Breaking Atlantic records

Over two years ago I received an email from a girl called Katie Spotz, a college student from Ohio, asking me about rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, given that I was completely clueless about ocean rowing, I did what anyone would have done: tried to pretend that I knew a lot more than I actually did. Little did I know that, on 3 January 2010, I’d be stood on Pier 2 at the Port of Dakar, Senegal, watching Katie row into the distance, setting out on her own 2,500 mile journey across the ocean to South America.

Lots of people hear about ocean rowing and think it sounds like a great adventure. Some of those are accomplished rowers; many are experienced yachtsmen. Katie, however, is neither. In fact, when the idea first came to her, sitting on a bus in Australia, she’d barely sat in a boat in her life, let alone in the middle of an ocean. But that wasn’t going to stop her. Not a lot does. Despite being only 22 years old, Katie has already completed ultra-marathons, iron-man triathlons, cycled across the USA, run across the Mojave Desert and swum the length of the Allegheny River. Nevertheless, a few things still needed to be sorted out between coming up with the idea and setting off; most importantly, the boat.

At just 19-foot long, Katie’s boat, ‘Liv’, has just enough room for Katie to sleep, row and store her food. While not set up for luxury, the fibreglass-composite vessel is perfectly designed for one thing: getting Katie across the Atlantic Ocean in one piece. As long as the cabin hatches remain shut, ‘Liv’ should happily capsize and self-right through 30-foot waves all night long, ready to fight another day. Whether Katie will remain quite so happy is another question.

Inside the hatches are over 500,000 calories of food, from dehydrated packs to dried fruit and chocolate bars; enough to keep her fed for anything up to 100 days at sea. Water is also a massive consideration when undertaking 12 hours of rowing per day under tropical sunshine. It will be provided by a desalinator, powered by solar panels located on top of the boat.

As far as Katie is concerned, the only items really necessary for this trip are the boat, some oars, food and water. But, in order to keep her family and friends happy, she has also taken a satellite phone and tracking device, allowing us to keep an eye on how she’s getting on and to receive regular updates on her website and via Twitter. Even so, Katie will be completely isolated from the world, with no human contact whatsoever, for nearly three months.

Which brings me to the biggest danger of all. You can forget about waves the size of buildings destroying the boat, 400-foot cargo ships running her down without even noticing she’s there and sharks coming up for a bit of lunch; the most likely reason that this attempt mighty fail is Katie herself. Many people have got out into the ocean by themselves and, despite having incredible achievements behind them, found that they simply can’t deal with it. It’s not the physical side that falls apart; it’s all in the head.

Katie knows this. It’s why she ensured her preparation was as focused on her mental well-being as it was on her physical fitness and the boat. As part of her training, Katie spent 10 days meditating with no human interaction at all and has been talking to sports psychologists about how best to deal with what she’s about to come up against.

When the time came – 10:45 GMT on 3 January 2010, to be precise – everything was ready: ‘Liv’, Katie and her mind. From the moment the boat had arrived in Dakar a few days earlier, shipped over in a container from Baltimore, Katie’s demeanour had changed markedly. Gone was her usual talkative and smiley manner, to be replaced by a very serious, quiet and, quite frankly, slightly terrified girl. Which, as it happens, was very reassuring to see. Anyone who goes into a solo ocean row without being just a little bit scared clearly hasn’t thought about it enough. After all, seven people have been lost at sea from rowing boats in recent years. A little bit of fear goes a long way to making sure that that doesn’t become eight.

The start and finish are arguably the most dangerous periods of the whole voyage. When you’re in the middle of the ocean, there’s not a lot to hit. If a wave comes along and throws you 100 yards in the wrong direction, capsizing you several times in the process, you pick yourself up, tidy up and keep on going. However, when you’re near land, the currents are unpredictable, the sea is temperamental and, most worryingly, there are rocks to crash into. Boats and rocks aren’t really the greatest of bedfellows. Add to that the potential problems of interference from overly-inquisitive Senegalese fishermen and, from the moment Katie paddled out beyond the harbour walls completely by herself, you had all the makings of a nail-biting 48 hours.

Well, it was nail-biting for me at least. While I retired to my laptop, staring at the screen for hours on end as I waited for 21-minutes past the hour when the tracking beacon would update, Katie appears to have taken it all in her stride. After a first communication of “I’m really out here… [it] still hasn’t hit me!”, once she was three days in she was casually brushing off multiple close encounters with cargo ships and discussing plans for a Harry Potter film night on her iPod if she reached her distance target by the end of the week. Most people are spending their time worrying about making sure their vomit doesn’t blow back all over them at that stage!

Needless to say, Katie’s not “most people”. She’s not doing this trip because she wants people to look at her and be impressed; in fact, she’s a little bit embarrassed when she gets any attention. Katie just likes a challenge! On top of that, she is also raising money for the Blue Planet Run Foundation, a charity based in San Francisco that funds safe drinking water projects around the world. So far, she has raised over $40,000, with hopefully much more to come.

If she completes the crossing, hopefully arriving in Cayenne, French Guiana sometime in March 2010, she will set a new record for the youngest ever solo ocean rower and the first American to row solo from mainland to mainland. She is now 22 days into her voyage – with months to go.

Rowing the Atlantic Ocean is certainly an endurance event.

Follow Katie’s blogs and tweets at www.rowforwater.com