Row across the ocean by yourself? Check.
According to The New York Times, 22-year-old Ohio native Katie Spotz can cross that off her bucket list, as this weekend she finished her trek from Senegal, Africa to Guyana, South America. She’s the youngest person ever to complete the feat.
The trip took 70 days 5 hours and 22 minutes. “You’re in a situation that you can’t escape, so you really have to dig deep,” said Katie, who left Jan. 3 from Dakar, Senegal. Her 2,817-mile journey raised more than $70,000 for the Blue Planet Run Foundation, which finances drinking water projects around the world.
The trip could have ended eight days ago. But as Spotz approached Cayenne, French Guiana, the wind and currents grew so strong that she would have needed a tow for the last few miles, said Sam Williams, who rowed the Atlantic in 2008 and communicated with Spotz via satellite phone during the trip.
But Katie didn’t want help. She kept rowing to Georgetown, 400 miles to the northeast, where currents were milder. Katie did admit she “was worried the boat might capsize,” but she was equipped with plenty of food, a GPS tracker, solar panels, batteries, a water desalination machine and an iPod she used to play audio books on Zen meditation.
Katie has also run marathons, cycled across the United States and become the first person to swim the length of the Allegheny River. I wonder what’s next!
