By and large, the internet is not a happy place right now. But one corner of the world wide web where I’ve felt a genuine sense of hope over the past few weeks has been the Instagram account Lat35Racing, which is documenting a team of four women who are attempting to break the world record for rowing from San Francisco to Honolulu. They’ve been at it for 34 days. If they make it before Tuesday, July 26 at 4:41 p.m. local time in Hawaii, they’ll have beaten the last world record—and as of Monday morning, they are on track to do so. (It’s not lost on me that my current favorite thing online is following the grueling, inspiring journey of a group of people who are very much offline.)
I’m sure that, in a way, viewing this through social media is as much of a highlight reel as the rest of Instagram. (You can be a million miles from land but you can’t escape the lure of curation.) But just knowing that out in the middle of the ocean are women who are pumping each other up for constant rowing, and finding ways to make jokes, is pretty incredible.
Still, I can’t think of anything I’m less likely to do than row across an ocean; thanks to my chronic vertigo, I get seasick just looking at some of the videos. But I’ll be honest and say that following Lat35 makes me want to look for some kind of adventure in my life. Their commitment, drive, and optimism are contagious. And if you think you’re up for the challenge? Their organizer Great Pacific Race is searching for the next crew to row, row, row that boat.