After what she figured were a million oar strokes over 99 days to get from San Francisco to Hawai'i in an oversized rowboat, Roz Savage stepped onto the pier yesterday at the Waikiki Yacht Club with relief and a message.

"I did this to raise awareness of ocean issues, marine conservation — particularly plastic pollution that's getting into the oceans," the 40-year-old British woman said.

Savage said she demonstrated that "by putting one oar stroke after another, that every tiny little action adds up to something really substantial."

There will be millions more oar strokes to come. Savage, who is trying to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific, now has completed 2,324 miles of the three-year, 7,600-mile trip from San Francisco to Australia. The next two stages are planned for 2009 and 2010.

With long black oars propelling her 23-foot boat Brocade, a tanned and ecstatic Savage stepped ashore yesterday at about 11:45 a.m. and received a hug from her mother, Rita, who flew in from England, and a glass of champagne from the yacht club.

"Cheers. That's the first cold drink I've had in three and a half months," Savage said.

Two outrigger canoes, a sailboat and a couple of other boats escorted Savage into port to cheers from well-wishers.

Savage said she's looking forward to bathing in fresh water for a change, sitting in a restaurant and ordering from a menu, and "sleeping in a bed wider than 18 inches and (that) doesn't move."

The next leg of her journey will be rowed in six months, possibly either to Tuvalu or American Samoa, she said.

The Pacific journey follows Savage's successful 2005-06 completion of the 3,000-mile Atlantic Rowing Race from the Canaries to Antigua. Savage was the only female competitor.

The onetime management consultant and "office-bound salary slave" also attempted the Pacific crossing to Hawai'i in August 2007, but said she ran into heavy seas within the first 10 days, capsized three times in 24 hours and was reluctantly rescued by the Coast Guard.

"This time the ocean very kindly allowed me to complete my attempt and make it all the way to Hawai'i," said Savage, who now also does motivational presentations.

After successfully passing the necessary latitude and longitude south of Diamond Head, Savage's boat was towed part of the way yesterday to the harbor, officials said.

On the dock, Savage said rowing away from the coast of California was really difficult due to the winds, and there were some 20- to 25-foot waves out at sea.

"It was pretty rocky. There were some times when I would not be very happy out on deck," she said.

Savage said she would row 11 to 12 hours a day in the 1,200-pound carbon fiber-hulled boat, which has cabins fore and aft and a rowing seat in the middle.

During the trip she lost about 20 pounds, she said.

The Brocade had been stocked with dried food, but the breakdown of her water maker — a device that filters salt out of seawater — caused real concern. A backup device also had sprung a leak.

In the middle of the ocean, help came from an improbable but equally environmentally-minded vessel — this one made up of 15,000 empty plastic bottles, 30 sailboat masts and a Cessna 310 airplane cabin.

The crew of the "Junk raft" had lashed all the recyclables together to create a sailing vessel and reached Hawai'i about six days ago from California to raise awareness for the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

Along the way, the two vessels made radio contact, and met at sea for a provisions exchange.

"Without the guys from the Junk boat to give me a resupply (of water), I think I would have died of dehydration a couple of weeks ago," Savage said.

Rowing to Hawai'i seemed to be a pretty incredible thing to just about everybody yesterday.

"I can't even imagine somebody could do that for that time period," said Bill Heaman, who previously made the Hawai'i-to-California transit, but in his 61-foot yacht.

Savage said she had to motivate herself to get out of the cabin and row 11 or 12 hours a day. She listened to 62 audio books on the way to Hawai'i.

For the next two weeks, she'll be in Hawai'i. On Thursday, she and the Junk crew will be participating in a Kahuku beach cleanup. The cleanup is scheduled from 2:45 to 5:15 p.m. More information is available at www.b-e-a-c-h.org.

"Plastic is one of those nasty substances that really doesn't go away," Savage said.

And Savage will have some down time here.

"I'm really looking forward to learning a bit more about the culture here and Polynesian navigation," she said.