I used to row crew, and I can tell you right now that rowing down a river, not to mention across an ocean, is an endeavor not to be taken lightly. Rowing is hard work. No, wait, make that haaaaard work. Which is why it is so impressive that 22-year-old Katie Spotz is attempting to become the youngest person ever to row solo across the Atlantic, according to the Huffington Post.
In honor of my amazement and her tender age, let me just say: OMG!
But it gets even more impressive. She is raising money with her row, an effort she’s calling “Row for Water,” under the auspices of the Blue Planet Run foundation, an NGO that aims to bring clean drinking water to 200 million people by 2027.
Spotz has already raised more than $43,500, bringing her most of her way to her $50,000 goal, according to her fundraising page. Every $30 she raises can provide clean drinking water to a needy person.
She launched her trip on January 3 from Senegal’s Port of Dakar
and is scheduled to arrive in Cayenne in French Guiana anywhere from 70 to 100 days after she started.
Is anyone else wondering if, how and where she will sleep and if, how and what she will eat? Those skinny boats can’t take on much weight and don’t
have much room for lying down. The answers, apparently are “a watertight cabin six feet long and about three feet wide” and dehydrated foods along with fresh things from a “sprouting kit.”
But one more question springs to mind: what will she do for fresh water?
Photos courtesy of Laura Watilo Blake (top) and Lucian Bartosik (bottom)