Monday, March 15, 2010

American woman rows across Atlantic - Senegal to Guyana

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) -- A 22-year-old American rower completed a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, touching a pier in the coffee-brown waters of Guyana to claim a record as the youngest person to accomplish the feat.

Katie Spotz, who spent more than two months alone at sea, hugged her father and brother as 200 people cheered her arrival in this South American capital.

''The hardest part was just the solo part,'' Spotz said, saying she struggled with boredom and had trouble sleeping inside the cramped, 19-foot (6-meter) row boat.

The athlete from Mentor, Ohio, set out from Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 3 and endured rough seas during the 2,817-mile (4,533-kilometer) crossing. She traveled without any support boat aside from a Coast Guard vessel that escorted her to Guyana's coast. ......more

No comments: