San Juan County officials welcome home rowing team from Sheriff's Office with party

AZTEC — When Mark Pfetzer approached his wife 15 years ago with the idea to take part in an event that sees teams row unpowered watercraft across the Atlantic Ocean, she wasn’t inclined to sign on as an enthusiastic supporter.

“I was totally against it. Our kids were still young, and it was an idea I had never even heard of,” Robyn Pfetzer said.

But as the years went by, she slowly warmed to the idea, especially after watching YouTube videos about the event — dubbed the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge — and reading the books her husband shared with her on the subject. As their children got older, the notion seemed more reasonable, especially given the fact that her husband already had spent many years as a mountaineer, having survived two unsuccessful attempts to climb Mount Everest, and the fact that he had chosen to work in law enforcement, an inherently risky profession.

By 2019, she done a 180-degree turn.

“I thought it actually presented an interesting challenge,” she said. “I was all for it.”

That’s when Mark Pfetzer, now a captain in the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, was joined by two of his associates, Lt. Jarrod Slindee and Mike Hogue, who retired as sergeant, to form a team to take part in the challenge. Calling themselves Team Guardian, the men formed a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness and support for mental health for Four Corners first responders and resolved to use the trip to help promote the charity.

On Feb. 2, four years of planning and preparation for the event came to a successful conclusion when they arrived in Antigua in the Caribbean Ocean after having set out in their boat more than 51 days earlier from a starting point in the Canary Islands — a journey of 3,000 miles. The three men carried all their supplies with them and rowed 24 hours a day, with 2-hour shifts at the oars punctuated by 1-hour rest periods and work duties.

On Feb. 16, San Juan County officials threw a welcome-home party for the men at the County Administration Building, and Robyn Pfetzer was there, along with several dozen other folks, to share in the celebration.

“I’m very proud of all of them,” she said, smiling broadly.

Her husband was proud as well, but he said the primary emotion he had been experiencing since completing the trip two weeks ago was humility, a feeling inspired by several factors.

“The row itself, the energy of it, the size of the ocean, the community support and the support of our friends and family,” he said, rattling off his list.

Pfetzer stopped momentarily, then a sheepish expression crossed his face.

“There were also the solo rowers passing us,” he said, smiling. “That was pretty humbling.”

Slindee echoed Pfetzer’s sentiments, explaining that the overwhelming support of his employers and the team’s sponsors was extremely gratifying. But his main takeaway from the experience was a little harder to explain.

“I guess I would say it was learning things I never would have expected to learn,” he said.

Unlike Pfetzer, a Newport, Rhode Islander who practically grew up on the sea, Slindee essentially had no experience with the ocean before he and his teammates began training for the challenge. He would earn his sea legs the hard way, surviving nearly two months on a craft 28 feet long and 5.5 feet wide. The boat had two small cabins for sleeping and storage of electronic equipment.

Pfetzer said the trio’s trip was mostly monotonous because of the around-the-clock routine and the sameness of their surroundings. But he said they were all too busy to be bored, as they were busy performing various other tasks even when they weren’t rowing or sleeping. Those included collecting garbage and pumping seawater through a desalination device.

Their boat was equipped with a satellite phone, and the men all had internet access, so they were able to have regular phone calls, text messages and email exchanges with their loved ones.

To keep themselves occupied, the three men listened to a lot of music and audiobooks. Slindee said his playlist included everything from hard rock and country to hip-hop, though one of his favorites is the metal band Metallica, and he managed to make his way through 16 audiobooks.

But mostly, he said, they just talked to each other.

“I kept getting into deep conversations with the other guys,” Slindee said. “I feel like we solved most of the world’s problems.”

Pfetzer said the group experienced little in the way of danger, with the roughest seas they faced coming early in the trip. The sturdiness their craft displayed gave them all the confidence they needed to make it through the rest of the trip, he said.

He said the scaled-down, simplified world he and his teammates experienced during the trip caused a distortion in his perception of time, meaning it didn’t feel like 51-plus days.

As for the other things he experienced during the trip, Pfetzer said he is still processing many of his thoughts and impressions. But he was pleased that the experience had helped him remember something from his mountaineering days that he had forgotten.

“I’m willing to step out and take on bigger challenges,” he said. “One of the things that climbing taught me is we are all capable of taking on bigger things than we think we are.”

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Several dozen people turn out at party for members of Team Guardian