In 2025, a father and his 18-year-old son pushed a rowboat from San Francisco to Hawaii; nearly seven weeks and 2,400 miles later, they made history

One of the most solitary sports in the world, ocean rowing requires participants to spend weeks by themselves on open water with nothing but oars and willpower. Few people ever do it, and even fewer decide to tell their family about the experience. An American father and his son completely altered the equation in the summer of 2025 when they set out from California to demonstrate that they could cross the Pacific Ocean together.The trip was launched by former member of Britain's Royal Marines Commandos and Special Boat Service, Tim Crockett, and his son Harrison, then 18. They set out from San Francisco Bay on 3 June 2025 in a 24-foot rowboat they christened The Kraken. Their destination was Hilo Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii, a crossing of almost 2,400 nautical miles of the Pacific, known by rowers as the Mid Pacific route. The campaign, called Tame the Kraken, had a purpose that went well beyond the physical challenge itself.A voyage beyond lossCrockett’s link to ocean rowing was not sport, but sadness. Years before, a close buddy and fellow Special Forces man had taken his own life after dealing with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The death inspired Crockett to find a way to raise awareness for veterans’ mental health, and in 2018 he rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean to achieve just that. The Pacific crossing with Harrison was meant to be a continuation of that effort, to promote a programme called Row to Recovery, which uses rowing as a kind of treatment for veterans suffering from impairments, PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.That aim affected how father and son undertook the voyage. They rowed in shifts, one always resting while the other pulled the oars. They faced weeks of relentless physical strain. They battled swells, exhaustion and rain that soaked their gear for days at a stretch. There were early moments when the enormity of the project nearly overwhelmed Harrison, he later said, remembering a moment when he just wanted to walk away. But their training and discipline through the expedition kept them going, oar stroke after oar stroke, over open ocean with no backup vessel behind.The physical demands were matched by extended spells of isolation, punctuated by occasional moments the duo would remember for the rest of their lives. One evening, as the sun was setting over the water, Harrison later recounted seeing a pod of dolphins swimming alongside the boat, calling it one of the most beautiful sensations of the voyage. There was a bit of a break from the monotony of rowing at least 12 hours a day in a boat that had no toilet and hardly enough room to sleep.Setting a record on arrivalTim and Harrison Crockett rowed into Hilo Bay on July 20, 2025 after 47 days, 14 hours and 53 minutes at sea to become the first father and son pair to complete the Mid Pacific journey unaided. Crowds gathered at a hotel near the waterfront to welcome them, and the emotional reunion with Crockett's wife and daughter marked the end of a voyage that had pushed both men to their limits. Such ocean rowing records are recorded and certified by the Ocean Rowing Society International, the organisation that has been the official advisor on human-powered ocean crossings for many years, and the Crocketts have attempted to get their achievement recognised through that procedure.Their accomplishment also makes Harrison one of the youngest persons ever to finish a trans-Pacific row, a record that adds a new chapter to a sport better known for solitary veteran adventurers than for teenagers. For Tim, who had already demonstrated he could cross an ocean alone in 2018, rowing this trip with his kid brought an altogether new level of pressure, one based around safeguarding someone he loved rather than simply surviving hardship on his own.Past the finish lineThe end of the row was never the end of the narrative. The money donated during the voyage will assist in kickstarting Row to Recovery as a comprehensive recreational treatment programme centred in Atlanta, providing veterans with an organised outlet to use rowing as a physical activity and a contemplative focus. Tim Crockett said he thinks the repeated motion of rowing helps people stay completely present, which he says could help veterans manage the anxiety and hypervigilance that typically come with PTSD.Achievements of this scale are normally scrutinised by bodies like Guinness World Records, which works with ocean rowing authorities to validate new milestones after the paperwork and tracking information have been checked. That formal acknowledgement may or may not come. But the Crocketts have already done something unusual, turning a personal mission born of grief into a physical feat that took nearly seven weeks, thousands of miles and enormous trust between a father and his son to pull off.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.