Determination Carries Rower Murden Across the Atlantic

Tori Murden finally said goodbye to Stella and Stanley, good riddance to Lenny and hello to civilization last Friday morning, after rowing ashore amid great fanfare at Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, in the Lesser Antilles.

Stella and Stanley were the two dolphinfish--called dorado or mahi-mahi in the Pacific--she befriended in the middle of the ocean. “They hung out beneath my boat for about a month,” she says. “I named them after the characters in the Tennessee Williams play, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’ ”

Lenny was the hurricane that whipped a calm sea into a tumultuous one, complete with 20-foot waves that rolled Murden’s small boat once and made her life a soggy hell for about a week before fizzling into a mere tropical storm and allowing her to continue.

Civilization was something Murden had not been familiar with for 82 days, the time it took to row the 23-foot American Pearl 3,000 miles across the Atlantic and into the record books, she becoming the first woman and first American to cross an ocean solely by oar power.

And talk about a slap in the face! One of the first to greet the weary traveler on the docks of Fort-Du-Bas harbor was a French Customs official demanding to see her passport and proof that she was, indeed, Victoria Murden.

But so it goes, one might suppose, for international travelers, regardless of their means of getting from one place to another.

While others are collecting frequent-flier miles, though, Murden is content to take her place among the world’s great seafaring adventurers.

“After what happened to her the last time, most people would have just said that was a good try and leave it at that,” says Kenneth Crutchlow, director of the London-based Ocean Rowing Society. “But she did go back and try it again, which says a lot about Tori Murden.”

She proved, if nothing else, that determination can take a person far in life.

Her transatlantic crossing actually took a lot longer than 82 days. Last year, she tried to row from North Carolina to France and was swamped by another hurricane, Danielle, which blasted her with howling wind and monster waves, rolling her self-righting vessel more than 20 times as she tried to ride out the storm in the vessel’s protected sleeping quarters.

Murden was 85 days and 3,043 miles into that journey--950 miles shy of France--before realizing the futility of her struggle and activating her emergency positioning beacon, resulting in her rescue by the crew of a Cyprus-registered bulk carrier.

This time, on a westerly course from Tenerife in the Canary Islands off Spain, with a brisk wind at her back most of the way, Murden was on pace for a speed record for a transatlantic row--England’s Sidney Genders did it in 73 1/3 days in 1970--before Lenny canceled those plans.

But this time Murden was able to make landfall on her own terms, putting an end to a bland diet of freeze-dried dinners and energy bars, of saltwater made suitable for drinking by a desalination device, of an exercise regimen that required 12 hours of rowing a day.

“I call it cave-man rowing,” she says. “You’re just slogging along all the time.”

And was she ever ready for a hot meal and a good night’s sleep when she got off the boat.

“What did I eat? I think it was a croissant that someone stuck in my hand when I stepped off the boat,” she says. “I really don’t remember.”

Well, she enjoyed a good night’s sleep, anyway.

BAJA BITE

* Magdalena Bay: Undoubtedly the best marlin fishing in the world is going on beyond this remote southern Baja bay. Unfortunately, private boaters are about the only ones able to get in on the action. There’s only one person offering public charters, Gary Graham of Baja on the Fly.

He’s there now and e-mailed a report Wednesday saying that his foursome already had raised 150 striped marlin, 50 in one day.

Lots of action all right, but raising marlin is not hooking marlin and bringing them to leader. The private boaters with conventional gear are the ones really getting the most out of the bite. Details on Graham’s East Cape and Mag Bay operation can be found on the Internet at https://www/bajafly.com.

* Cabo San Lucas: The inaugural Los Cabos Billfish tournament is in the books, and the top fish was a 645-pound blue aboard Tracy Melton’s yacht Bad Company. A 505-pounder was caught aboard Top Gun.

Only three blue marlin met the 300-pound minimum weight. This is not surprising, as the changing of the guard is taking place and striped marlin are starting to show in pretty good numbers. Another week ought to complete the transition. Holding things up, perhaps, is a wide band of cold, green water at the Golden Gate.

* San Jose del Cabo: A 140-pound yellowfin was the largest of several hefty tuna caught at the Gordo Banks by the area fleet. Trouble is, the north wind is keeping the fleet at bay more days than not.

* La Paz: North wind? It’s a problem offshore, but the south end of Cerralvo Island is protected and an early pargo bite is bringing some business to Fishermen’s Fleet in La Paz, which takes its clients overland to the fishing grounds, and Las Arenas Beach Resort, a remote hotel a stone’s throw from the action. When the wind isn’t blowing, the fleets are able to locate schools of small tuna and an occasional wahoo or sailfish.

SHORT CASTS

* Whale-watching: Gray whales have begun their annual 6,000-mile journey from the Beaufort and Bering seas to Baja California’s lagoons and ought to be off the Southern California coast in time for the official start of the season on Dec. 26. Naturalists from the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro will be aboard vessels based at 22nd St. Landing in San Pedro, Redondo Sportfishing in Redondo Beach and Catalina Cruises in Long Beach. Details: (310) 548-7562, ext. 5015.

* NBC Sports and The North Face are teaming to present a new series of adventure programming called “The North Face Expeditions.” There will be five documentary-format hourlong specials, the first on Sunday at 2 p.m., featuring Pete Athans’ attempt at his sixth summit of Mt. Everest.

Other episodes: “Great Trango Tower: A Granite Mile High,” Jan. 9; “Himalaya: Descending India,” Jan. 16; “Shishipangma” (a tribute to Alex Lowe, who was killed by an avalanche on the trip), Jan. 23; and “Madagascar: A Woman’s First Ascent,” Jan. 30.

* State Water Project: A new atlas profiling major facilities of the 660-mile waterway is available through the Department of Water Resources. The coffee-table book is 194 pages and takes a colorful look at all of the project’s features, including the 770-foot Oroville Dam, the tallest in the country. Cost is $30 plus shipping. Details: (916) 653-1097.

WINDING UP

Australian rookie surfer Zane Harrison, 19, was the surprise winner Wednesday of the Rip Curl Cup at Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu, and with his victory in six-to-10-foot surf he earned a wild-card berth in the Pipeline Masters.

The events are the second and final legs of the prestigious Triple Crown of Surfing, which marks the end of each pro surfing season.

Harrison, who out-surfed a final foursome that included tour superstar Sunny Garcia, was gracious in his acceptance speech, saying, “I don’t think it’s going to sink in until I’ve got the money in my hand.”

He gets $10,000 for the victory.

Garcia finished fourth, but that was sufficient to take the lead in the Triple Crown rankings heading into the Pipe Masters, which has a swell window that closes Dec. 21.

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FISH REPORT, PAGE 16