then early evening. At last, at eighteen forty-two, they arrived at Cairns Yacht Club.

"The concluding hours proved absolutely punishing," Rowe stated, at last on firm earth.

"The wind was pushing us off the channel, and we honestly thought we weren't going to make it. We drifted outside the navigational path and thought we might have to swim to shore. To at last reach our destination, after talking about it for so long, proves truly extraordinary."

The Extraordinary Expedition Starts

The UK duo – Rowe is 28 and Payne 25 – pushed off from Lima, Peru in early May (an earlier April effort was derailed by a rudder failure).

During 165 ocean days, they maintained 50 nautical miles daily, working as a team through daytime hours, individual night shifts while her teammate dozed a bare handful of hours in a tight compartment.

Endurance and Obstacles

Kept alive with 400kg of mostly freeze-dried food, a saltwater conversion device and a vessel-based sprout cultivation system, the women counted on a less-than-reliable solar system for limited energy demands.

During most of their voyage over the enormous Pacific, they've had no navigation equipment or location transmitters, making them essentially invisible, nearly undetectable to passing ships.

The pair have borne 9-metre waves, crossed commercial routes and weathered furious gales that, at times, shut down every electronic device.

Groundbreaking Success

Yet they continued paddling, stroke by relentless stroke, during intensely warm periods, beneath celestial nightscapes.

They achieved an unprecedented feat as the first all-female pair to paddle over the South Pacific, non-stop and unsupported.

Additionally they collected more than £86,000 (A$179,000) benefiting the outdoor education charity.

Daily Reality at Sea

The pair did their best to keep in contact with the world beyond their small boat.

Around day one-forty, they declared a "cocoa crisis" – diminished to merely two remaining pieces with still more than 1,600km to go – but allowed themselves the indulgence of opening one bar to honor England's rugby team winning the Rugby World Cup.

Personal Reflections

Payne, from a landlocked part of Yorkshire, lacked ocean experience prior to her independent Atlantic journey during 2022 establishing a record.

She now has a second ocean conquered. But there were moments, she conceded, when they doubted their success. Starting within the first week, a path over the planet's biggest sea appeared insurmountable.

"Our electrical systems were diminishing, the freshwater system lines broke, but after nine repairs, we accomplished a workaround and barely maintained progress with little power throughout the remaining journey. Every time something went wrong, we simply exchanged glances and went, 'of course it has!' But we kept going."

"It was really great to have Jess as a teammate. The remarkable aspect was our collaborative effort, we problem-solved together, and we perpetually pursued common aims," she remarked.

Rowe is from Hampshire. Prior to her Pacific success, she crossed the Atlantic by rowing, hiked England's South West Coast Path, scaled the Kenyan peak and biked through Spain. There might still be more.

"We had such a good time together, and we're enthusiastically preparing additional journeys as a team again. I wouldn't have done it with anybody else."