Sarah Outen to restart North Pacific Ocean record bid
A British adventurer who was forced to abandon her world record solo row across the North Pacific Ocean has said she will restart it next year.
In June, 27-year-old Rutland explorer Sarah Outen had to be rescued by coastguards after being caught in a storm off the coast of Japan.
Ms Outen said despite feeling "so scared" and fearing for her life she has not lost the "love for the ocean".
The record was part of a 20,000-mile around-the-world solo expedition.
The solo rower was about 500 miles off the coast of Japan and had been at sea for 26 days when she made an emergency call to the Japanese Coastguard.
Ms Outen said the tropical storm was "nothing like I've seen before and hope I don't ever have to experience that again".
"It was frightening, really frightening, I've never been so scared in my life before," she said.
"It took over 30 hours for the coastguard boat to come and pick me up, so on the one hand you've got a huge feeling of relief that someone's coming.
"You're telling yourself that it's going to be OK, but the other part of you is saying 'well, you don't know it's going to be OK'.
"It was a very real consideration that I may not make it out in one piece... but you just focus on staying alive."
'End of journey'
The adventurer said that when she first saw the rescue boat she felt "really relieved... but then a moment later I felt really sad just as I realised that this is the end of this journey for now".
"I may not like the storm, but I like the ocean. It hasn't got in the way of that love for the ocean," Ms Outen said.
"I am going to continue the journey in the way I initially planned so that will be going back out to Japan to restart the row next year."
If completed, she would become the first woman to row solo from Choshi to Vancouver. It could take up to 200 days at sea.
Ms Outen began her "London2London: via the World" solo expedition in April 2011. She had been following a route across land and sea travelling only by kayak, bicycle and rowing boat.
Last November, Ms Outen arrived in Japan after cycling more than 10,000 miles through 10 countries and rowing 1,000 miles to Tokyo.