Roz Savage in Portland

Ocean rower and environmental campaigner Roz Savage plans to set off next week--if conditions are right--on the final leg of her three-stage trip across the Pacific Ocean. The 42-year-old Brit is attempting to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific.

So far, she has rowed nearly 5,500 miles of the Pacific and spent more than 200 days at sea during the first two stages of the trip. But the "rowing is almost a means to an end," Savage told CNET in a recent interview.

Her true mission is an environmental one, and it came to her before the idea of rowing oceans did.