system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why does water seem to vaporize fairly quick at room temperature, even though the boiling point is not reached and water has a high surface tension?

I can still remember that this question popped up in my head on a cold day (about 5 degrees Celsius) and I could see water evaporate on my arm after I washed my hands in a small creek. Being the smart 12-year-old that I was, I was pretty certain my skin wasn't 100 degrees. I had a hard time grasping why the water was going from a liquid state to a 'gas' state.  
  
My last lessons in chemistry where about 12 years ago, so excuse my gawky terminology, but I'm still looking for the answer to the question.
gpt
Top-down view: While the air in contact with the water is not saturated with water vapour, water molecules will escape the liquid phase and enter the gas phase. This is relative humidity. 

Bottom-up view: The overall temperature of the water is below the boiling point, but this is number is an average over many molecules. Temperature is proportional to kinetic energy, so we can say the kinetic energy of the molecules typically forms a Boltzmann distribution. The average temperature may be below the BP, but some molecules will have sufficient energy to break out of the liquid and enter the gas phase.