Minoru Saito Completes His Record-Breaking Circumnavigation

September 17, 2011 - ClearPoint congratulates Minoru Saito on his record-breaking "wrong way" sailing circumnavigation. ClearPoint and its partner Iridium were pleased to provide weather data and satellite data and voice service to Mr. Saito during his 1,080-day expedition. Battling earthquakes, typhoons, icebergs, and mechanical problems, Mr. Saito - at age 77- persevered to become the oldest person to sail single-handed around the world. Mr. Saito also became the first person to complete eight sailing circumnavigations of the world.

Excerpted from an article in the Daily Telegraph (UK): "Suntanned Mr Saito, however, appeared in better shape than his boat, smiling broadly as he leapt around with an array of ropes with the agility of a sailor half his age. Stepping onto the floating pier and accepting bouquets of flowers, he told the Sunday Telegraph: "I'm very, very happy to be back but it was difficult. It was my longest trip. It went on for months and months and years and years, I had so many problems. But it’s great to be back.” He added: “I missed a lot of things, mostly cherry blossoms and Japanese food. But I feel very young in both mind and body and I feel I’m in great shape.” The word “retirement” not featuring in his vocabulary, he went on with a laugh: “I’m already thinking about my next trip. I’d like to head to Greenland and Alaska next. I just need to raise the money and then I’ll go off again.” He added: "I missed a lot of things, mostly cherry blossoms and Japanese food. But I feel very young in both mind and body and I feel I'm in great shape." The word "retirement" not featuring in his vocabulary, he added with a laugh: "I'm already thinking about my next trip. I'd like to head to Greenland and Alaska next. I just need to raise the money and then I'll go off again."

It was in October 2008 that Mr Saito set off from Yokohama on a trip that he initially hoped would last only 287 days on board his prized 56-foot sailing boat, Nicole BMW Shuten-dohji III. He had already accomplished a record-breaking seven solo journeys around the world but it was his first time travelling west to east – a famously challenging route as it goes directly against prevailing winds and currents, requiring significant skill and effort as well as raising the danger of colliding with floating icebergs and debris. In the event, however, Mr Saito's eighth trip took him nearly four times longer than anticipated, due to a litany of delays caused by repairs, inclement weather conditions and natural disasters. His 28,500 mile journey ran smoothly until Cape Horn, where a three-day gale heaped up 30-foot waves and 50 knot winds – leading to extensive damage that required him to be rescued by the Chilean Coast Guard. Instead he was forced to spend the winter months in a small harbour in Punta Renas, the world's southernmost city, as he repaired damage to his boat - the darkest moment of the trip, he said. "I had these big steel fishing boats hitting me on both sides and if my boat had not been made of steel, it would have been crushed and sunk. "I was really worried I might die from stress and the cold but I could not leave the boat unprotected." It was also while in Chile that his health appeared to catch up with him as he was forced to undergo an emergency hernia operation, which delayed his trip even further.

After one more failed attempt, he finally rounded Cape Horn, and was narrowly spared disaster when more problems that developed on his boat required him to stop again for repairs. His course would otherwise have taken him precisely to the epicentre of the 2010 Chilean earthquake just as it struck. "He was incredibly lucky," said Mike Seymour, the on-shore safety officer for his trip. "Just before the earthquake struck we'd pulled him into a small island off the Chilean coast as there were some boat problems." Although damaged by the subsequent tsunami, once again his boat survived and following further repairs, Mr Saito was back on his way. The next drama came in Hawaii, where he had stopped to undergo boatwork repairs – and was knocked down in the street by a car, resulting in a knee operation in hospital. He was still there on March 11 this year when his boat survived yet another tsunami, triggered by the giant Tohoku earthquake in his homeland Japan, resulting in yet further delays. To cap his chronicle of setbacks, he then had patiently to wait for a total of five typhoons to pass through the region before being able to embark on the final leg of his journey into Japan.

Arriving back yesterday – weighing a little less, with a still-healing knee, but otherwise professing robust health – Mr Saito said: "My body was feeling tired and my mind was nervous but I stopped for a few days on a small island before the final journey to Yokohama and soaked in some hot springs. Now I feel very good."