Four men say they have set a new world record for the fastest unaided and unassisted row from San Francisco to Hawaii, completing the journey in just over 30 days.
Jason Caldwell, Duncan Roy, Angus Collings, and Jordan Shuttleworth of the Latitude 35 racing team finished the more than 2,400-nautical mile excursion Wednesday in a time of 30 days, 7 hours and 30 minutes, which they say breaks the previous record of 39 days, 9 hours and 56 minutes set back in 2016.
NBC Bay Area reached out to Guinness World Records to confirm the feat but did not immediately hear back.
The four-man crew was part of the Great Pacific Race, a rowing competition that pits two- and four-person teams against one another in identical boats on a solitary journey across the open ocean.
Caldwell said he and his three teammates rowed in two-person, two-hour shifts for the entire trip — 24 hours a day.
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"If you’re a team like us that wants to win a race, break the world record perhaps, you’ve got to keep that boat moving at all times," Caldwell said. "We did that nonstop without a single break for these 30 days."
Caldwell said the rowing was the easy part and the two-hour breaks in between were the hardest. That’s when the crew had to find ways to eat, sleep, stay healthy and clean.
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"It’s just about maintaining your body," he said. "You’re sleep-deprived, you’re malnourished, you’re dehydrated. You’ve got sores everywhere, stress-fractured ribs. Everyone’s got ailing injuries and they’re just getting worse and worse and worse. You’re basically trying to hold on. Your body is trying to hold on until you get to the finish line."
Caldwell holds other rowing records, including for crossing the Atlantic.
"The Pacific is very much different than the Atlantic. The Atlantic is very consistent," Caldwell said. "But the Pacific is just not consistent at all. It’s much more brutal. Its highs are a lot higher. Its lows are a lot lower."
