Miriam Payne, along with Jess Rowe, are the first women’s team to have rowed the full Pacific Ocean non-stop and unsupported from South America to Australia.
After 165 days at sea, a Howdens employee Miriam Payne can now call herself a record breaker after completing a Pacific Ocean crossing from Peru to Australia.
Payne, who has worked with Howdens for over two years as a Solid Surface Worktops Processor, and her rowing team friend Jess Rowe arrived in Cairns after completing their extraordinary non-stop, unsupported 8,000-plus-mile (15,200 km) Pacific Ocean crossing from Lima.
The pair, who together form the Seas the Day Ocean Rowing Team, are now the first women’s team to have rowed the full Pacific Ocean non-stop and unsupported upon completion of their crossing from South America to Australia.
In addition to their record-breaking achievement, the pair have been rowing to support The Outward Bound Trust, a UK-based charity that helps young people develop resilience and life skills through adventure.
So far the team has raised more than £86,000, surpassing their initial goals of £50,000 and £75,000 and resetting to a new post-arrival target of £100,000 and climbing.
Launching for a second time (after rudder failure) in May 2025, the duo have endured over five months of blistering heat, isolation, and mechanical breakdowns while rowing in gruelling two-hour shifts nonstop.
During the voyage, they experienced “ghost-ship” electrical blackouts (caused by a fault in the system whereby the batteries were discharging too quickly needing them to switch off most of the other electronics like their navigational chart plotter and AIS beacon to alert other ships in the area of their position), relentless waves, and equipment breakdowns, countered by moments of wonder, close encounters with a plethora of marine wildlife, phosphorescent seas, and night skies full of stars.
As they made landfall, the pair reflected on the scale of their achievement, the challenges of their final approach, and the warmth of a Cairns welcome.
Looking back on some of the most challenging moments, Payne said they had only got to day six when they thought the journey might end. “Our power was dropping, the water-maker pipes burst, but after nine repairs, we managed a bypass and just limped along with little power for the rest of the crossing. Every time something went wrong, we just looked at each other and went, ‘of course it has!’ But we kept going.”
“It was really great to have Jess as a teammate. What was great was that we worked hard together, we problem-solved together, and we were always working towards the same goals,” she said.
Rowe said; “We still can’t quite believe it’s real. After so many days at sea, to finally see land, and the welcome we’ve had here in Cairns, is beyond words,”
“Those final few hours were brutal. The wind was pushing us off the channel, and we honestly thought we weren’t going to make it. We ended up outside the channel and thought we might have to swim to shore. To finally be here, after talking about it for so long, just feels incredible. We had such a good time together, and we’re already excited to plan new adventures together as well. I wouldn’t have done it with anybody else,” she said.
Alison Fisher, HR Director Operations for Howdens, said; “We have followed Miriam and Jess’s journey with awe and admiration and Howdens is proud to be a lead partner. Miriam is a brilliant colleague, and we couldn’t be prouder of the team’s record-breaking journey.”
