Rowing the Pacific

Storms, fatigue, equipment failure, intense hunger, and lack of water are just a few of the challenges that ocean rower Mick Dawson endured whilst attempting to complete one of the World’s ‘Last Great Firsts’.

In this nail-biting true story of man versus nature, former Royal Marine commando Dawson, a Guinness World Record-holder for ocean-rowing and high-seas adventurer takes on the Atlantic and ultimately the North Pacific.

It took Dawson three attempts and a back-breaking voyage of over six months to finally cross the mighty North Pacific for the first time. Dawson and his rowing partner Chris Martin spent 189 days, 10 hours and 55 minutes rowing around the clock, facing the destruction of their small boat and near-certain death every mile of the way, before finally reaching the iconic span of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

Dawson’s thrilling account of his epic adventure details how he and Chris propelled their fragile craft, stroke by stroke for thousands of miles across some of the most dangerous expanses of ocean, overcoming failure, personal tragedy and everything that nature could throw at him along the way.

Author Biography

Mick Dawson was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England in 1964. After leaving school in 1980, he joined the Royal Marines, in which he served for eleven years before moving on to a career as a professional sailor skippering private yachts around the globe.

Looking for a challenge in 2001, he rowed across the Atlantic Ocean together with his brother, Steve. In the eight years that followed, Mick became one of the most experienced and successful ocean rowers in the world, completing a second transatlantic row and attempting two solo rows across the North Pacific Ocean. Finally, in 2009, along with his friend and rowing partner Chris Martin, he successfully rowed across the North Pacific from Choshi, Japan, to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco a voyage of nearly six-and-a-half months of rowing and a total of almost 7,000 miles. He and Chris hold a Guinness World Record as the first team to row the Pacific Ocean from West to East. It is one of the last great firsts.

Mick now lives in East Sussex with his partner Natalie. His new project, The Cockleshell Endeavour, www.cockleshellendeavour.com, in conjunction with the Royal Marines Kayaking Association, is designed to assist former and serving service personnel who are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder or physical injuries. The project also raises money for the Royal Marines Charity, www.theroyalmarinescharity.org.uk

Since writing this book, having previously dismissed the possibility of another rowing adventure, Mick has none the less successfully rowed the Pacific Ocean once more. Rowing from Monterey Bay to Honolulu with his friend and blind veteran Steve Sparkes. Another world first as ‘Sparky’ became the first visually impaired person to have rowed the Pacific.

Mick is a filmmaker, motivational speaker, and author. He still sails professionally and doesn’t rule out further adventures.

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