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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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(Video) (Music) Tori Murden McClure:
Hi. It's Sunday, July 5.

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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 1,000 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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TMM: 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.

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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 pitchpole capsizes,
flipping her end over end,

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and rowing became impossible.

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(Video) TMM: It's 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 pitchpole.

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I have the Argus beacon with me.

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I would set off 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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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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The 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 ooh ooh,

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ah ah ah ah ah.

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Ah ah,

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ah 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

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as the woman who almost
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)
(Guitar)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)