What might keep you sane assuming you were capable of doing this? Some particular project? And no doubt there are levels as to such, for example, a mostly automated yacht where one relies upon electrical gadgets to do most of the work - from navigation to maintaining the operation of the boat - as opposed to the minimalist style where one is more reliant on mechanical gadgets and/or brute force. Sleep is usually one of the main issues, given that storms and such don't tend to respect our requirements for sleep and often come at rather inconvenient times and for longer periods than we might like. This is one rather remarkable sailor:
‘I want to do it again’: Japan’s octogenarian sailor on the joy of crossing the Pacific solo
Kenichi Horie has completed so many epic voyages across the world’s oceans that he initially struggles to remember the exact number. “It must be about 10,” he tells the Guardian in an interview at his home port, Shin Nishinomiya yacht harbour, near the western Japanese city of Kobe. He does, though, recall practically every storm, meal and satellite phone conversation from his most recent adventure – an 8,700km journey across the Pacific that made him the oldest person to sail nonstop and alone across the world’s biggest ocean. We meet a week after he guided the Suntory Mermaid III – a 5.8m-long (19ft) yacht customised to suit his tiny frame – into waters off the Kii peninsula in western Japan, 69 days after he left San Francisco and six decades after his first Pacific crossing.
19ft! Well that takes some courage - given a boat that size is more like a dinghy.
He finds escape from the loneliness of life at sea reading, and always includes two books – Japanese-language accounts of fellow maritime adventurers Ferdinand Magellan and Christopher Columbus – in his onboard collection. “They inspire me,” he says. It’s a habit that has served him well. In 1962, Horie, then a car parts salesman, became the first person to sail solo and nonstop across the Pacific, arriving in San Francisco without a passport or money. He was arrested but was quickly released after the city’s mayor, George Christopher, granted him a visa in recognition of his achievement. His boat, The Mermaid, is now the main attraction at San Francisco’s Maritime Museum. In the years since, he has completed three circumnavigations of the globe, including a nonstop westbound solo voyage. And he has made multiple Pacific crossings, including one in the world’s smallest yacht and another in a boat made entirely of recycled materials.
What one might call a well travelled person.
I contemplated doing a round the world trip once and went about gathering as much information as necessary, previously having quite a bit of sailing experience and owning a yacht at one time. This was before I actually had the required money to buy a suitable yacht, but that came to be a possibility when I was left my parents' house. However, the lure of travel largely vanished when I knew that most of the time I would be alone at sea, and even if I might have coped I might not have enjoyed it that much, so was seen more as a vanity project than anything else. With passing time, the ageing process virtually saw the whole project scuttled, given I hadn't really kept myself in good enough shape for such a long trip.
But what might keep you sane and so as to enjoy such a long trip, assuming you were capable of doing this?
‘I want to do it again’: Japan’s octogenarian sailor on the joy of crossing the Pacific solo
Kenichi Horie has completed so many epic voyages across the world’s oceans that he initially struggles to remember the exact number. “It must be about 10,” he tells the Guardian in an interview at his home port, Shin Nishinomiya yacht harbour, near the western Japanese city of Kobe. He does, though, recall practically every storm, meal and satellite phone conversation from his most recent adventure – an 8,700km journey across the Pacific that made him the oldest person to sail nonstop and alone across the world’s biggest ocean. We meet a week after he guided the Suntory Mermaid III – a 5.8m-long (19ft) yacht customised to suit his tiny frame – into waters off the Kii peninsula in western Japan, 69 days after he left San Francisco and six decades after his first Pacific crossing.
19ft! Well that takes some courage - given a boat that size is more like a dinghy.
He finds escape from the loneliness of life at sea reading, and always includes two books – Japanese-language accounts of fellow maritime adventurers Ferdinand Magellan and Christopher Columbus – in his onboard collection. “They inspire me,” he says. It’s a habit that has served him well. In 1962, Horie, then a car parts salesman, became the first person to sail solo and nonstop across the Pacific, arriving in San Francisco without a passport or money. He was arrested but was quickly released after the city’s mayor, George Christopher, granted him a visa in recognition of his achievement. His boat, The Mermaid, is now the main attraction at San Francisco’s Maritime Museum. In the years since, he has completed three circumnavigations of the globe, including a nonstop westbound solo voyage. And he has made multiple Pacific crossings, including one in the world’s smallest yacht and another in a boat made entirely of recycled materials.
What one might call a well travelled person.
I contemplated doing a round the world trip once and went about gathering as much information as necessary, previously having quite a bit of sailing experience and owning a yacht at one time. This was before I actually had the required money to buy a suitable yacht, but that came to be a possibility when I was left my parents' house. However, the lure of travel largely vanished when I knew that most of the time I would be alone at sea, and even if I might have coped I might not have enjoyed it that much, so was seen more as a vanity project than anything else. With passing time, the ageing process virtually saw the whole project scuttled, given I hadn't really kept myself in good enough shape for such a long trip.
But what might keep you sane and so as to enjoy such a long trip, assuming you were capable of doing this?
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