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"In the end," writes Tori McClure, "I know I rowed across the Atlantic to find my heart, but in the beginning, I wasn't aware that it was missing."
During June 1998, Tori McClure set out to row across the Atlantic Ocean by herself in a twenty-three-foot plywood boat with no motor or sail. Within days she lost all communication with shore, but nevertheless she decided to keep going. Not only did she lose the sound of a friendly voice, she lost updates on the location of the Gulf Stream and on the weather. Unfortunately for Tori, 1998 is still on record as the worst hurricane season in the North Atlantic. In deep solitude and perilous conditions, she was nonetheless determined to prove what one person with a mission can do. When she was finally brought to her knees by a series of violent storms that nearly killed her, she had to signal for help and go home in what felt like complete disgrace.
Back in Kentucky, however, Tori's life began to change in unexpected ways. She fell in love. At the age of thirty-five, she embarked on a serious relationship for the first time, making her feel even more vulnerable than sitting alone in a tiny boat in the middle of the Atlantic. She went to work for Muhammad Ali, who told her that she did not want to be known as the woman who "almost" rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. And she knew that he was right.
In this thrilling story of high adventure and romantic quest, Tori McClure discovers through her favorite way—the hard way—that the most important thing in life is not to prove you are superhuman but to fully to embrace your own humanity. With a wry sense of humor and a strong voice, she gives us a true memoir of an explorer who maps her world with rare emotional honesty.
A Pearl in the Storm
Chapter One
The Quest Begins
June 14, 1998
latitude north 35:52, longitude west 75:34
the Outer Banks of North Carolina
In the end, I know I rowed across the Atlantic
to find my heart, but in the beginning, I wasn't aware that it was missing. In January 1998, I asked my uncle, "If I write a book about my explorations, should I write it as a comedy, a history, a tragedy, or a romance?" With a twinkle in his eye, he said, "A romance—it must be a romance." He explained that I was too young to write my life as a history: "Who wants to read the history of half a life?" Tragedy, he explained, was "boring." Anyone over the age of thirty can write his or her life as a tear-soaked muddle. "There is no challenge in that," my uncle counseled. "Comedies are fine, but the greatest stories in life are about romance."
I didn't doubt that my uncle spoke the truth, but there was a problem. I had no experience with romance. None. I was thirty-five. Tragedy, I could write. Comedy, I could write. Even history, I could write. Romance was out of my depth. If I had charted a map of my life, I would have placed romance on the far side of an unexplored ocean, where ships would drop off the edge of the world and the legend at that edge of the map would read, "Here there be sea monsters."
I considered myself a thoroughly modern woman. As a graduate of Smith College, I embraced the notion that our culture had evolved to the point where a woman might openly take on the role of an Odysseus. Like the epic hero in Homer's Odyssey, women could be clever. We could set out on epic quests of our own choosing. Likemen, we could be independent and internally motivated. Women could be tested and not found wanting in trials of courage, resourcefulness, endurance, strength, and even solitude. What I did not know was that exploring these vaguely masculine qualities would not be enough for me. I am, after all, a woman. It was not until my boat dropped off the edge of the world, into the realm of sea monsters, that I began to understand some of what I had been missing.
Let's face it: normal, well-adjusted women don't row alone across oceans. According to the records of the Ocean Rowing Society, in London, England, no woman had ever rowed solo across an ocean, but I didn't let this worry me. About midday on Sunday, June 14, 1998, I drove my old gray pickup truck towing a rowboat to the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center, a few miles south of the sleepy beach town of Nags Head, North Carolina.
I'd already made the obligatory stop at the Coast Guard station. The officer in charge had done his best to talk me out of making the trip. More men had walked on the moon than had successfully rowed alone across the North Atlantic. Nonetheless, I stood squarely behind a very simple legal precedent: men had been allowed to leave the coast of the United States in rowboats bound for Europe. They couldn't very well stop me just because I was a woman. Once my boat passed the Coast Guard inspection, I was free to go.
I backed my twenty-three-foot rowboat down a ramp and launched the American Pearl. The boat was six feet wide at its widest point. The tallest part of the rear cabin sat four feet above the waterline. In the center of the vessel was a rowing deck about the size of the cargo bed in my Ford F-150. The rowing deck was open to the sky, but there was a watertight cabin at the back of the boat. I would enter the cabin through a waterproof Plexiglas hatchway that was nineteen inches square. This window-sized door between the cabin and the rowing deck was the main hatch.
To call the stern compartment a "cabin" exaggerates the space. The watertight sleeping area was slightly larger than a double-wide coffin. I couldn't sit erect without hitting my head on the ceiling, but I could lie down with a few inches to spare. In the floor that served as my bed there were eight small hatches. These opened into little storage compartments that contained my electrical equipment, tools, clothing, and other gear. Between the cabin and the rowing deck was a cockpit that was two feet wide and sixteen inches deep. This little footwell would serve as a kitchen, bathroom, navigational center, and weather station. There were two small benches on either side of the cockpit. One bench housed the desalination system that would turn salt water into drinking water. In the other, I stored my stove and cooking gear when they were not in use. Like my rowing station, the cockpit was uncovered and open to the weather.
I knew every inch of the boat, which I'd built with the help of friends in the bay of an old warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky. We'd conjured the vessel out of twenty-three sheets of marine plywood following a British design by Philip Morrison. The rowing deck was twelve inches above the surface of the water, and the tops of the gunwales, or sides of the boat, were two and a half feet above the waterline. If the boat hadn't been small enough to ride up and down on ocean swells like a cork, any wave bigger than two and a half feet would have washed over the sides. Water that washed in over the gunwales ran out through four scuppers, or drain holes, at the level of the rowing deck.
The boat was designed like an old egg crate. Nine mahogany ribs ran from side to side. Eight of the ribs were divided by bow-to-stern stringers, one on each side of the centerline. These ribs and stringers separated the inner hull into a checkerboard of watertight compartments. We glued the sections with epoxy, reinforced the seams with fiberglass, and filled the voids with urethane foam. On the salary of a city employee, I couldn't afford to build a lighter, sleeker craft out of carbon fiber or Kevlar.
A Pearl in the Storm. Copyright (c) by Tori McClure . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.SuperMomof4
Posted February 18, 2010
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I was excited to read this book after the glowing reviews it received; however, I was also a little skeptical because of the number of glowing reviews. Within the first two pages, I was hooked! This book was better than the reviews led me to believe (which is saying something). It is well written, thoughtful, thought-provoking, and a page turner. I highly recommend this book to one and all. I plan to have all of my children read it because the life lessons included are powerful. I can't say enough positive about this book. Read it!
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Posted June 20, 2009
I especially enjoyed the section of the book dealing with her first journey across the Atlantic. I would recommend to others; would make a great gift book for graduates, young adults... anyone really.
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Posted June 9, 2009
Rather than just catalog what would be in and of itself an interesting challenge, Tori gives us a life journey, full of lessons of the heart and mind. Everyone I know who has read it is both amazed at Tori's tenacity and strength, and awed at her capacity to entertain and open her soul. Well worth the read for anyone, but especially for those who would like an example of a life well lived, and an example that change is always possible.
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Posted June 6, 2009
I don't go into water deeper than my knees unless I can see my feet on the bottom. I definitely don't go on cruises. I say I saw "The Titanic" at a very impressionable age. I live in Louisville, home of Tori Murden McClure, and was very interested in the daily news accounts of her adventures on the "high seas." I was not disappointed, but very impressed, to read her autobiography along with her tales of rowing across the Atlantic. Unbelievably high seas--suspended vertically by her anchor--loss of all communication--encounters with sea-going vessels--and this was just the first try! The book was so riveting that I finished it in 2 days (I do have a life). I was even more impressed to meet her at a book signing at Barnes & Noble. In spite of how she describes herself, she is a slight woman with hands that look incapable of rowing anywhere. And in spite of all her accomplishments and her commanding presence , she is a delightful speaker and very easy to talk to in person. I have recommended this book to my granddaughters, and look forward to another book by Tori Murden McClure.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 23, 2012
This piece of literature was thrilling and kept me reading
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Posted September 14, 2012
THE AUTHOR WAS THE COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER AT THE COLLEGE IN OUR COMMUNITY THIS YEAR AND I WAS IMPRESSED. THE BOOK WAS ALL I EXPECTED AND MORE AND I HAVE RECOMMENDED IT TO FRIENDS
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Posted May 27, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. It helped me understand people who do dangerous things.
I loved the story of her growing up years. I read the book in almost 1 sitting; I had to get some sleep.
kath38
Posted December 16, 2011
I read this for book club. Where were this woman's parents? What possesses a human to push and push? You will be so relieved when she "gives up" on her first attempt. The book is anti-climatic after her rescue, but still very thought provoking.
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Posted December 18, 2010
From the first page to the last, this is definitely one of the best written books I have read in recent years. The art with which Tori writes is a rare gift indeed. I felt like I was on the Pearl myself, and this is what a good writer will do; bring you along with them. Thanks for the ride of a life, and I highly recommend it to anyone.
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Posted June 11, 2009
This book inspires us to look at education and inter-personal relationships in a brave new way. The author's voice is full of truth. She relates her triumphs and her sorrows but remains hopeful that each of us will join her in making the world a better place. She values individuality and demonstrates that leadership can happen in unexpected moments. I have purchased three copies of this book - all of them as gifts (except for the first copy). Tori Murden McClure is the real "wonder woman" and I feel so lucky that she bravely shares her personal story with all of us.
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Posted June 6, 2009
Purchased and read the book after hearing the author at a local book signing event. She is personable and her writing is her true voice. Although I knew what the book was about and what would happen, I simply could not put it down. I enjoyed the back and forth and the literary references as a way of gaining more information in a non traditional manner. I hope she writes another book so I can learn more about such a remarkable woman and her real life adventures.
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Posted January 21, 2010
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Posted January 9, 2012
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Posted July 20, 2010
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Posted April 7, 2011
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Posted October 20, 2012
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Overview
During June 1998, Tori McClure set out to row across the Atlantic Ocean by herself in a twenty-three-foot plywood boat with no motor or sail. Within days she lost all communication with shore, but nevertheless she decided to keep going. Not only did she lose the sound of a friendly voice, she lost updates on the location of the Gulf Stream and on the weather. ...