A French adventurer set sail from San Francisco to Polynesia on Tuesday in a bid to become the first person to make a kite-powered crossing of the Pacific Ocean, her spokeswoman said.
“Anne Quemere left San Francisco at 10:32am [5:32pm GMT] under sustained winds,” the spokeswoman said.
Quemere, 42, the only woman to have rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean in both directions without assistance, was steering Oceankite a 5.5m vessel about 7,000km to French Polynesia. The voyage to Tahiti is expected to take around three months.
PHOTO: AFP
It was her second attempt to set sail. On Oct. 24, she returned to port shortly after sailing as the winds were too weak to impel her out of San Francisco Bay.
In 2002, Quemere set a new record after traversing the South Atlantic in 56 days in a rowing boat. Two years later she took 87 days to row across the North Atlantic.
Quemere, in her record-setting attempt to cross the Pacific, must be at the control of Oceankite’s sail nearly all day, with only a two-hour break for sleep.
Kite surfing is a sport that uses wind power to pull a rider through the water on a small surfboard. Quemere will be using a canopy to power her, but will be in a small vessel rather than on a surfboard.
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