Sarah Outen is one tough cookie. She’s also a really nice person. She inspires me by what she’s doing and the way she’s going about it. She’s about to set off on a solo 4,000 mile row across the Pacific ocean from Japan in a bid to become the first woman to row non-stop across the Pacific. Sunday is launch day from Choshi marina, Japan.

This amazing row is just one stage of a human-powered loop of the world. She’s already kayaked and biked from London to Japan – mostly solo. I was lucky to be asked to accompany Sarah on the kayaking legs of her incredible journey from London to France and from Russia to Japan. My camera and I also joined her for 1000 km of her bike journey so I could film her pedalling from Kazakhstan to China. I’ve got to know Sarah really well over the last year, and really enjoyed spending time with her on her big adventure. She manages to achieve amazing things with humility & a great sense of humour. I was meant to be in Japan now helping her with her final preparations for her Pacific row and filming her launch into the big blue (but injury meant I couldn’t fly). So it’s with a mixture of excitement and sadness (that I’m not there) that I wave Sarah off from a little further away in Wales. Whooooop whoooooop Sarah. YOU GO GIRL!  And don’t eat that chocolate I sent you for at least a week!

Sarah will be blogging about her trip & even sending back audio recordings and the occasional photo and video. So keep an eye on her website if you want to join her and her trusty boat Gulliver on their big voyage. Or check out her YouTube channel for more videos. I’ll be keenly watching their progress, and I’m due to meet Sarah on the other side…. ETA September, October or November 2012, target – Vancouver! I’ll take another bar of chocolate & a few of her favourite Mars bars – I think she’ll be even more glad of them by then!

There will be footage of Sarah & I on the kayaking legs of her journey in “This is the Sea 5”. Due out March 2013.