Breaking Atlantic records

Katie Spotz's attempt to cross the ocean by rowing boat

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....

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