Yesterday our friend Jon Bowermaster, who happens to write for Gadling.com as well, posted a great story on that site about a paddler who completed the first ever crossing of the Atlantic in a sea kayak. The journey took just shy of 99 days to complete and covered 3352 miles.
Way back in October, Polish paddler Aleksander Doba set out from Dakar, Senegal with his sights set on arriving in Fortaleza, Brazil. Jon points out that that is a distance of just 2000 miles or so, if you travel in a straight line, but thanks to high winds, especially in the first two months, and drift from ocean currents, Doba wasn't able to travel in a straight line, or anything close to resembling such. Those high winds and currents helped to tack on the extra 1300+ miles of paddling.
Doba is no stranger to long distance paddle either. Amongst his other achievements in a kayak are a 2,600-mile paddle around the Baltic Sea in 1999, a 3,300 mile journey from Poland to Norway back in 2000 and a 1,200 mile circumnavigation of Lake Baikal that was completed just last year. Jon notes that the Pole paddles a 23-foot long sea kayak "with monster roll bars and a pair of flotation cabins at either end."
As if reading about Doba's accomplishments in a kayak weren't inspiring enough, he also happens to be 64-years old. Pretty impressive accomplishment at any age, and even more so after 60. I hope I can be anywhere close to that active when I'm that age.
Well done Aleksander!