I'm definitely in something big and bad and ugly.
I'm really hoping I live through this
and if I don't...
I really love you guys.
In 1998, Tori Murden took on a challenge that almost killed her.
In 1998, Sector Sport Watches invited me to
make a solo attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
The original proposal was I would row the mid-Atlantic
and then they changed their minds
and decided they wanted to sponsor me to row the North Atlantic
and I thought, "well I’m crazy, but am I that crazy?"
and it turned out I was.
The plan was it would take somewhere between 80 and 100 days
and I had food for 100 days.
But eight days in, her boat capsized in a storm.
The boat was a self-righting design
but that first capsize was absolutely terrifying.
When the boat’s upside down and you’re looking through the hatch
and you’re seeing fishes,
your instinct wants you to swim away from the boat
and you really can't.
A number of ocean rowers have died.
Their boats have always survived.
This is the rowing vessel American Pearl, American Pearl.
My long-range communication system is down.
I went for 78 days with no contact with anyone on land.
Each day I would row about 12 hours a day.
I would be at the oars when the sun came up.
There were truly sublime moments out on the ocean alone.
People sit at home in their living rooms and ask me why I do this?
Sea turtles would come and visit.
Huge turtles and they’d swim around for a while and then they’d pass me.
It's really demoralising to be passed by a turtle.
Whales and dolphins and jellyfish.
All sorts of creatures.
Same storm, round number two.
Tori was making good progress when a series of storms hit her.
A little more violent.
The storm that really hurt me was a hurricane named Danielle
and I capsized five or six times the morning the storm arrived.
About 10am, I've lost track of the number of capsizes.
I seem to capsize about every 15 minutes.
And I thought, "OK, this is a really bad storm I need to call for help",
and so I went out to get my distress beacon and I thought,
"I came on to the North Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat."
I've no right to risk the lives of other people to come and get me out of this one.
I got myself into this
and I'm going to live or I'm going to die on the whim of nature.
When I decided not to set off the distress beacon I really believed,
I was making the decision that I was going to die alone on the ocean.
Go ahead and chase your dreams,
it may not always work out right but go ahead and chase your dreams,
you gotta do it.
Each capsize was like a car crash.
I was incredibly badly beaten.
Two capsizes,
and on the last capsize I took the rib off the top of my ceiling with my back.
I thought I couldn't take the pain anymore
and so I started to clip and unclip from a safety tether on my deck.
I knew a wave was going to come sooner or later, and the wave did
and forced the boat well under the surface of the water
and I held the carabiner open, but the safety tether pulled it out of my hand
and it closed, so I stayed with the boat
and the first word out of my mouth was, "coward!"
Several days later, in calmer seas, Tori set off her distress beacon.
It was so demoralising to know that I had failed.
I was broken.
Spiritually, emotionally, physically, broken.
Tori took a job working for fellow Louisville native, Muhammad Ali.
We were creating the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky
to honour the legacy of Muhammad Ali
and Muhammad was one of the few people on the planet
who knew what it feels to lose on a worldwide stage.
Each time he visited, it was like, "kid you have to get up",
and he had a real soft spot for broken people.
When he knew I was ready, Muhammad Ali said,
"you don't want to go through life as the woman who almost rowed across the ocean."
Exactly one year after 'failure', Tori set off again to row the Atlantic.
So I went back, I did row across the mid-Atlantic Ocean,
a kinder gentler part of the ocean
but I was ultimately successful.