For the past few months we've been following Katie Spotz as she rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to raise funds for the the Blue Planet Run Foundation. After more than 70 days out on the water, Katie reached her destination on Sunday, setting several records in the process.
Katie began her epic adventure way back at the beginning of the year when she got underway from Dakar, Senegal, on the west coast of Africa. On Sunday, she arrived in Georgetown, Guiana, having covered some 2817 miles in between. The official time for the crossing was 70 days, 5 hours, and 22 minutes, although she could have finished faster had she allowed herself to be towed in the final few miles. Upon her approach to the South American coastline, high winds and ocean currents began to work agains the 22-year old rower, but rather than give up on her goal of making the solo crossing under her own power, Katie turned her 19-foot yellow boat to the northwest, and rowed eight more days, so that she could find calmer waters with which to finish the expedition.
Upon reaching the finish line, Katie became the youngest person to ever row across an ocean, while managing to raise more than $70,000 for Blue Planet Run, an organization dedicated to funding clean drinking water projects around the world. The money that Katie raised will go directly to helping those projects, which will no doubt help countless people.
According to her Twitter account, Katie has had a busy few days since finishing up. Not only is she getting use to being back on land, she's enjoying the luxuries of having plenty of good food at her disposal too. It seems like she's enjoying some downtime in Guiana and will be updating us with more information about her final hours on the water soon.
Well done Katie and congratulations!
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