Homecoming for 70-year-old Pole who kayaked across Atlantic
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
06.09.2017 08:31
About 100 people in the northwestern Polish city of Police on Tuesday welcomed home Aleksander Doba who on Sunday completed his third solo kayak trip across the Atlantic.
Aleksander Doba. Photo: PAP/Marcin Bielecki.
Doba, who turns 71 on Saturday, arrived in his home town in his specially adapted kayak, on a trailer and was greeted by city officials, residents, friends and family.
Doba said he was “very happy” to have crossed the Atlantic, adding that he would not attempt to cross the Atlantic again, after his most difficult trip yet.
Doba set off from the US on 16 May to arrive at the northwestern coast of France, 8,109 kilometres, and just two minutes shy of exactly 100 days later.
He said he ran into a “couple of storms”, adding: “The strongest was between eight and ten on the Beaufort scale. No one has ever survived such a storm on such a small vessel. As you can see I am alive but the kayak is a little worse for wear”.
Doba crossed the Atlantic at its “easiest” and narrowest spot, between Senegal and Brazil, in 99 days in 2010, and kayaked from Lisbon to Florida in 167 days in 2013. (vb/pk)
Source: IAR