Two Women Oceans Apart Poised to Make History

They’re a world apart and probably aren’t even aware of what each other is doing, but two women share a common goal: to make history and show the world that gender is no obstacle when it comes to extreme adventure on the high seas.

One is much closer to achieving it than the other. Seattle’s Karen Thorndike, 56, is due to make landfall in San Diego on Tuesday, completing a sometimes harrowing around-the-world solo sailing journey that began Aug. 4, 1996.

Perhaps it’s fitting that Thorndike, who left Hawaii on the final leg of her odyssey July 14, has been stuck in doldrums caused by a mid-Pacific high for the last two weeks and unable to make much headway. The elements have been against her often and at one point, last year off the Falkland Islands, while suffering chest pains brought on by lack of sleep and flu, she was tossed about by winds so violent that she nearly capsized and had to be rescued by the British navy.

But that’s all behind her. The breeze is slowly pushing her 36-foot sailboat east and should be strong enough for her to become the first American woman to solo-circumnavigate the globe.

How does it feel to be so close and yet so far away, after so much time spent alone at sea?

“This leg has been frustrating because of the light winds,” Thorndike said via e-mail Wednesday. “But all I have to do is think of the storms in the southern oceans to put it all in perspective.”

Thorndike figures to get a rousing reception, led by the San Diego Yacht Club, when she enters San Diego Harbor, probably Tuesday morning. Anyone wanting to participate can call (619) 744-8748 for updates on her estimated time of arrival.

Oblivious to all this will be Tori Murden, 35, who is rowing across the Atlantic with no fanfare.

She’s not up a creek without a paddle in her bid to become the first woman to row alone across the north Atlantic, but her task remains an unenviable one.

Her communications system broke down two weeks into her 3,150-mile trip and her 23-foot American Pearl--with a customized cabin for sleeping--is merely a blip on a computer screen monitored by the Ocean Rowing Society in London.

“The only reports we get are from [the crews of] ships that pass her on their way across the ocean,” said Julie Wellik, a spokeswoman for Murden. “We know that she capsized at least twice because the crew of one of the ships, a British ship, told us.”

Murden is halfway home, 60 days and nearly 2,000 miles into her voyage from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to France. She’s averaging nearly 32 miles a day, eating freeze-dried food and energy bars, and making fresh water with a desalination unit powered by the sun.

If successful, the Louisville, Ky., resident, who in 1989 became the first woman and first American to ski to the South Pole, will become the sixth person to row across the north Atlantic. Three British men and two Frenchmen have done it.

Murden’s rowboat is six feet wide, self-righting and self-bailing and fitted with an emergency satellite beacon should she need rescuing.

Her daily position is transmitted via satellite and displayed on the Internet at https://www.oceanrowing.com, which has received about 1,000 hits a day.

Many visitors to the site leave messages of encouragement and support. The best so far might be this one on July 13:

“Dear Tori: From one Louisville native to another, I wish you the best of luck on your journey across the ocean. We are cheering for you! You are a champion. Best wishes, Muhammad Ali.”

Wellik said, “We can only guess” as to whether it really was the legendary boxer who sent the message, but it’s moot anyway because Murden is unable to retrieve messages.

“That’s the irony of it all,” Wellik said. “Everyone’s pulling for her and she has no idea.”

SHORT CASTS

* Albie seein’ ya: Don’t count on a resurgence of albacore this time around. Some blame the recent drop in the fish counts on the full moon. More likely, it is the warming of the ocean’s surface from the mid-60s, which is already uncomfortably warm for the longfin tuna, to the low 70s in some areas, which is likely to send them north.

The good news is yellowfin tuna and dorado--which prefer warmer water--are expected to replace the albacore, and both species are already showing north of the border. “It’s the changing of the guard,” said Philip Friedman of 976-TUNA, which has reported dorado being picked from kelp paddies as far north as Dana Point.

* Catch of the day: A 310-pound bigeye tuna by Dennis Braid of Palmdale, while on an eight-day trip to the Azores, about 800 miles west of Portugal. Braid, who will be giving a slide show Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. at Turner’s Outdoorsman in Fountain Valley, donated the hulking tuna and a few others to the islanders of Faial, which had been struck by a powerful earthquake the day before he arrived.

* Pass the tartar sauce: Someone has been breaking into the Edison Marine Center in Redondo Beach and casting lures into the fish tanks, an act City Councilman Kevin Sullivan likened in the Easy Reader to “going on a safari at the San Diego Zoo.”

Sullivan called for an increased Harbor Patrol presence. Lab manager Larry Elkins said it was probably just kids on a joy ride, but he did express sadness over the loss of one of his prized inhabitants, a calico bass that had been there five years and “had grown to 12 pounds.”

* Quotable: Shawn Grigsby, professional bass fishermen and author of the soon-to-be-released “Bass Master, Shawn Grigsby on Fishing and Life” (National Geographic Books, $19.95), on what it is that drives his kind: “The best bass fishermen are almost metaphysical in their ability to enter nature and to think like a bass as they consider the habitat, the food and all the needs and concerns of the fish. To go into strange waters and consistently catch bass is proof that you have crossed from your world into the world of a wild creature.”

* FISH REPORT, C15