Canadian John Beeden only rower to cross Pacific

John Beeden, 53, of Burlington, Ontario, has just completed the first ever solo Pacific Ocean crossing in a 6-metre row boat called Socks II.  He left San Francisco and  arrived in Cairns, Australia December 27, 2015, after 209 days and 11,300-kilometres at sea.  [theglobeandmail.com]

A Britain-based team built the 2,500-pound boat of closed-cell foam, kevlar and fibreglass with two reinforced bulkheads. The boat had watertight storage compartments, electronics, “water maker”, navigation and communications equipment, satellite phone, satellite e-mail and VHF radio. [Blog: solopacificrow.com]

This is not Beeden’s first ocean crossing: He previously rowed from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 2011 in 53 days - second fastest time - then went looking for a bigger challenge.