Atlantic Rower Murden Stalked by Roguish Lenny

Tori Murden described herself earlier this week as being nothing more than a “pale, puny speck in the middle of the ocean.”

Her spirits were at a low ebb, understandably, because the adventurer from Louisville, Ky., who had spent more than 60 days atop a smooth ocean under mostly sunny skies, finally closing in on a historic landfall in the Lesser Antilles, was now floundering in the commotion caused by yet another hurricane.

All but dead in the water, her sea anchors deployed, she has spent most of this week rocking and reeling more than 400 miles from land, trying to hold her position while wondering if Lenny was going to veer north, the way hurricanes are supposed to, or keep coming her way.

Murden, 36, is trying, for the second time, to become the first woman and first American to row alone and unaided across an ocean. She last touched land Sept. 13, when she boarded her 23-foot American Pearl at Tenerife in the Canary Islands and began to stroke the first of 3,000 long, wet and lonely miles toward Guadeloupe in the French West Indies.

Having averaged 42 miles a day, Murden was traveling faster than even she had expected and two weeks ago anticipated a Thanksgiving arrival, which would have put her in the books for the fastest oar-powered ocean crossing by man or woman, breaking the record of 73 1/3 days set by England’s Sidney Genders in 1970.

But then Lenny came along, attaining hurricane status on Sunday and wreaking havoc on island populations throughout the Caribbean, packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph and killing at least four people.

On Thursday morning, Lenny weakened some, maintaining winds of 135 mph, but the storm was still raging out of control and scored a direct hit on St. Martin before stalling in the region, where it is expected to linger for a couple of days before moving on.

The easterly path Lenny took after developing in the east Caribbean has some scientists baffled.

“Hurricanes never move east this time of year,” said Dane Clark, a Maryland-based meteorologist who is advising Murden.

But Murden has a simple explanation.

“I’m just a hurricane magnet,” the exasperated rower told her support team in the States via satellite phone.

Murden’s sentiments are understandable. During an unsuccessful attempt to row across the Atlantic last year, on a west-to-east route from North Carolina to France, Murden lost her communications system eight days into her journey and, after 85 days at sea, was swamped by hurricanes Bonnie and Danielle.

Her support team had been unable to warn her and feared the worst. But Murden hunkered down in the small cabin at the front of her self-righting vessel as it was pitched about like a bathtub toy, capsizing more than 20 times during three hellish days.

Murden was able to activate her distress beacon, though, and a nearby bulk carrier came to her rescue. They found the rower in a daze, with a dislocated shoulder and severe bruises to her head and ribs.

“I felt like I had just gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson in a bad mood,” she said in a communication aboard the carrier.

Though experts predict that Lenny will veer north and weaken, missing Murden by about 400 miles, she’s nonetheless prepared for a rematch if it comes to that.

Using a desalination unit, she has made a week’s worth of drinking water. Her “abandon ship” emergency bag hangs at the ready alongside her vessel. Meanwhile, she’s rowing when she can over the swells and through periods of rain.

If Lenny does somehow continue on an easterly course, Murden will have no choice but to send out another distress signal, ending her row and prompting another rescue attempt.

“It’s totally her call,” said Julie Wellik, a spokeswoman for Murden. “At this point it’s just a wait-and-see situation. We’re still hoping she can make [landfall] on Nov. 30 or Dec. 1, but either way I think this is it [for her rowing across any more oceans].”

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When Murden is able to, she rows 12-14 hours a day. Stored in her vessel, which is about six feet wide and weighs 1,700 pounds fully loaded, is an ample supply of freeze-dried food, energy bars, chips, crackers, nuts and candies.

For navigation, she has a global positioning system (GPS), and for communication she has a VHF radio, a satellite phone and an e-mail system. She also has a collision-avoidance radar detector to announce her presence to passing ships.

For entertainment, she has a disc player and dozens of CDs, because trips of this nature, obviously, are sheer drudgery.

Until Lenny came along, though, Murden had been in good spirits. In a transmission two weeks ago, she told her team she was beginning to see more fish and that she had even seen a bug, an indication that she indeed was closing in on land.

“I can’t believe my good fortune,” she exclaimed, obviously much too soon.

SALTWATER

* Albacore score: The action off Central California is as changeable as the weather. One day fishing is great and the next it’s slow--and some days the boats can’t even get out. Chancy, yes, but on the good days it’s total chaos, with voracious albacore and bluefin tuna coming over the rails at an average of 40 pounds.

* Cabo San Lucas: Blue marlin are lingering, but the changing of the guard is imminent as striped marlin are gathering north in the Pacific at and beyond the Golden Gate, which usually precedes a seasonal invasion. Sightings of hundreds of stripers outside Magdalena Bay have been reported by private boaters all week.

Top catch, a 650-pound blue aboard Ruthless at Gordo Banks. Also in good supply are dorado averaging 15-40 pounds.

* San Jose del Cabo: The panga fleets are targeting huge tuna at Gordo Banks with fair success, using live bait to hook fish to 120 pounds. Wahoo anglers are slow-trolling live bait farther north at the Iman Bank and doing well only when there aren’t a lot of boats in the area.

* La Paz-East Cape: Fishing remains great for mostly tuna and dorado, but this is the windy season so the boats can’t always get out, and when they do they can’t always stay out long. Some East Cape resorts are closed for the season.

FRESHWATER

Silverwood Lake, embattled as a fishery in recent years because of a construction-related draw-down that devastated largemouth and striped bass populations, has received help recently to ensure that it recovers as a quality largemouth fishery.

The adding of structure for habitat and generous stocking of juvenile bass this fall were major steps.

But with striped bass numbers down, Department of Fish and Game biologists have reinstated a trout-stocking program that was canceled in 1993 when it was determined that all the DFG was doing was feeding the stripers.

Nearly 20,000 trout were planted in October and about 8,000 more will go into the San Bernardino County reservoir this month. The program will then cease until March, when weekly or bi-weekly plants will resume.

“Few large striped bass remain in the lake, eliminating most striper predation concerns,” says the DFG’s John Sunada.

Those that do will no doubt appreciate the added food supply.

SHORT CASTS

* Adventure racing: This year’s Eco-Challenge will take place in Patagonia, Argentina, beginning Nov. 28 and will be Web-cast at https://www.ecochallenge.com.

* Education: Larry Fukuhara at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro is leading an overnight scientific observation and collection trip to Catalina aboard the First String out of L.A. Harbor Sportfishing, leaving tonight at 11 and returning Saturday evening. Highlights include illuminating the ocean to attract squid, setting traps for primitive-looking hagfish, chumming for sharks and a nature walk on the island. A few openings remain. Cost is $75. Details: (310) 548-7562, ext. 5011.

WINDING UP

We close this week with a fish story from Cabo San Lucas, showing that one never really knows what he or she will encounter out in the deep blue.

Cabo resident Michael Theodore, while dropping back a live bait to a school of dorado, spotted a tiny sailfish dashing toward his bait. A large bull dorado then charged and rammed the sailfish, killing it instantly. Theodore scooped up the sailfish, which weighed only about four pounds, thinking it would make an interesting wall mount.

Presumably, he also caught the dorado.