Contact Lia: lia@rowliarow.com
RowLiaRow Website
RowLiaRow on Facebook
RowLiaRow on Instagram
Like a Bigfoot Podcast #287: Lia Ditton — 87 Days Alone Rowing the Pacific; S.F. to Hawaii
This week’s guest is the incredible ocean rower Lia Ditton!
Lia is a sailor, rower, adventurer with a lifelong passion for ocean travel. In this week’s episode we chat all about what it was like to spend 87 days (rounded up from 86 hours, 10 hours and 5 minutes) alone on a record setting row across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Hawaii.
Lia dives into her mindset, what it was like to spend so much time with herself, how she battled self doubt, fear, and anxiousness as she explored the lowest of lows and the highest of highs! Such a unique and epic adventure has given her amazing insights on life, adventure, and the world at large.
About Lia
I am a writer and professional adventurer passionate about sharing my experiences at sea, through writing, speaking engagements and by translating them into contemporary art installations.
Now 40, I have racked up more than 150,000 nautical miles of experience – the equivalent of 8 laps of the globe – and have competed at a high level in some of the world’s most challenging ocean races.
The youngest competitor and only woman to complete the OSTAR 2005 single-handed transatlantic race, my experience formed the basis of a 2006 installation, Absolute Solitude: One Woman, One Boat in which I lived on my boat next to the Tate Britain Gallery for 28 days – the same number of days as it took me to sail to the US.
After achieving 2nd place in France’s prestigious single-handed transatlantic race, Le Route du Rhum, I went on to captain the boat that starred in the film ‘Waterworld’ with Kevin Costner, taking 1st place in the 2007 Transpac Race (Mulithull Division) from LA to Hawaii.
An entry in the Woodvale Challenge tipped ‘The Toughest Rowing Race on Earth’ saw me swap sails for oars. From La Gomera in the Canary Islands, to Antigua in the Caribbean, I rowed 3,000 nautical miles to become the 53rd woman to row the Atlantic Ocean and the 64th woman ever to row any ocean.
Author
Aside from being a sailor and an artist, I write regularly for magazines. On a quest to master the art of storytelling, I completed a postgraduate degree in Professional Writing at Falmouth University in 2011-12. Six months later I was commissioned to write a coffee-table book to inspire others.
‘50 Water Adventures To Do Before You Die’ is available in both English and German.
Published by Bloomsbury in the UK in 2014, USA, Canada and Europe in 2015. Available on Amazon
Captain
In 2015 I was boat captain of the world’s largest solar-powered boat and first solar electric vehicle to circumnavigate the globe, PlanetSolar.
I was involved with the boat’s 3,500 mile delivery from Venice to Lorient, France and 5 month refit analysing 349 of the 809 solar panels!
Ocean Rower
In addition to rowing the Atlantic and being safety officer in 2014 for race a from Monterey to Hawaii, I have done significant rowing offshore on the west coast of the US including solo rowing expeditions from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco (2019), San Francisco to Los Angeles (2018), Around Farallon Islands and back into SF Bay (2018), rowing down to Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz and Monterey. Rowing in San Francisco Bay in the past few years, I built up from 12 hrs of rowing per week to 50 hrs of rowing per week and now routinely row 80+ hours/week offshore! As my next training row, I am currently offshore rowing from San Francisco to Hawaii having started on June 17, 2020.
