By TAKUYA ASAKURA/ Staff Writer
June 6, 2022 at 16:20 JST
Kenichi Horie smiles while holding a bouquet of flowers given from people welcoming him home in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, on June 5. (Satoru Ogawa)
NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Prefecture--An octogenarian adventurer who became the world’s oldest person to sail nonstop solo across the Pacific Ocean in a yacht finally went ashore at his home port of Shin Nishinomiya Yacht Harbor here on June 5.
Kenichi Horie, 83, stepped off the yacht and onto land for the first time in more than two months.
"I’m delighted I was able to challenge myself without letting my dream end as a dream and finish this without any major mishap,” he said.
A large group of locals cheered Horie during his return ceremony and praised his accomplishment.
“I have completely burned my body and soul," he said in his speech. "I’m still in the middle of my youth.”
Horie sailed from San Francisco to the Kii Channel off Japan’s western coast in the 5.8-meter-long Suntory Mermaid III, completing the 8,500-kilometer voyage in 69 days.
He received a hero's welcome upon returning home from a large group of well-wishers.
"I feel certain that they are asking me to do more," Horie said. "I am still young, and I will do my best to be a late bloomer.”
He added that he carried a stock of medicine a hospital provided, “but I only used the eye drops and adhesive bandages,” he said, eliciting laughs from the crowd.
“I think there are older people than me who are actively sailing, but I don’t think they would do something this foolish, like me," he said at a news conference regarding being the world's oldest person to cross the Pacific Ocean alone.
Horie arrived at his home port on June 4 and stayed that day in his yacht for quarantine and other procedures. He disembarked from the yacht the following day.
When asked about his next goal, he said, “I want to be a challenger throughout my life. I can’t say what I will do from now because my family and I are old, but I’d love it if you would wait and see what I will be up to the next time around.”
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