By MARGIE TRAX PAGE - Staff Writer - mtrax@starbeacon.com
A plate of fresh watermelon waited on a pier in Georgetown, Guyana, the juice-laden fruit the ultimate treat after the ultimate journey.
On Sunday, Katie Spotz, known as “the GaREAT Girl,” became the youngest person to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean and the first American to make the trip.
Spotz, 22, of Mentor, rowed nearly 3,000 miles from Dakar, Senegal, to Georgetown in two months. Her “row for water” journey was used to raise money and awareness for the Blue Planet Run Foundation, a nonprofit whose goal is to bring clean drinking water to 1 billion people worldwide.
Spotz raised $84,510 for the cause.
Eating dried fruit, dehydrated meals and candy bars and listening to music and language learning podcasts, Spotz wrote about her adventures aboard her 19-foot row boat in a daily web log (blog) at www.rowforwater.com.
The record for the youngest rower to cross an ocean solo was set by Oliver Hicks, a British man who was 23, when he traveled from New Jersey to England in 2005, according to Kenneth Crutchlow, the London-based executive director of the Ocean Rowing Society. He said his group will have to certify Spotz's journey but she appears to have broken the record.
Spotz rowed for as many as 10 hours a day with breaks for naps, navigation and boat maintenance. At night, she would drift aboard the specially designed ocean row boat, which had equipment including solar panels for power, a satellite phone and a laptop computer.
Spotzs’ journey was sponsored by the Geneva area Recreational Educational Athletic Trust (GaREAT).
Troubles caught up with Spotz in the final days of her trip, as she decided on a destination change from Cayenne, French Guiana; Georgetown because of weather conditions - a difference of nearly 400 extra miles. She also noted that she did not want any assistance from the coast guard as she made her approach to the pier, as she wanted her entire journey to be “solo.”
“I’ve been told that, with the weather and the sea like it is now, I’d almost certainly need a tow for the last few miles into port to avoid certain death,” Spotz wrote. “Well, I want to row all the way and, having been out here for over two months, what’s another two weeks between friends?”
“Although the route to Cayenne is shorter and will end my journey sooner, by diverting my route to the north and continuing a track to Georgetown, the seas should be less aggressive and, weather permitting, my hope is that it will allow me to conclude my journey as I have conducted it: Solo!” she wrote.
On Saturday, with less than 50 nautical miles to go, Spotz had to use a fire extinguisher to put out an electrical fire in her on-board tracking unit.
With her final days of rowing coming to an end, Spotz began to think ahead to a place beyond the sea: Home.
“I’m so glad I extended the journey 400 miles, as a part of me is holding on dearly to the simplicity of the sea.,” she wrote. “During an interview, when asked what I think about while rowing, although my mind wanders here and there, for a large part of the journey I felt present; there’s no need to think beyond the moment.”
“I’ve also learned a thing or two about being patient, open, accepting… the list goes on. But with land just beyond the horizon, I’m most looking forward to food and good company.”
Spotz’s daily diary, her route from shore to shore and pictures of her voyage are available via www.twitter.com and www.gareat.org. Donations are still being accepted for the Blue Planet Run Foundation.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
