Two details that Katie Spotz relayed about her solo boat voyage across the Atlantic Ocean when she was 19 had kids at Briarwood Elementary School buzzing Friday.

First, flying fish smacked her in the 19-foot boat while she was journeying from Africa to South America near the Equator, a journey of more than 2,000 miles.

“They would hit me while I was rowing,” Spotz said of the fish.

Second, she did the feat without wearing a stitch of clothing because wearing clothes wouldn’t have mixed well with the saltwater she was constantly sprayed with.

“I told you it was kind of weird,” Spotz said about her clothing-optional approach.

The kids just giggled. 

Spotz had to row an additional 400 miles in a detour when 30-foot ocean swells near the continental shelf threatened to capsize her craft. The boat had two small cabins with attached solar collectors, giving her a constant power source for her computer and satellite telephone. Her mother had prewritten letters for her to open each day of the trip. The detour lengthened the trip by eight days.

Spotz, 27, of Cleveland, talked to the kids about H2O for Life, a global water scarcity awareness group based in Minnesota. She told the kids that one of every eight people on the globe doesn’t have clean water to drink.

H2O for Life raises money for water drilling projects in Africa and other places. Spotz raised money for water awareness as she became the youngest person ever to row alone across the Atlantic. The 5-foot-8-inch tall woman told the children she’s no professional athlete but just wants to make a difference in others’ lives.

Besides the Atlantic trip, she participated in a domestic bicycle race, using a hands-only driven bike because she broke her pelvis in training from a bike fall. She also has run across deserts and swam the length of the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania.

“Every drop in the bucket counts,” Spotz said. “Just by being alive you are making a difference.”

Surrounded by water and alone for 70 days, Spotz said about halfway across she was ready to quit the trans-Atlantic row. She decided to row one more mile, then one more mile after that. She told the kids that when you have a big challenge, it is best to break it into small bites.

Since the Atlantic Ocean journey, Spotz has traveled to Africa to see the conditions people battle to get water. School-age children will walk 4 miles with 40-gallon water containers balanced on their heads and wait in line for up to eight hours for water. Because they are hauling water, they can’t go to school and get an education, she said.

“I feel like I have been blessed with all these opportunities, and it is gratifying to pass it on to the youth,” Spotz said before her talk.

Chidinma Igbokwe, 11, a sixth-grader at Briarwood, said after Spotz’s talk that the children could put coin jars in classrooms to collect money for H2O for Life. “We could try to break a world record,” she said.

“I was really inspired,” said Cade Thornton, 12, a sixth-grader at the school. “You can follow your dreams and keep motivated.”

— For more information on H2O for Life visit www.h2oforlifeschools.org.

— Follow education reporter Chuck Mason on Twitter at twitter.com/bgdnschools or visit bgdailynews.com.