French rower sets off on Pacific epic

Frenchwoman Maud Fontenoy, the first woman to row the Atlantic from west to east, set off on Wednesday night on a bid to become the first person to row 5,000 miles (8,000 kms) from Peru to Tahiti.

Fontenoy, 27, set out in her scarlet boat, Oceor, from a rowing club in Lima's port, Callao, as the sun was setting over the calm ocean.

"I've only had half-an-hour to lie down (this afternoon). I know I'll have to row all night. It will be hard," she said moments before setting off at 5:40 p.m. (23:40 Malta time). "I'm fairly sad because I've said goodbye to my family in Paris, but it is very exciting."

Fontenoy intends to follow the route of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's epic 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition on a flimsy balsa raft that sought to prove the South Sea Islands may have been settled from the east.

Frenchwoman Raphaela le Gouvello windsurfed the same route in 2003 but Fontenoy says no one has ever successfully rowed it. Fontenoy will be completely alone in the sea without any support boats trailing her on the trip.

She expects the journey to take five months.

By coincidence, a replica of the Kon-Tiki raft will recreate Heyerdahl's expedition this year, setting out from Callao in April to study mounting threats to the oceans.

She has no Internet but a log of her journey will be posted on her Web site, www.maudfontenoy.com.