Rowing From Cleveland to Key West for Habitat for Humanity

Like the couple who came ashore last week in Key West after paddling a kayak from Maine, another pair of extreme athletes are expected to wrap up a long distance voyage to Key West this week. Tom Kotula, 26, and Jon Hauserman, 22, dubbed the "Habitat Crew," are rowing from Cleveland to the Southernmost City and doing it for a cause. Along the route of more than 2,000 miles, they have been volunteering on Habitat for Humanity construction sites.

The rowboat is not typical; Kotula and Hauserman, who were rowing mates in college, stripped and converted a 19 foot O'Day Mariner. Rechristened the "Not for Sail," the Habitat Crew left Cleveland in early June of 2,009, crossed Lake Erie to Buffalo, rowed the Erie Canal to the Hudson River. Where the Hudson reaches New York City, the crew steered their ‘rowboat’ onto the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and headed south. The ICW is the waterway between the barrier islands of the east coast and the mainland. They expect to reach Key West by the 20th of December.

If you’d like to know more about this worthy voyage, or perhaps make a donation in support to Habitat for Humanity, check out the Habitat Crew blog or their website.



Inspirational note from the crew’s website:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain