RENEE BLACKEN COMPLETES 3200-MILE ATLANTIC BOAT TRIP
Bernie Marvin
April 09, 2026
Renee Blacken, 43 years old, from Bethlehem, NH has completed her row across the Atlantic Ocean. She arrived at Jolly Harbor in Antigua on Monday, March 30, 2026, after covering 3200 miles in 65 days, two hours, and 51 minutes.
Renée was featured in a story in The Bridge Weekly newspaper before she left Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. She left on her trip on January 24, 2026, and is now, after her historic journey, the oldest American woman to have rowed the Atlantic Ocean solo.
She is also the first solo female rowboat operator and the first American to complete the Atlantic event, which she participated in along with four other boats and pilots. She rode a 20-foot boat that she named Reset, naming her effort "team fOARtysomething," an honor to the community of family, friends, and sponsors who supported her preparation and trip across the ocean.
Renée also undertook the challenge to support "Outdoor Adventuring for Good," a nonprofit she founded to raise awareness and funding for integrative trauma recovery programs in the New Hampshire North Country.
Renée told me during the interview that she was a survivor of trauma herself, so she knows that tough and grueling nature of the ocean crossing as a similar metaphor for her journey of healing.
In reports to the media that Renée made, she recalled a notable moment that included a highlight of her voyage, when the 2000-passenger cruise ship Queen Victoria did a "drive-by," with passengers cheering and the crew blasting whistles and horns in a rare ocean greeting.
She also successfully navigated shark-infested waters, she said, to manually clean barnacles from the bottom of her boat. Renée touched down in Antigua, and was greeted by her 14-year-old son, Walter. Her first request was for a bottle of seltzer.
According to her comments to this writer during a face-to-face interview in North Haverhill before her trip across the ocean, Renée said she was an endurance athlete, musician, yoga instructor, teacher, farmer, lover of mountains, ocean, and physical and mental challenges, and a survivor.
She learned to row while at Putney School in Vermont and continued at college in Maine and at Trinity College in Dublin, where she rowed with the Dublin University Ladies' Boat Club. She also competed in the Irish National Championships in the Women's Henley Regatta in 2003.
She is an experienced marathon and ultramarathon runner, a long-distance backpacker, and a cycler. According to the Atlantic Dash program, she said rowing alone across the Atlantic Ocean is not about being first or fastest; it's about the spirit of adventure. It is noted that Atlantic rowers state that they are humans, not superhumans. They say they are breaking the misconception that ocean rolling is an elitist sport. They say, "Our goal is to demonstrate that anyone can accomplish things they may have never thought possible."
There will be a second welcome-home celebration for Renée, planned for April 18, 2026, from 6;30 to 8:30 PM at the Littleton Community Center in Littleton, New Hampshire.
Renée was featured in a story in The Bridge Weekly newspaper before she left Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. She left on her trip on January 24, 2026, and is now, after her historic journey, the oldest American woman to have rowed the Atlantic Ocean solo.
She is also the first solo female rowboat operator and the first American to complete the Atlantic event, which she participated in along with four other boats and pilots. She rode a 20-foot boat that she named Reset, naming her effort "team fOARtysomething," an honor to the community of family, friends, and sponsors who supported her preparation and trip across the ocean.
Renée also undertook the challenge to support "Outdoor Adventuring for Good," a nonprofit she founded to raise awareness and funding for integrative trauma recovery programs in the New Hampshire North Country.
Renée told me during the interview that she was a survivor of trauma herself, so she knows that tough and grueling nature of the ocean crossing as a similar metaphor for her journey of healing.
In reports to the media that Renée made, she recalled a notable moment that included a highlight of her voyage, when the 2000-passenger cruise ship Queen Victoria did a "drive-by," with passengers cheering and the crew blasting whistles and horns in a rare ocean greeting.
She also successfully navigated shark-infested waters, she said, to manually clean barnacles from the bottom of her boat. Renée touched down in Antigua, and was greeted by her 14-year-old son, Walter. Her first request was for a bottle of seltzer.
According to her comments to this writer during a face-to-face interview in North Haverhill before her trip across the ocean, Renée said she was an endurance athlete, musician, yoga instructor, teacher, farmer, lover of mountains, ocean, and physical and mental challenges, and a survivor.
She learned to row while at Putney School in Vermont and continued at college in Maine and at Trinity College in Dublin, where she rowed with the Dublin University Ladies' Boat Club. She also competed in the Irish National Championships in the Women's Henley Regatta in 2003.
She is an experienced marathon and ultramarathon runner, a long-distance backpacker, and a cycler. According to the Atlantic Dash program, she said rowing alone across the Atlantic Ocean is not about being first or fastest; it's about the spirit of adventure. It is noted that Atlantic rowers state that they are humans, not superhumans. They say they are breaking the misconception that ocean rolling is an elitist sport. They say, "Our goal is to demonstrate that anyone can accomplish things they may have never thought possible."
There will be a second welcome-home celebration for Renée, planned for April 18, 2026, from 6;30 to 8:30 PM at the Littleton Community Center in Littleton, New Hampshire.
Renee Blacken of Bethlehem has completed her 3200 mile Atlantic Ocean boat trip. She rowed every mile, beginning her long arduous trip on January 24, 2025 from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and rowing to Antigua in the Caribbean. She completed her adventure on Monday, March 30, 2026 after spending 65 days, two hours and 51 minutes on the water. The Bridge Weekly File/Bernie Marvin.
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