In 1998 , French - bear athlete Benoît Lecomte became the first person to swim 3700 miles across the Atlantic Ocean without a kickboard . Now , The Guardianreports , he ’s planning to seek a Pacific crossing in April 2017 .
Lecomte — who announced his goal at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday , October 6 — intends to float 5500 mile from Tokyo to San Francisco . This is n’t Lecomte ’s first effort at swimming the Pacific — and if he fails , it in all probability wo n’t be his last . The athlete in the beginning wanted to assay the interbreeding in May 2013 , but those plans were thwarted , as was last year’ssecond planned endeavour . Lecomte reportedly had a hard time locating a seaworthy boat and crew , but he now possess a new vessel , theDiscoverer , that has competed in an around - the - earth yacht race .
During the journey , he plans to spend eight hour a day in the weewee and the difference of his sentence recovering and dining on the sauceboat , which will be manned by an eight - person crew . The vessel will accompany Lecomte for his entire five- to six - calendar month journeying , preserve him good from shark and other serious creatures .
away from go down a new world record , Lecomte hopes his transcontinental swimming will take out attention to environmental outcome , like ocean befoulment . ( His aforethought route cut direct through theGreat Pacific Garbage Patch . )
“ I ’ve been doing receptive - piss swims for a very prospicient time and I have seen the changes in the ocean , the environment , ” Lecomte said in a statement quoted byThe Guardian . “ More charge card , less Pisces , and every fourth dimension I drown with my kids I always imagine about what type of world I am going to leave behind . It became very well-defined to me that the only means to go forwards was to use my passion to get attention on an issue that sham all of us . ”
Lecomte ’s crew will pull together scientific samples along the journey , which they will give to oceanographers once they attain teetotal country . As for the swimmer himself , he ’ll be looking out for something else : sharks . He hopes to spot them during the crossing , as their presence is a good indicator of ocean wellness .
you’re able to learn more about Lecomte ’s crossingon his website .
[ h / tThe Guardian ]
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