Taking on the Waves: Horie Kenichi / Ocean Adventurer

Renowned yachtsman Horie Kenichi, 83, recently became the oldest person to complete a nonstop solo voyage across the Pacific Ocean. What compels him to set sail for the horizon?

Transcript

00:03

"Direct Talk"

00:08

On June 5th, 2022,

00:15

an 83-year-old man and his yacht

00:17

docked at Nishinomiya Port in west-central Japan.

00:22

Horie Kenichi.

00:31

It was the end of a record-breaking journey

00:33

that had started in San Francisco, California.

00:38

He became the oldest person to sail solo across the Pacific.

00:45

I'm still in the prime of youth.

00:51

In 1962, Horie became the first person

00:54

to complete a solo nonstop voyage across the Pacific in a compact yacht.

01:02

He's since had many adventures upon the high seas,

01:05

setting multiple records along the way.

01:10

What keeps Horie going?

01:12

Today he shares his passion for ocean adventures.

01:19

March 26th, 2022.

01:22

San Francisco, California.

01:25

Horie's yacht, the "Mermaid III", sets sail,

01:29

passing under the Golden Gate Bridge.

01:34

His roughly 8,500-kilometer journey will take him by Hawaii

01:38

on his way to Nishinomiya, in Hyogo Prefecture.

01:44

He'll make the crossing alone.

01:50

Soon after his departure, he encountered a storm.

01:55

Here's an excerpt from his travel log.

01:59

"March 27th.

02:01

Soon after setting sail, I find myself baptized by a storm.

02:06

It's rough! But I must endure."

02:11

Right after I set sail,

02:13

I could tell that the wind was strong, that a storm was coming.

02:18

After you encounter one or two storms, you gradually get used to it.

02:23

But I remember thinking the one at the beginning was definitely a bit rough.

02:31

"April 10th.

02:32

Strong winds and rough seas for days now.

02:36

Bumpy ride.

02:38

My hands are full keeping the yacht under control and on course.

02:43

No margin for error."

02:47

What was life like for Horie on his yacht?

02:53

His cabin below the deck is compact.

02:56

There's not enough headroom to stand.

03:00

I have this space here where I can stretch my legs and rest.

03:05

There's one space on this side and one over there as well.

03:11

When the wind is making the yacht tilt toward one side,

03:14

I rest on one side or the other to balance out the boat as much as I can.

03:20

In terms of food, I basically eat rice

03:23

and these packs of ready-made curry.

03:28

And this is my toilet.

03:31

His boat is equipped with a seawater toilet.

03:35

These days I hardly ever get seasick.

03:39

Well, for the first couple of days after departing,

03:42

I don't have much of an appetite,

03:44

so I think that could be seasickness.

03:47

On my first voyage, I did throw up a few times.

03:51

But that hasn't happened to me in decades.

03:57

Horie was born in 1938 in Osaka, Japan.

04:01

He started yachting in high school.

04:04

The high school I enrolled in just happened to have a school yacht club.

04:12

I was never... how do you say...

04:15

muscular. I'm not particularly strong physically.

04:20

These yachts could move using only the power of the wind.

04:24

When I got to ride on one for the first time,

04:27

I thought it was amazing.

04:29

It could sail not only with the wind but against it as well.

04:34

It was incredible.

04:36

So I joined the yacht club,

04:38

but at the time it never even occurred to me

04:41

that you could cross the Pacific in a yacht,

04:43

or even go around the world in a yacht.

04:47

In the beginning, I just wanted to learn how to sail on a yacht at the beach.

04:52

That's all.

04:54

This is where we'd practice.

04:56

At the time, I'd never even gone to nearby Awaji Island.

05:00

You can see it from here, but I'd never been there.

05:04

I'd look at yachting magazines

05:06

and read about how someone had used a certain yacht to cross the Atlantic,

05:11

or how someone had used a certain yacht to cross the Pacific.

05:16

Gradually, those magazines made me realize

05:19

just how much potential was in these yachts.

05:24

Eventually, I was just itching to cross the Pacific Ocean myself,

05:28

to sail all the way to America.

05:32

In 1962, at the age of 23,

05:35

Horie decided to do just that.

05:38

He set sail from Nishinomiya Yacht Harbor,

05:41

bound for San Francisco Bay.

05:45

I felt this compulsion, this deep drive from within.

05:49

People are often impressed that I decided to do it,

05:51

but actually, there was no moment where I made up my mind.

05:56

It was like my boat was pushed out of the harbor.

06:00

I just never decided to stop.

06:03

Sailing across the Pacific solo in such a small boat was unheard of.

06:08

Afraid that people would try to stop him,

06:10

Horie set out under the cover of night, carrying no passport.

06:16

I figured, worst-case scenario, I'd be deported after arriving in America.

06:21

My goal was the voyage itself,

06:23

so as long as I didn't get the death penalty,

06:26

I was OK with the consequences.

06:30

With GPS yet to be invented,

06:33

he relied on nautical charts and navigation tools to read his location from the stars.

06:39

Well, basically, I think you don't need GPS to sail to America.

06:45

If you were trying to get to a remote island in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific,

06:49

you'd want a navigation system that was quite precise.

06:53

But I was trying to get to America.

06:56

It wasn't like I was in danger of overshooting it.

07:02

Horie arrived in San Francisco after 94 days at sea.

07:07

He says that what he felt was not a sense of accomplishment,

07:10

but something different.

07:13

It took me three months to reach San Francisco.

07:16

And when the city came into view, I had this feeling,

07:20

that with more food and a better yacht, I could go twice as far,

07:25

even four times as far.

07:31

His adventures had only started.

07:33

He'd go on to circumnavigate the globe along westbound and eastbound routes,

07:38

even north to south.

07:44

Basically, the longer the distance, the more challenging it is.

07:49

But I think there's nothing more exciting than aiming high and going for it.

07:54

I think that all human beings essentially have a desire

07:57

to shoot for the stars and to succeed.

08:02

Horie has also achieved a number of world firsts,

08:06

including solo Pacific voyages on solar- and wave-powered boats.

08:11

(What drives you to attempt feats no one has ever done before?)

08:17

I don't think it's a particular drive that I have.

08:21

It's something that drives humanity as a whole.

08:24

Not just me. Human beings are always striving for world firsts.

08:29

I do what I do because I think that I can do it.

08:33

So it's not just me.

08:35

I think everyone has that desire.

08:38

It's just a matter of whether or not you can do it.

08:41

It's not a particular disposition that I have.

08:48

But in 2008, Horie stepped away from sailing.

08:52

He was 70 at the time.

08:57

What I do puts a significant strain on my family,

09:01

and so there was this sense of, "Isn't that enough?",

09:04

"Isn't it time to hang it up for good?"

09:07

"Yeah," I figured, "I guess you're right."

09:10

So for a while, I lounged around as an armchair sailor.

09:17

But eventually, Horie found himself called to adventure once again.

09:23

After about ten years, I started getting the itch.

09:27

For ten years, I'd let the desire to get out there build up inside of me.

09:32

So, simply put, there was a sense the time had come.

09:37

Horie set about building a yacht.

09:39

His goal was a solo voyage across the Pacific.

09:44

The completed sailboat was six meters long and two meters across at its widest point.

09:49

A yacht just big enough for one.

09:53

It's all about how high you can set the bar.

09:56

If I had a crew, I could drink beer and nap all day,

09:59

and we'd make it to our destination.

10:02

Doing it solo is not a matter of preference.

10:05

It's a matter of setting the bar as high as possible.

10:09

So in my mind, it's a fundamental to what I'm trying to do.

10:14

March 26th, 2022,

10:17

60 years on from his first trans-Pacific voyage,

10:21

Horie set sail for Japan from San Francisco.

10:26

On April 15th, he sailed past Diamond Head in Hawaii,

10:30

a week ahead of schedule.

10:35

For some time after that, it was smooth sailing.

10:41

"April 24th. I took a seawater shower.

10:47

Instead of wiping off with a towel,

10:50

I let the trade winds do their work.

10:53

I'm a happy man."

10:57

But one last obstacle loomed ahead -

11:00

the Kuroshio Current, which flows off Japan's southern coast.

11:05

If caught in the current, he was in danger of being swept off course.

11:10

If I got swept away, I was in trouble, because my yacht has no motor.

11:15

So I was worried.

11:17

But although my yacht is small, it has good performance.

11:21

As long as there was even a slight wind,

11:24

it had the power to cut right through that Kuroshio Current.

11:28

That being said, there was no guarantee that there'd be a wind when I got there.

11:33

So there was a danger of there being no wind and my boat being swept away by the current.

11:41

So I was worried, but it turned out all right. I made it through.

11:48

On June 5th,

11:50

70 days after he'd set sail from San Francisco,

11:53

he arrived at his home port of Nishinomiya in Japan.

11:59

Welcome home!

12:01

Horie-san takes his first steps back on dry land! Congratulations!

12:11

I've given this voyage my all, mentally and physically.

12:19

I feel like I'm in the prime of youth.

12:23

I still have much to learn. I'll work hard to be a late bloomer.

12:30

Thank you everyone for your continued support.

12:39

He's amazing.

12:42

I'm 65 right now.

12:45

I don't know if I'll be that active when I'm his age.

12:50

I hope this will give hope to young people now and to come.

12:57

I want to be like Horie Kenichi and go someplace on a yacht.

13:04

To Brazil.

13:13

I have something that I know I can do.

13:15

So I'm compelled...

13:19

to make it happen.

13:21

Take the voyage I just completed.

13:23

I did it because I believed that I could.

13:26

I wouldn't know what to do with myself otherwise.

13:31

People have a sense of their limits, of what they are capable of.

13:35

I do what I do because I feel it's within my capabilities.

13:41

The beauty of the sea, what I always feel when I'm on a voyage,

13:46

this yacht harbor is man-made,

13:49

but when you're out there on the high seas, it's all pristine,

13:53

totally untouched by human hands.

13:58

It's like being out in the wilderness.

14:01

Nature in its purest form.

14:03

You're seeing the Earth in its most natural state.

14:07

That is something that really speaks to me.

14:12

Seven decades after first setting foot on a yacht,

14:15

Horie says he's discovered something new.

14:20

Lately, I feel like I can speak with the wind and the waves.

14:26

I'll be out there, waiting for wind.

14:29

And then there'll be a breeze,

14:31

and it's like it's calling out to me,

14:34

"Here you go. Here's the wind you were looking for."

14:38

Just like it's speaking to me.

14:45

That feeling is something else, something only I can understand.