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In June of 1998,
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Tori Murden McClure left Nags Head,
North Carolina, for France.
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That's her boat, the American Pearl.
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It's 23 feet long and just six feet across
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at its widest point.
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The deck was the size of a cargo bed
of a Ford F-150 pickup truck.
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Tori and her friends built it by hand,
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and it weighed about 1,800 pounds.
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Her plan was to row it alone
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across the Atlantic Ocean
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-- no motor, no sail --
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something no woman and no American
had ever done before.
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This would be her route:
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over 3,600 miles across
the open North Atlantic Ocean.
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Professionally, Tori worked
as a project administrator
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for the city of Louisville, Kentucky,
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her hometown,
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but her real passion was exploring.
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This was not her first big expedition.
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Several years earlier, she'd become
the first woman to ski to the South Pole.
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She was an accomplished rower in college,
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even competed for a spot
on the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team,
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but this, this was different.
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(Music) (Video) Tori Murden McClure: Hi.
It's Sunday, July the 5th,
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Sector time 9 a.m.,
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so that's Kentucky time now.
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Dawn Landes: Tori made
these videos as she rowed.
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This is her 21st day at sea.
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At this point, she'd covered
over a thousand miles,
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had had no radio contact
in more than two weeks
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following a storm that disabled
all her long-range communications systems
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just five days in.
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Most days looked like this.
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At this point, she'd rowed
over 200,000 strokes,
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fighting the current and the wind.
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Some days, she traveled
as little as 15 feet.
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Yeah.
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And as frustrating as those days were,
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other days were like this.
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(Video) TMM: And I want to show you
my little friends.
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DL: She saw fish, dolphins,
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whales, sharks,
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and even some sea turtles.
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After two weeks with no human contact,
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Tori was able to contact
a local cargo ship
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via VHF radio.
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(Video) TMM: Do you guys
have a weather report, over?
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Man: Heading up to a low
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ahead of you but it's heading,
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and you're obviously going northeast
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and there's a high behind us.
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That'd be coming
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east-northeast also.
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DMM: Good.
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DL: She's pretty happy to talk
to another human at this point.
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(Video) TMM: So weather report
says nothing dramatic
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is going to happen soon.
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DL: What the weather report
didn't tell her
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was that she was rowing right into
the path of Hurricane Danielle
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in the worst hurricane season
on record in the North Atlantic.
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(Video) TMM: Just sprained my ankle.
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There's a very strong wind
from the east now.
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It's blowing about.
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It's blowing!
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After 12 days of storm
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I get to row for four hours
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without a flagging wind.
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I'm not very happy right now.
As happy as I was this morning,
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I am unhappy now, so...
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DL: After nearly three months at sea,
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she'd covered over 3,000 miles.
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She was two thirds of the way there,
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but in the storm, the waves were
the size of a seven story building.
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Her boat kept capsizing.
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Some of them were pitch-pole capsizes,
flipping her end over end,
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and rowing became impossible.
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(Video) TMM: 6:30 a.m.
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I'm in something big, bad, and ugly.
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Two capsizes.
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Last capsize, I took the rib
off the top of my ceiling with my back.
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I've had about six capsizes now.
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The last one was a pitch-pole.
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I have the Argus beacon with me.
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I would set up the distress signal,
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but quite frankly, I don't think they'd
ever be able to find this little boat.
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It's so far underwater right now,
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the only part that's showing
pretty much is the cabin.
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It's about 10 a.m.
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I've lost track of the number of capsizes.
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I seem to capsize about
every 15 minutes.
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I think I may have broken my left arm.
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The waves
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are tearing the boat to shreds.
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I keep praying because
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I'm not sure I'm going
to make it through this.
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(Music)
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DL: Tori set off her distress beacon
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and was rescued
by a passing container ship.
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They found her abandoned boat
two months later adrift near France.
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I read about it in the newspaper.
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In 1998, I was a high school student
living in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Now, I live in New York City.
I'm a songwriter,
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and her bravery stuck with me,
and I'm adapting her story
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into a musical called "Row."
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When Tori returned home,
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she was feeling disheartened,
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she was broke.
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She was having a hard time
making the transition
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back into civilization.
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In this scene, she sits at home.
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Her phone is ringing,
her friends are calling,
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but she doesn't know how to talk to them.
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She sings this song.
It's called, "Dear Heart."
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(Guitar)
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♪ When I was dreaming ♪
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♪ I took my body ♪
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♪ to beautiful places ♪
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♪ I'd never been ♪
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♪ I saw Gibraltar ♪
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♪ and stars of Kentucky ♪
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♪ burned in the moonlight ♪
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♪ making me smile ♪
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♪ And when I awoke here ♪
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♪ the sky was so cloudy ♪
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♪ I walked to a party ♪
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♪ where people I know ♪
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♪ try hard to know me ♪
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♪ and ask where I've been ♪
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♪ but I can't explain ♪
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♪ what I've seen to them ♪
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♪ Ah, listen, dear heart ♪
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♪ Just pay attention ♪
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♪ Go right from the start ♪
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♪ Ah, listen, dear heart ♪
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♪ You can fall off the map ♪
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♪ but don't fall apart ♪
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♪ Ooh aah aah ♪
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♪ ah ah ah ah ah ♪
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♪ Aah aah ♪
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♪ Aah ah ah ♪
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♪ When I was out there ♪
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♪ the ocean would hold me ♪
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♪ rock me and throw me ♪
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♪ light as a child ♪
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♪ But now I'm so heavy ♪
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♪ nothing consoles me ♪
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♪ My mind floats like driftwood ♪
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♪ wayward and wild ♪
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♪ Ah, listen, dear heart ♪
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♪ Just pay attention ♪
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♪ Go right from the start ♪
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♪ Ah, listen, dear heart ♪
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♪ You can fall off the map ♪
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♪ but don't fall apart ♪
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♪ Ooh ♪
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Eventually, Tori starts to get
her feet under her.
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She starts hanging out
with her friends again.
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She meets a guy and falls
in love for the first time.
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She gets a new job working
for another Louisville native,
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Muhammad Ali.
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One day, at lunch with her new boss,
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Tori shares the news
that two other women
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are setting out to row
across the mid-Atlantic,
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to do something that she
almost died trying to do.
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His response was classic Ali.
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"You don't want to go through life
as the woman who almost
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rowed across the ocean."
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He was right.
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Tori rebuilt the American Pearl,
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and in December of 1999,
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she did it.
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(Applause)
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Thank you.
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(Applause)