Rower credits Dad's wise words for transtasman feat

Shaun Quincey says he focused on short-term goals such as cooking his lunch. Photo / Richard Robinson

When he was feeling unmotivated and battling week-long Tasman Sea storms, rower Shaun Quincey was inspired by the one person who could understand what he was going through.

He knew his father Colin, who completed the same trip in 1977, could offer the most inspiration.

"Something Dad said to me was basically all you have to do is hold on and just keep going," Quincey said. "

And really it was as simple as that. There was no need to complicate it with any motivational techniques - it was just hold on and keep going and focus on the next 10 minutes, not the next seven days.

"He would say stuff like, you'll just have to wait for the weather to do its thing, you'll get there eventually, stay calm and keep focused."

Quincey became the second person to row solo across the Tasman when he arrived at Ninety Mile Beach on Sunday morning. His father achieved the feat in the opposite direction in 1977.

Asked what he learned about himself during the adventure, he replied: "Just the best way to get out of a situation is to keep going really, to keep pushing and never really give up. It just added to my tenacity and my determination to achieve things.

"There were extreme situations - stuff I really enjoyed was the wildlife, surfing with dolphins in 40ft (12m) waves, seeing the whales and having days when you didn't know where the sea started and the sky finished."

Then there were the situations like storms and, when the boat capsized, not being sure if he would make it or not.

He would never forget being thrown around the cabin, buffeted by wild weather at night as he tried to sleep.

"You're wet the entire time, you're being thrown from side to side the entire time and you have no idea which way you'll be thrown next. The sea was constantly roaring. That's something that surprised me, was how loud the sea was. You have to sleep with ear plugs in."

He never feared for his life but past tragedies like the death of rower Andrew McAuley in 2007 did play on his mind while he was at sea.

There were plenty of days nothing happened apart from "10 hours rowing", which was the hardest part for him.

"Basically you stick to minor goals, you look at the short-term goals every day, what you want to achieve in the next hour ... Like, you might get excited about cooking your lunch or fixing something on the boat."

He hoped his next adventure would be a two-man ocean rowing race from Coffs Harbour to Taranaki in 2013.

Until then he planned to publish a book about his 54 days at sea and put together a short documentary.