President Michael D Higgins has congratulated Dr Karen Weekes on becoming the first Irish woman to complete a solo row across the Atlantic.
"A fantastic achievement and wonderful inspiration to all Irish people." the president said in his congratulatory message issued on his Twitter account.
Weekes is resting up in Barbados after a welcome reception on Thursday night, when she was welcomed by Minister for Sport Charles Griffith and a contingent of Irish adventure sport friends and family.
The reception relayed by social media was also witnessed by many friends and colleagues in a packed Tully's Bar in her home village of Kinvara, Co Galway.
Weekes said the 2,614 nautical mile traverse was the hardest thing she had ever undertaken in her life to date, and spoke of enormous waves which she had not witnessed during two previous Atlantic crossings by sail.
Congratulations to Dr Karen Weekes, the first Irish woman to row solo across the Atlantic. A fantastic achievement and wonderful inspiration to all Irish people
— President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) February 25, 2022
The sports psychologist, who lives in Kinvara, Co Galway, has cycled solo and unsupported 4,000 miles across Canada, through Alaska and the Yukon among other adventures.
Along with Orla Knight, a physical education teacher at Castletroy College in Co Limerick, she cycled across North America from San Francisco to Washington DC.
She has also circumnavigated Ireland by kayak with Suzanne Kennedy, who has been her project manager for this trip under the banner, Shecando2021.
Official adjudicator the Ocean Rowing Society confirmed that her 2,614 nautical mile trip was “100 per cent” complete on Thursday, even as she was waiting to step ashore.
Ocean rowers have to pass through a set of co-ordinates set by the society in the vicinity of land to have completed their transit.
Atlantic storms and squalls, a close encounter with a hammerhead shark and early steering problems were among her many hurdles after she set out from Puerto de Mogan, Gran Canaria on December 6th.
On her birthday, she completed one of the first of several swims under “Millie” to clear the hull of barnacles slowing progress. She opted not to use anti-fouling on her Rannoch 25 rowing vessel for environmental reasons, and also because it makes it easier to sell the vessel on.
During her many video dispatches, she spoke of witnessing spectacular meteor showers, keeping in the company of dorade fish, and providing a refugee for exhausted storm petrels.
Weekes undertook her row, after costs, for two charities, the Laura Lynn Foundation and the RNLI. She has pledged to continue working with her Shecando campaign on commitments to encourage young women into adventure sports, and to work towards UN sustainability goals.
Images of her arrival in Barbados are on her website here
