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Paddle Across the Atlantic —Alexander Doba......67 year old Polish adventurer just made landfall in Florida after paddling across the Atlantic by himself........Look at those muscles......no fat on him........what a guy...... THE INTERVIEW National Geographic Adventure: Did you see any trash? What were the conditions of the oceans like, generally? Aleksander Doba: On both routes, I saw floating garbage close to the coasts of Africa and Europe. However, in general, from my very low point of observation, the ocean looked clean. I did not see oil slicks and there were not large amounts of trash, just single pieces of rubbish. The biggest piece of junk floating in the water was a shattered, plastic 200-liter trash barrel. NGA: From the photos, it looks like you only had enough room to sleep on your side. Is that right? AD: When I packed things carefully and ate some food, I could lie down on my back. NGA: How much harder it is to paddle your kayak than a normal kayak? AD: OLO is 23 feet long and three feet wide and weighs 1,100 pounds, and I used a nine-foot-long kayak paddle. Navigating OLO was much more difficult than a usual kayak. NGA: Was there ever a point where you thought you might not make it to Florida? AD: No, although 40 nights of strenuous effort to break out of the trap of unfavorable winds in the Bermuda Triangle drained me very much. NGA: Were you ever worried for your life? AD: When I was alone on the ocean I had no fear for my life. However, in Brazil, while running the Amazon in my kayak in 2011, I survived two bouts of rogues with firearms and machetes. First, five bandits robbed me for three hours. A week later, three bandits went through my stuff for half an hour. In both cases, they held me at gunpoint with rifles, pistols, and machetes. I was not sure if they would leave me alive. NGA: What did your wife say when you told her you were going to paddle a kayak across the Atlantic the first time? And the second? AD: Before the first Transatlantic Kayak Expedition, my wife tried very hard to make me drop such an idea. Those were very, very hard times for both of us. Before the second expedition, there were similarly heavy struggles between us. NGA: Do you think you will ever do anything like this again? AD: I'm not going to repeat paddling the Atlantic Ocean, but paddling something else … maybe. 
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