Kelsey Pfendler Is Rowing a 132-Square-Foot Boat Alone for Weeks. She's on Track to Break Multiple Records.

Kelsey Pfendler has been at sea for 28 days, in a 24-foot fiberglass boat, totally alone. On May 21, she departed from Monterey, California, with the goal of rowing to Oahu, Hawaii, 2,400 miles away. If she succeeds, she’ll make history as the first American woman to row solo from California to Hawaii, and if she does it as fast as she’s shooting for, she’ll become the fastest woman and youngest person to achieve the feat.

Right now, Pfendler is set to break all of those records. And—while nothing is guaranteed, she emphasizes to me on a WhatsApp call—in addition to her initial goals, she is also on track to break the fastest time outright, which is held by Rob Eustace, who reached Hawaii after 52 days, 13 hours, and 17 minutes in 2014. Lia Ditton holds the world record for the fastest woman after completing the trip in 86 days, 10 hours, and 5 minutes in 2020. Pfendler reached the halfway point of her journey on June 14, on day 25, which, like much of her journey, she documented on Instagram.

Posting from the handle @yourowkelsey, Pfendler has racked up 400,000 followers and counting. Her short reels show her alone on her boat, rowing, talking to the camera, and walking through everyday life at sea. She shows the camera her food stash (Cheerios, powdered milk, carb mixes, and backpacking meals), how she boils water (with a Jetboil), and storms she encounters. Sometimes she smiles; sometimes she cries. It’s the most insight many of us have ever gotten into what it takes, both physically and emotionally, to achieve this kind of mission.

So I called her up. Using her Starlink and WhatsApp, Pfendler described what life is like alone in the middle of the Pacific.

OUTSIDE: You’re rowing solo from California to Hawaii in a boat that’s 24 feet long and 5.5 feet wide. What’s the hardest everyday human task to complete out there in this tight space?

Kelsey Pfendler: I think just like body maintenance. The repetitive nature of rowing definitely hurts you, but there are also little things that you wouldn’t think about. I have to put anti-chaffing cream on my butt every couple of hours, or I will have horrific sores.

There’s also the arduous task of eating that much food, which is actually really time-consuming and gets annoying.

I bet. I think you said you’re trying to take in 4,000 calories a day.

Yeah, I don’t want to lose weight because that makes you weaker and makes you less capable of doing things. So I really just have to force myself to eat. Usually I’m hungry, but sometimes I’m tired of eating the same fucking thing. You can only have so much variety, and you just keep eating the same stuff over and over.

The lack of sleep must be hard, too, while going for a record like that. But, to me, it feels like the year of the woman, what with Rachel Entrekin winning the Cocodona 250 outright.

I’ve channeled her a lot. I thought about some of the interviews she did after that, and especially my first week, because I didn’t sleep, like, at all. I slept for maybe an hour and a half a day. I call that “the Sea God Week” because I just did not fucking sleep. But I thought about her a lot. In one of her interviews, she said something like, “Why not me?” And that statement was really motivating for me.

I can get in my own way. I know women are strong, but I feel very average as a person most of the time. 
So I’ve been trying to ask myself that question a lot.

There are a lot of really cool women, especially in the endurance sports world. Women are good at endurance sports. We’re good at pain management and emotional regulation. I’m a girl’s girl, for sure, and I deeply believe in the power of women.

But it is also hard because that is also a very female thing to be like, “Oh, but not you. You’re gonna fuck it up somewhere.”
And I’ve been doing that myself a little bit. It’s like a duality, and the nature of it all.

How does your body feel today?

I actually feel really good compared to my last row. My body is holding up so much better. During my first row, I had a really hard time with butt sores, and I got myself a special seat for this one, and I have a handful of better-researched anti-chafe products. That has been a game-changer.

You know, things ache. 
Sometimes I’m like, “What the heck’s going on in my knee right now?” I feel like it’s doing weird stuff, but that’s just from repetitive motion.

The sun is fucking relentless. I’m exposed from morning until night. I can’t put up a sunshade because that’s considered a sail, so I’m just baking myself in the sun all day.

That sounds brutal, but it does look beautiful out there in your videos. Do you feel like you still appreciate the beauty despite the constant rowing and pains?

If you can’t appreciate it even when it’s hard, you’re not doing it right. Yeah, it’s so pretty. It’s beautiful in the sense that it’s so vast. And it’s also just humbling: I am farther away from another person than I could be almost anywhere else in the entire world. And it’s like 30,000 feet deep below me. There’s probably a whole world happening below me. So it’s beautiful, visually, but it’s more beautiful in the context of what it is.

Can you describe the ocean to me right now?

I’ve got no wind right now. It’s just flat. It’s still got texture, but it’s like the surface of an orange peel, and then sometimes there’s a current that pushes you around.

What’s the most important item you have with you, emotionally speaking?

I brought some stuffed animals to keep me company. I have an octopus and a crab that, especially the first week, were really comforting just to have something to hold onto when I’m sleeping. They’re like, silent observers of me sometimes, and it’s funny. It almost feels like they’re holding me accountable.

I love that. Do they have names?

Yeah, so the crab’s name is Hugo. And the octopus’s name is Maury.

That’s so sweet. Do you have audiobooks or music out there?

I do some music, but audiobooks have been really good for my entertainment purposes, and I’ll do podcasts. I’ve been comfort-listening to The Lord of the Rings, because I know the story so well. And I listened to Shark Dialogues, which is a historical novel covering the Hawaiian islands from, I think, the 1600s to the present day, through the lineage of one Native family.

That sounds like a great read. When you get to Hawaii, what is the first, totally normal land-dwelling luxury that you’re going to indulge in?

I packed a very extensive bath product bag, and my partner brought it to Hawaii when he arrived. It’s like, five Ziplocks of bath products. Last time, I didn’t do that, and there were things I didn’t have that I really wanted. So this time I spent like four hours at Target just gathering bath products. I’m excited to take care of my skin and take a shower. I’m very peely and flakey right now.

I’m sure that will feel amazing. Before we hang up, is there anything that you want to add?

Yes, so the Whale Foundation is the charity that I’m supporting with this. They support Grand Canyon River Guides through mental health services, physical health services, and also scholarship opportunities.

I’ve been a river guide from age 18 until now—I’m going to be 32 in a couple of weeks. I’ve worked in the Grand Canyon for the last ten years, and I had a pretty traumatic event happen on a trip a couple of years ago that left me with some pretty severe PTSD. The Whale Foundation provided, quickly, PTSD-specific mental health care for me for six months after the incident.

They’re amazing; they support people so deeply, and they’ve been a pillar in the community that I love forever. So I just want them to be successful.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and flow.