Alex, who set off on February 21 from Lima, Peru, is planning to reach Sydney sometime in December. The 18,000km voyage is expected to take over nine months.

In 2005 Alex successfully rowed the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, from Genova, Italy, to Fortaleza, Brazil, in 226 days.

Alex is reported in his website to have been dreaming of rowing the Pacific since 2005.

"I haven't yet found and don't know the reasons that have brought me to cross the Atlantic and now to attempt the Pacific, but that's not an issue for me! I feel it, I want to and therefore I do it!" said Alex.

"I started thinking of crossing the Pacific when I was still in the stormy waters of the Mediterranean. Setting future new goals while I was exhausted, gave me courage and gave me the desire to hold on. So one day I called my support team and asked for information regarding the best time of the year to cross the southern Pacific. They thought I had gone crazy: I had yet to cross my first ocean and I was already thinking about the next. Too much for them to take, but precious fuel for me to push ahead."

"I'm doing it because it is what makes me feel good. What everybody can still do (and always will) is to explore ourselves, that is discover what is deep inside of us challenging ourselves, finding those hidden and dusty areas of ourselves, discovering ourselves by our travel. This is the essence of my journey: to discover myself," he said.