After nearly three months of rowing across the Atlantic, alone and unassisted, French adventurer Anne Quéméré was making the rounds of media interviews in Paris last week, uncomfortable to be back in civilization and the spotlight that has come with her new celebrity.
"I'm trying to hide," she said Friday.
Quéméré, 37, is the first woman to row across the Atlantic in both directions. She crossed the ocean from the Canary Islands to Guadeloupe in 56 days last year. This year, she left Cape Cod on June 3 and rowed her 24-foot boat to Brittany, France in 87 days, 12 hours and 15 minutes.
When she crossed the finish line at dawn Aug. 30, she was greeted by fireworks and a welcoming party organized by her sponsor, the French food company, Le Connetable.
"I rowed the last 36 miles like crazy," she wrote in her daily log. "My joy is indescribable as, all excited, I admired the fireworks fired from the (towboat) Noelie. I thought I would choke under the kisses as I wobbled aboard the Noelie, having lost the habit of standing up."
Her boat, nicknamed Sardine, was so cramped that she was unable to stand. After nearly three months of sitting, Quéméré developed circulation problems in her legs, causing pain when she walks. A combination of chiropractic care, exercise, massage therapy, and medicine was helping, she said.
Early in the crossing from Cape Cod to Brittany, strong headwinds often pushed Sardine backwards and heavy seas once capsized the boat.
"Physically, it was worse than the first crossing," she said. "It was tougher."
When her grandmother died in late July, Quéméré's solitude took on another dimension. "Being alone, I had no one to share my pain with," she said, "and I felt some guilt that I was not with my parents."
When she began preparing for her adventure four year's ago, Quéméré's daughter, Elyna, wasn't quite 3 years old. "It was no big deal for her then," the rower said. "This trip, I was calling her almost every day [on a satellite phone], and now that I am home, she sticks to me like a barnacle."
Quéméré is experiencing the kind of emotions that other adventurers have described upon completing their goals.
"A piece of my life is gone," she said yesterday. "The game is over. There's no more excitement . . . That's the problem with adventure: The moment you start, you know it won't last forever."
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