Sylvia Cook
{{short description|British ocean rower and adventurer|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
File:John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook 1968.jpg
Sylvia Cook is a British ocean rower and adventurer who, on 22 April 1972, became the first person to row the Pacific Ocean, in tandem with John Fairfax.{{cite news |last=Stanford |first=Peter |date=26 February 2012 |title=Sylvia Cook: I rowed the high seas for love |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/adventure/9105662/Sylvia-Cook-I-rowed-the-high-seas-for-love.html |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London, UK |accessdate=22 May 2015}} With this accomplishment she became the first woman to row any ocean.{{cite web |url=http://www.oceanrowing.com/Oceanrowers/Sylvia_Cook.htm |title=Sylvia Cook |year=2004 |website=The Ocean Rowing Society |accessdate=22 May 2015 |quote=Sylvia became the first woman to row an ocean.}} The journey took 363 days at sea from San Francisco to Australia.
Early life
Cook was born to a middle-class family, the daughter of a teacher and a secretary.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-pensioner-next-door-who-rowed-across-an-ocean-for-love-7441165.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-pensioner-next-door-who-rowed-across-an-ocean-for-love-7441165.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The pensioner next door who rowed across an ocean for love |first=Simon |last=Usborne |date=27 February 2012 |newspaper=The Independent |location=London, UK |accessdate=22 May 2015}}
Pacific crossing
{{External media |width=210px |float=right |topic= |audio1=[https://avauntmagazine.com/podcast-sylvia-cook Sylvia Cook], 12:42, Avaunt podcast{{cite web |title=Sylvia Cook |work=Avaunt |date= |url=https://avauntmagazine.com/podcast-sylvia-cook |accessdate=31 October 2016}}
|audio2=[http://www.wnyc.org/story/john-fairfax-and-sylvia-cook John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook], 43:05, WNYC{{cite web |title=John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook |work=WNYC |date=1973 |url=http://www.wnyc.org/story/john-fairfax-and-sylvia-cook |accessdate=31 October 2016 }} }}
Cook and John Fairfax started rowing for their cross-Pacific journey in San Francisco on 26 April 1971 in a specially designed tandem row boat called Britannia II, a self-bailing, self uprighting vessel, designed by Uffa Fox.
Later life
References
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Category:British female rowers
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
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