Author: Yamaguchi Banri
Associated Press
Japan’s Kenichi Horie waves his sailboat in Osaka Bay in western Japan after his transpacific voyage,
June 4, 2022. (via Kyodo News of the Associated Press)
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese adventurer Kenichi Horie, 83, who just became the world’s oldest person to complete a solo non-stop crossing of the Pacific Ocean — says he’s still “in mid-teens” and not done.
Horie, who crossed the Kii Strait on Japan’s west coast to return home on June 4, completed his solo trans-Pacific voyage in 69 days after leaving a yacht harbor in San Francisco in late March.
After spending the night on the 19-foot-long Suntory Mermaid III off the coast on June 5, Horie was towed to his hometown of Shin-Nishinomiya Port, where residents and supporters cheered, with banners that read: “Welcome back. , Mr. Kenichi Horie!”
As he approached the port, Horie stood on his boat, took off his white hat, and waved. He got off the yacht, took off his hat again, bowed deeply on the pier, and got a bouquet of roses.
“Thank you for waiting!” Horie said, looking tanned and his gray hair longer than usual.
He said he brought a shipment of medicines from San Francisco, but during the more than two months alone at sea, all he used was eye drops and Band-Aids.
“It shows how healthy I am,” Horie said. “I’m still in my mid-teens.”
He said he “burned all my body and soul” during the trip, but said he was ready for more. “I’m going to keep trying to be a late bloomer.”
At a press conference in the yacht harbour, he said it was a dream come true to be the oldest person to achieve the feat. “I’m very happy to be able to take the challenge as a real goal and achieve it safely, rather than just treating it as a dream.”
“As long as I’m alive, I want to be a challenger,” he said.
In 1962, he became the first person in the world to successfully complete a solo non-stop Pacific voyage from Japan to San Francisco. Sixty years later, he took the opposite route.
This time around, his preparations during the coronavirus pandemic have been fraught with uncertainty, involving vaccine needs, testing and other logistics. “It’s like walking on thin ice,” he said.
Shortly after leaving San Francisco, he encountered a storm, but the weather gradually improved, and he arrived early in Hawaii in mid-April.
A few days later, he experienced some struggles with the tide. On Friday, he blogged that he was successful but exhausted, taking a nap after making sure his yacht was on the right track to reach the finish line.
Horie completed other long-distance solo voyages, including a circumnavigation of the world in 1974. His most recent expedition was the first since 2008 when he made a solo non-stop voyage from Hawaii to the Kii Strait on a wave-powered boat.
Although he sailed on his own, technology such as ship tracking and communications allowed him to stay in touch with family and others throughout the journey.
“I think my next voyage will be more interesting,” he said.
