After a life punctuated by sea crossings, Kenichi Horie announced that his boat would definitely stay in port.
An 83-year-old sailor arrived in Japan on Saturday (June 4) after a solo, non-stop crossing of the Pacific, becoming the oldest person to achieve the feat, according to the organizers of the journey.
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The arrival of Japanese seafaring adventurer Kenichi Horie in the Kii Strait (western Japan) marked the end of a voyage lasting more than two months aboard the Suntory Mermaid III, which started in a port in pleasure boat in San Francisco on March 27. His public relations team said Horie’s return to Japan made him the oldest person in the world to successfully cross the Pacific Ocean solo and non-stop. His sailboat was equipped with solar panels.
Last feat of a sea bass
“I’m about to cross the finish line,” Horie wrote on his blog on Friday after what he described as a three-day battle against crosscurrents. “I’m exhausted“, he launched.
This is the latest feat of this octogenarian Japanese who, in 1962, had crossed the Pacific at the age of 23, then breaking Japanese law which prohibited navigators from leaving the country under sail and thus entering illegally in the USA.
60 years ago,I was constantly anxious and stressed about getting caught“, he blogged in April. “But this time it’s different, I’ve been sent by many people and I have their support with tracking systems and wireless radio“.
Kenichi Horie has accomplished other feats at sea, notably completing a 7,500 km journey aboard a pedal boat in 1993 and undertaking a Pacific crossing in 2008 aboard a boat made in part from recycled material and whose propulsion had relied on the driving force of the waves.