A Grand Canyon river guide has become the first American woman to row solo across the Pacific – and used the voyage to raise more than $30,000 for the charity that once saved her.
Kelsey Pfendler, 31, pulled into Hawaii’s Ala Wai Boat Harbor on July 4 to a roaring crowd, 43 days, 17 hours and 55 minutes after shoving off from Monterey, California, alone in a 24-foot boat.
She’s now also the youngest woman ever to row solo across the Mid-Pacific, shattering the previous women’s record of 86-plus days and even beating the fastest known crossing by a man.
But Pfendler didn’t spend six weeks alone at sea just for the glory of the record book. She did it for the Whale Foundation, a small nonprofit that covers mental health, medical and financial support for Grand Canyon river guides – the same people who spend their careers keeping tourists safe on one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the country.
A few years ago, Pfendler lived through a traumatic incident on a Grand Canyon trip that left her with PTSD. The Whale Foundation paid for six months of specialized trauma therapy – care she says she couldn’t have afforded on a river guide’s income.
The Whale Foundation, Pfendler has said, is “a pillar in the community that I love forever.”
Donors who give $200 or more get their name painted on the hull of her boat – a floating thank-you note she stared at every day for six weeks. More than $30,000 has poured into the Whale Foundation since she left the dock, and the fundraiser is still open at Spotfund and through yourowkelsey.com.
“If any part of this made at least one person feel a little bit more powerful in their own skin, I couldn’t ask for anything else and I’m happy,” Pfendler said after making landfall.
There’s no hard target for how much Pfendler’s row will ultimately bring in. Organizers say every dollar goes straight to guides who need it – the same kind of help that got Pfendler back in her boat in the first place.
