Kenichi Horie, 83, has set a new world record for the oldest individual to traverse the Pacific Ocean solo and nonstop.
He says he is still “in the middle of my youth” and not done yet.
Horie came home early Saturday after crossing the Kii Strait near Japan’s western coast, completing his solo trans-Pacific journey in 69 days after leaving a yacht in San Francisco in late March.
He said he had a supply of medicine with him from San Francisco, but he only used eye drops and band-aids during his more than two months at sea alone.
For him , age really seems to be a number.
He said he “burned all my body and soul” on the journey but says he’s ready for more.
It was the octogenarian adventurer’s latest record-breaking performance, as he became the first person in the world to successfully finish a solo nonstop sail across the Pacific from Japan to San Francisco in 1962.
He took the opposite path sixty years later.
With a few days of pushback from a strong tidal at the end, he had some difficulties.
On Friday, he posted on his blog that he had succeeded but was fatigued, and that he had taken a nap after ensuring that his yacht was on track to the finish line.
His most recent adventure was his first since a solo nonstop voyage from Hawaii to the Kii Strait in a wave-powered boat in 2008.
