64-Year-Old Pole Paddles Across Pond

Forgive us kind reader for digressing from our normal fare of boat and engine reviews while we take the measure of a 64-year-old seafarer who obviously has yet to hear about outboard engines. Or, perhaps skipper Aleksander Doba purposely rejected horsepower in favor of his own reliable, more economical and low-emission willpower. His custom-built vessel was 23’ (7 m) long and 39” (1 m) wide. As we often say, we couldn’t make this stuff up. Any yachtsman who has cruised any distance knows that kayakers are virtually everywhere, but Mr. Doba deserves our approbation for proving that life begins at 64 – or, at least that it can if one has a mind to do it.

Aleksander Doba paddled ashore in his boxer shorts in northeast Brazil last Wednesday afternoon, completing a transatlantic kayaking expedition that lasted almost 99 days and spanned 3,320 miles.

It's believed to have been the longest-ever solo-kayaking voyage, in terms of time spent at sea. He spent last Wednesday afternoon and evening being checked by doctors and sleeping. On Thursday the 64-year-old Polish adventurer, thickly bearded and disheveled but appearing remarkably fit, told a small gathering in the remote fishing community of Acaraú that after a little more rest he'd like to climb back in and paddle to the United States.

Doba left last Oct. 26 from Dakar in west Africa, aboard a customized 23-foot sea kayak, only 39 inches wide. This was his home for 98 days and 20 hours.

Small boat owners who go offshore will note the special flotation “roll bars” fitted to the topsides to make the vessel self-righting.

Three others have kayaked across the Atlantic: Franz Romer in 1928; Hannes Lindemann in 1956; and Peter Bray in 2001. But none of those expeditions was directly from continent to continent (they utilized offshore islands), and none of those paddlers was a senior citizen.

64 Years Young!

"He's 64 years old! The physical challenge would have broken men half his age," Jeff Moag, editor of Canoe & Kayak magazine, said of Doba. "The amount of will power it took him to keep going is amazing. To any of us who have done a long paddling expedition, it's humbling."

Canoe & Kayak followed the odyssey from the outset. It was plagued almost from start to finish by storms and unfavorable currents. The paddler, whose excursion was plotted via a global satellite positioning unit, covered 680 miles in a straight line before conditions began to work relentlessly against him.

In early January his son, Chez Doba, emailed Canoe & Kayak's Conor Mihell and stated to the reporter: "After going in circles for over a month, being stormed on almost every day, being accompanied by barracuda and sharks, who wouldn't be tired?"

The Forward Stateroom

Doba's vessel has a small forward compartment in which he napped when conditions allowed. His desalination unit stopped functioning automatically on Jan. 11, making it difficult to obtain drinking water; since then he relied largely on gathering rainwater. His meager freeze-dried food supply was supplemented occasionally with fresh fish. At times he had to maneuver over waves measuring 20-plus feet.

Tweeting TransAtlantic

Doba, an expert whitewater kayaker, carried a satellite phone and Tweeted sporadically. One of his early Tweets: "Since the beginning I see a lot of sharks. Often they surface, but sometimes they stay a few meters underwater. I can only splash, no swimming!"

His journey was close to the equator where, he informed his followers, "It's extremely hot. I sleep about 2-3 hours per night. During the day it's impossible."

Doba, who speaks almost no English, also relayed messages to his son, which were posted on his blog. On Monday, as a powerful south wind shoved him off-track to the northwest and threatened to delay landing, this was posted on his blog: "I'm very tired. I dream to finally finish, wherever it will be. I'm afraid that the south winds push me so I have to paddle for many days. No! I want dry land as soon as possible."

It turned out to be a two-day delay, 50 miles beyond where he had hoped to land. Those two days, Doba assured, were like an eternity.

Photos: ©Arsoba Travel, Poland