After 38 days at sea spanning over a distance of 1500 kilometres, Australian rower Tom Robinson, who spent four months on Penrhyn, arrived in Pago Pago, American Samoa after leaving the northern group island in April.

Robinson aims to become the youngest person ever to row solo across the Pacific Ocean which will cover over 8000 nautical miles, from Peru to Australia, and expects to spend up to 12 months at sea in the vessel he designed and built.

Prior to landing in Pago Pago late last month, Robinson had been living on Penrhyn in the north of the Cook Islands for four months waiting out the cyclone season since arriving on the island on December 7, 2022 – after 160 days at sea in his 24-foot ocean rowing boat.

In recognition for his tremendous effort the Penrhyn islanders bestowed Robinson with a Penrhyn name, Mahuta Hoehoe Asanga – Mahuta (warrior) Hoehoe (paddle) Asanga (from afar) – by Tongareva captain Mahutamaru Akatapuria.

Robinson was sad to leave the wonderful, hospitable people of Penrhyn who had treated him like family.

And in true island style, he was farewelled with speeches, gifts, feasts, prayers and singing. People from the villages of Omoka and Tetautua turned out to see Robinson depart.

His support team back in Australia sent a special message to the people of Penrhyn: “We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to the people of Penrhyn who have made Tom feel so at home in their community (and) for their generosity.”

Robinson said he felt at home on Penrhyn. He wrote, “as I rowed away from Penrhyn that day…I realised that I had found what I had been looking for all this time. I’d been searching for something better than the big city, and here on Penrhyn, I had found it. To then be rowing away from this paradise seemed in that moment completely preposterous”.

Leaving Penrhyn, the row was not a comfortable one for Robinson.

He was not sleeping or eating well and he never quite found the rhythm of his first leg.

Robinson had initially planned to row all the way to Fiji, a journey he expected to take 60 days, but his health took a turn for the worse.

Sores broke out all over his legs, oozing pus and soon spread over the rest of his body.

Worried that the sores would become infected, he decided to cut his journey short and arrived at Pago Pago, American Samoa.

Robinson must make it back to Australia before the next cyclone season which starts in November this year. He plans to leave American Samoa in the next few days and head to Fiji.

• Additional reporting from Explorersweb