Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie in Nishinomiya, Japan, on Jan. 24 addresses the media in front of his yacht before leaving for the US. Photo: AFP

RETURN HOME: Kenichi Horie’s career started with his first solo sail across the Pacific in 1962, when he arrived in the US despite carrying no passport

/ AFP, TOKYO

An 83-year-old yachtsman arrived in Japan early yesterday morning after a solo, non-stop trip across the Pacific, becoming the oldest person ever to achieve the feat.

Ocean adventurer Kenichi Horie’s arrival in the Kii Strait off western Japan capped a two-month trip that started from a yacht harbor in San Francisco in March. It was only the latest seagoing achievement by the Japanese octogenarian, who in 1962 voyaged from Japan to San Francisco at age 23, becoming the first person in the world to sail alone across the Pacific.

The public relations team for his most recent voyage said Horie’s return to Japan made him the world’s oldest person to complete a solo, non-stop crossing of the largest and deepest ocean on Earth.

“I’m about to cross the finish line,” Horie wrote on his blog on Friday after what he described as a three-day battle with the pushback from a current. “I’m exhausted.”

His 1962 Pacific crossing made headlines as he embarked on the trip without a passport, essentially smuggling his way into the US.

“I was constantly anxious and stressed that I might get caught... My condition was the worst,” he blogged in April about his first sail across the Pacific. “But this time it’s different, I was sent off by many people and have their support through tracking systems and wireless radio. I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Aside from his 1962 Pacific crossing, Horie is known for sailing around the world solo in 1974 and his longitudinal voyage around the world between 1978 and 1982. The latest expedition was the first he had undertaken since 2008, when he sailed from Honolulu to the Kii Strait on a wave-powered 9.4m boat.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES

不用抽 不用搶 現在用APP看新聞 保證天天中獎　 點我下載APP　 按我看活動辦法