Sylvia Cook is a British ocean rower and adventurer who, on 22 April 1972, became the first person to row the Pacific Ocean, in tandem with John Fairfax. [1] With this accomplishment she became the first woman to row any ocean. [2] The journey took 363 days at sea from San Francisco to Australia.
Cook was born to a middle-class family, the daughter of a teacher and a secretary. [3]
| External audio | |
|---|---|
 Sylvia Cook, 12:42, Avaunt podcast [4] | |
| John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook, 43:05, WNYC [5] |
Cook and John Fairfax started rowing for their cross-Pacific journey in San Francisco on 26 April 1971 in a specially designed tandem row boat called Britannia II, a self-bailing, self uprighting vessel, designed by Uffa Fox. [2]
Cook works for B&Q in Surrey, UK, where most of her co-workers had no idea she had rowed across the Pacific Ocean. [3]
Uffa Fox CBE was an English boat designer and sailing enthusiast, responsible for a number of innovations in boat design. Not afraid of courting controversy or causing offense, he is remembered for his eccentric behaviour and pithy quotes, as much as for his original boat designs.
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John Fairfax was a British ocean rower and adventurer who, in 1969, rowed across the Atlantic and became the first person to row solo across an ocean. He subsequently went on to become the first to row the Pacific Ocean in 1971 and 1972.
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Sylvia became the first woman to row an ocean.
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