For four months Aurimas Mockus has been alone at sea. Surviving on dried food and rowing an average of 12 hours a day, he has battled blisters and unfavourable winds.
Now, just 12 or so days from Australian shores, the 44-year-old Lithuanian has encountered a new problem: avoiding the centre of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which has been intensifying over the Coral Sea.
The rower is on day 133 of his 12,000km journey from San Diego to Brisbane in a single-seater ocean rowing boat. If he makes it to Queensland, Mockus will be the first person to row across the Pacific on this particular route, he says. And if he reaches Australia in less than 26 days he will set a new Guinness record.
But the past two weeks have been difficult. Mockus has been stuck in a whirlpool, pushed off route and forced to paddle north when he’d wanted to head south. His team is now warning of the “powerful typhoon” forming that could “upset all plans”.
Reefs, winds and whirlpools
In January, Mockus crossed the equator and entered the final third of his route.
“I am approaching the part of the route where I must navigate between large, expansive islands with dangerous reefs,” he said in a media release at the time.
“This part of the route may also be subject to headwinds, strong crosswinds, emerging eddies, tornadoes and mixing currents.”
Calculating his trajectory according to weather conditions was critical.
“God only knows what awaits me when I reach a challenging part of the route and what pace I can maintain,” he said.
Mockus’s original plan was to take advantage of a three-day window of calm to move further south and turn towards Brisbane, his team said in a media release on Monday. But an earlier typhoon, he said, had carried him off course toward islands and he had to drop his parachute anchor to slow his progress.
When winds died down, he started paddling against the current. “I knew that my time to manoeuvre was limited,” he said.
“The strain on my body was immense – old calluses ruptured, and new ones appeared. But I knew I had to move forward.”
The next night he was caught in a strong whirlpool that carried the boat. It wasn’t until the next morning that winds died down enough for him to continue paddling.
“I felt that my progress was slow, but I had a goal, and I knew that 20 nautical miles away there would be a current in my favour,” he said. “Weak but favourable.”
Except the weather changed again, and the wind carried him sideways.
“I dropped my parachute anchor and contacted my shore team.”
The planned three-day calm window was now only two hours, making a manoeuvre south impossible. Mockus decided to turn around and head north – “ie, back”.
“It was painful because trying to take the southern route cost a lot of energy, but I knew I had done everything possible,” he said. He pulled out the parachute anchor and began paddling north.
Getting to the Coral Sea involved reaching New Caledonia, making a turn and crossing the island’s reef gorge. Mockus was able to take advantage of a favourably strong wind and current, his team said in a media release. But now he must avoid another impending cyclone which covers most of the Coral Sea.
Avoiding the centre of the storm
On Monday evening, Mockus said the current was carrying him towards the reefs in the centre of the Coral Sea.
His shore team told him to drop his parachute anchor because Tropical Cyclone Alfred was intensifying and the situation was “becoming more complex”.
By Wednesday morning, the Bureau of Meteorology had graded Alfred a category-two storm.
“I will feel the impact of the typhoon most strongly on Wednesday,” Mockus said . “The winds will be unpredictable, but it is already clear that they will be at record speeds, unlike anything experienced on this journey so far.”
He anticipates waves of about three metres, “intense and sharp”. His plan is to “get into the typhoon’s tail” and take advantage of the wind to reach Brisbane. But while strong winds may give Mockus “a good push forward”, being near the typhoon’s centre would be dangerous, with wind speeds up to 50 knots. Navigating reefs as he heads further south will also prove difficult.
“[Winds] absolutely whistle around the centre of the tropical cyclone,” the bureau said on Monday.
Mockus’s team said: “Still, he is ready to tackle these challenges as the finish is just around the corner.”
On Tuesday morning, Mockus said he spent most of the day with his parachute anchor dropped, but he then revised that plan.
“I have decided to go all in,” he said. “I’ll navigate around the reefs from the north. I hope I won’t run into the hurricane, though it’s moving back and forth in the Coral Sea, making it hard to predict anything with certainty.”
The alternative, he said, was to stay in one place, but “waiting is psychologically too tricky for me”.
“So, I’m going all in – I’m heading toward the hurricane.
“If it moves toward me, I’ll drop the parachute anchor behind the islands and reefs.”
Mockus has been paddling about 70 nautical miles a day – “cosmically high,” he said in January. Before this journey, he had never rowed. He set up his boat almost from scratch – buying only the hull and instruments. He also had to learn proper rowing techniques.
Along the way, he has been followed by dolphins and sharks. In a few instances, he could not enter the water to clean the bottom of his boat due to a shark swimming nearby. He has also encountered whales, and a bird who tried to swoop into his boat and snatch a fish he caught.
Homesickness has also been a constant companion. He said he cannot wait to hug his family when he arrives in Australia.
Part of his motivation was to draw attention to the conflict in Ukraine, having previously raised funds to support Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, and transported humanitarian aid to the war zone, according to his website.
“I know it won’t be easy, but it’s not easy for the people who defend their country either, so I wanted to dedicate my rowing to Ukrainians,” he said in an email in November 2024.
“I decided to remind the world that the war is not over.”
When Mockus reaches Brisbane, he will join a small group who have crossed the Pacific single-handed, including the Britons Peter Bird in 1983 and John Beeden in 2015, and the Australian Michelle Lee in 2023.
In 2023, 24-year-old Tom Robinson attempted the feat but was rescued by a cruise ship after his boat capsized. In 2020, the Paralympic rowing star Angela Madsen died while attempting a solo journey from California to Hawaii.
