According to media reports, the 83-year-old Japanese Kenichi Horie is believed to be the oldest solo sailor to cross the Pacific without a stopover. 60 years ago, at the age of 23, the Japanese was the youngest person in the world to travel this distance alone in a sailing boat.

According to media reports, the 83-year-old Japanese Kenichi Horie is believed to be the oldest solo sailor to cross the Pacific without a stopover. 60 years ago, at the age of 23, the Japanese was the youngest person in the world to travel this distance alone in a sailing boat.

After a 8,500-kilometer journey, Horie crossed the finish line in the Kii Channel between the prefectures of Wakayama and Tokushima in southern Japan early on Saturday morning (local time), as reported by the broadcaster NHK World. Horie spent 69 days on his most recent Pacific crossing. At the end of March he started in San Francisco on the west coast of the USA with his six-meter-long sailing yacht “Suntory Mermaid III”. He kept in touch with helpers and other people via satellite telephone.

In 1962 Horie had sailed in the opposite direction – from Nishinomiya in Japan to San Francisco. Driving without a passport at the time made him famous and he wrote a book about his adventure.