Kenichi Horie, a six-time trans-Pacific solo sailor, arrived in the port of San Francisco on Wednesday, completing a two-month voyage across the Pacific.
Horie, 63, left Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, on May 12 aboard his sloop MALT's Mermaid 3 in a journey that retraced his historic 1962 solo trip to San Francisco.
The Mermaid 3 is made of recycled beer cans, whiskey barrels, plastic bottles and other materials. It is of the same shape and size as the 5.8-meter wooden sloop Horie sailed in his first Pacific voyage 40 years ago. He also left from the same port and followed the same route as in the 94-day, 10,000-km 1962 crossing.
"That voyage 40 years ago affected my life in a positive way," Horie told reporters at the pier. "I am not only happy but also thankful that I was able to complete the journey again."
He added that if his age this time served as a disadvantage, he made up for it with experience.
"So far, I've been taking on new challenges every three years, so I'd like to do something again in three years' time," he said.
Horie was to later pay homage to the late San Francisco Mayor George Christopher, who allowed him entry into the United States upon his arrival in 1962 even though he did not bring a passport, at a cemetery in the city.
