The GIFT Part 4

                                     

Last week, the architect Tadao Ando invited me to dinner. I had an opportunity to have a meal with the legendary sailor Kenichi Horie-san, who has been friends with Ando-san for half a century. He said to me; "Shinbo-san, the cup of coffee you have on board is a magical cure to clear your mind and soul for an instant." and handed by some instant coffee from Starbuck's. when I told Hira-san this story, Hiro-san said; "I was contemplating whether to get those or not." So we were very grateful for the gift. Thank you very much. 

On this note, I decided to read 'Alone on the Pacific' authored by Kenichi Horie again. As I read it over, I realized what an intense voyage it was. This book contained a list of the items he had on board and for example, the list of clothes was like this;  

Clothing

 (Pants) 5 pairs. All jeans.

 (Long Johns) 80 pairs. So he can just discard after each use.

 (Belts) 3. 2 extras in case 1 falls into the water. 

Etc., etc...there were at least 20 different items on the list. You'd think a belt would be one of the last things on his mind but it shows how much thought he put into creating his list. Unfortunately, all these items he stocked were drenched in seawater only a week after he set sail when the bottom of the boat filled with water. 

Even more surprising than that was the fact he calculated 0.5 liters of purified water a day so he only had a total of 68 liters of water on board. Back then, they didn't have bottled water so he poured tepid water into plastic bags and again within a week the bags were torn, the water spilled out and whatever he managed to save ended up getting moldy so he survived the rest of the trip with rainwater and beer. His story sounds more like stories of someone being stranded after a shipwreck. 

Compared to Horie-san's voyage, we are blessed. We plan to have 90 days supply of water where we should be able to use 2 liters per person a day. We also have man's greatest invention the plastic bottle on our side so we won't have to worry about the water going bad so as long as we make it to San Diego within the scheduled 2 months, and we may even have enough to wash our hair with shampoo right before we enter the port. 

 Horie-san said something very impressionable.

 "Crossing the Pacific is a feat that every man should accomplish at least once in their lifetime."

 You know, I get what he's saying but...

Originally posted by Jiro Shibo in Japanese on 5/24/2013
Translated by SWIS Project