By Robyn Wuth
After almost eight months as a tiny speck in the middle of the ocean, Australian endurance rower Michelle Lee has arrived in Port Douglas to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean.
The 50-year-old massage therapist from Kellyville in north-west Sydney spent 237 days at sea rowing unassisted from the coast of Ensenada in Mexico to Far North Queensland.
Navigating her 7.7 x 2-metre carbon fibre boat The Australian Maid, Lee made a journey of more than 14,000 kilometres across the equator that took her directly into the treacherous path of five hurricanes and four cyclones.
Michelle Lee celebrates her record-breaking journey from Mexico to Port Douglas.Credit: AAP
But at 9.49 am on Wednesday she heard the cheers of family, friends and a crowd of onlookers as she returned to Australian soil.
Lee is the first woman to row solo, unassisted with no stoppages across the Pacific Ocean – and she did it sooner than expected.
“It will be a matter of it just sinking in, what has happened, what we’ve done. It’s been my norm to be out there for seven months. So it was amazing how this just felt kind of unreal coming in,” she said.
In her final social media video posted on her final day at sea, an ecstatic Lee took time out to savour the final moments of her record-breaking journey.
“Look at that beautiful sunset and the ranges. I am just loving being home. Oh my god, I can’t wait to see all my people,” she said.
“My friends and my family are waiting for me. And just look at Australia. How lucky are we, people!
“It’s like I have found a whole new-found sense of love, appreciation and gratitude for how great our country is and look at what Mother Nature is giving me – she’s bringing me home on an amazing sea state with incoming, favourable current and a little bit of a breeze behind me.
“It couldn’t be more perfect than this, it really could not.”
The mammoth feat is not the first for Lee. In 2018, she became the first Australian woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
The achievement led to her being named the 2019 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.
Throughout her journey, Lee has shared regular updates detailing the awe of rowing alongside schools of fish approaching the Great Barrier Reef, finding a handbag and wattle branch lost at sea.
While her solo journey has come to an end, Lee’s mind is already racing toward her next adventure.
“Check out our country,” she said while floating at the entrance to the Great Barrier Reef.
“Man, you gotta get out, you gotta get on it, you gotta get in it, you gotta get less impressed and more involved. Yeah.
“I need a new adventure.”
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