Maud: "Gradually I have transformed into a lizard"
Jan 19, 2005 03: 13 EST
Out for six days now, how's Maud doing? Does she have any flashbacks yet from her nightmarish North Atlantic crossing? Or is the warmth of the South Pacific more gentle on her? Here goes her latest dispatch:
Crossing an ocean desert
"This adventure is actually about the crossing of a desert, although watery of course. We are into full summer in the southern hemisphere and heat becomes unbearable; however, for all those who know me, God knows how sensitive to cold I am.
Suffocating heat
I hide from the sun behind long sleeves, a cap, my sunglasses, several layers of sun lotion and I have the impression to somehow have gradually transformed myself into a lizard.
It's almost as painful for me to cook as to take refuge in my tiny tiny room in which I suffocate. And don't tell me that I complained about the cold in the Atlantic, I won't believe you!
Tomorrow the sun will return
At this hour when I write to you, it's late afternoon. I listen to my I Pod - recorded messages of encouragement left by my friends and the children of the schools of Meaux.
I enjoy this moment in spite of a headache which seems to remind me that tomorrow the sun will return. My water maker is still working, although each time I lit it, I stop breathing - listening closely for strange noises.
Extreme Kisses, Maud."
French rower Maud Fontenoy set out from St. Pierre et Miquelon, (French) Canada on June 13, 2003 in an attempt to become the first woman to row across the Atlantic West to East. 117 days and an arduous journey later, she reached that goal on October 9th, 2003.
She had been drinking sea water, fought off sharks, and tumbled in 30 feet waves. In the final weeks she was caught up in endless circles in the North Atlantic. Cargo ships brushed pass her like giant, frightening ghosts in the night. Injured and badly beaten she pushed hard towards east, but the strong wind and the waves took her south without mercy. She arrived at the rocky coast in agitated seas and darkness, where not even the tow ship would go out to get her. But she never gave up and she stole the heart of hard core explorers for her fighting spirit, and her romantic messages in the midst of brutal storms.
This time, Maud plans to row solo from Peru to French Polynesia, mid-Pacific to follow the route of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition. She left from Callao January 12, 2005 at 17h40 (22h40 GMT).
Images of Maud's departure courtesy of munilapunta.gob.pe
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