Ryan Worth is now part of a Guinness Book of World Records entry after he rowed across the Atlantic Ocean with 15 others from around the world.
"It was officiated by Guinness that it was the oldest man, the first catamaran and the largest crew [to row the ocean]," said Worth, an alumnus of Notre Dame High School and current University of Tennessee student. "When we put the boat in the water we weren't even too sure how it would really float."
East Brainerd native Ryan Worth, fourth from right in back row, and the rest of his crew prepare to row across the Atlantic Ocean.But it did, all the way from Morocco to Barbados. The 3,500-mile trip took 48 days, missing the record it had been initiated to break in the first place, that of the fastest crossing.
"One of hardest things for me was like 20 days in, knowing we had another 20 days," Worth said, "just missing things and not really being happy but knowing I had no choice. I still had this idea of 33 days in my head, which would've been the new record. When I [signed up] I just wanted to row the ocean. That in itself is a big enough challenge. But over the next two years it became about the record for me, about doing it well."
His performance-driven motivation could have been due to the fact that he said not many in his native Chattanooga seemed to support the endeavor.
Although not a claim for Guinness, Worth may be the first Tennessean to have made the oceanic trek.
"I haven't gotten any official word on that, but in Googling it and talking to people, I can't find anyone else from Tennessee who's done a row," he said.
Worth has rowed since he was a junior at Notre Dame, so the 12 hours he rowed on the ocean each day were not really an issue for him, he said. Neither were the two-hour shifts at the helm and asleep that his days were broken into.
"You do that for a couple days and your body gets tired enough that you fall asleep as soon as you're not moving, sometimes before," he said.
Although the large boat had everything the crew needed - including windmills and solar panels to power desalination and nautical equipment - it didn't have the one thing Worth kept craving: Taco Bell burritos. Instead, he subsisted on a diet of dehydrated food and energy bars.
He said he'll likely crave the sights that fed his soul, that of billions of stars twinkling from a sky with absolutely no light pollution, and the parting of phosphorescent waters at the touch of his paddle, for the rest of his life. Or at least until his next adventure.
"The Tasman Sea really interests me right now," he said. "It's something in the back of my mind right now. In the more immediate future I'm really looking forward to being back in East Tennessee hiking, climbing and being on dry land."
Worth said he likes Chattanooga enough to move back in the future. He has fond memories of growing up just down the street from Audubon Acres, where he spent a lot of time with his mother who volunteered there.
That could also mean teaching at his alma mater or getting involved in the Scenic City's 'green' development. Worth is majoring in environmental science and minoring in biology and said he could see himself doing either, when he's not on the water.