51-Year Old Man 6-Month Swim Across the Atlantic Ocean Tracked with GPS
28 Aug 2018
Benoît Lecomte, a 51-year-old Frenchman, decided to embark on an epic journey across the Pacific Ocean. Rather than go by boat, this dedicated man decided to swim the entire length of the ocean from the coast of Tokyo, to San Francisco.
The entire journey should take him around six months as long as everything goes according to plan. Lecomte has extensively prepared for this journey. He expects to swim for around eight hours and cover about 30 miles each day.
Once he meets this goal, he plans on boarding an accompanying boat to rest and refuel. The entire swim will be so physically demanding that Lecomte calculated he will need to eat around 8,000 calories each day.
Lecomte will know exactly where to begin the next day’s swim by utilizing a GPS tracking device to record his every stroke. The next morning, he will enter into the water at the exact location the GPS tracking system left off on.
Lecomte is no stranger to difficult and long swims. In 1998, he swam across the Atlantic Ocean for 73 days straight. This journey was meant to raise awareness and money for cancer research, and he successfully completed his mission in memory of his late father. Incredibly, Lecomte reported that a shark followed him for at least five days during this adventure. While there is no definitive proof, Lecomte also alleges that he was the first individual to swim an incredible 5,000 miles without a kickboard.
His newest adventure is an attempt to get the public talking about plastic pollution in the ocean. During his 5,500-mile trek, he is expected to swim directly past the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Anyone can track this adventurous spirit’s journey on Seeker. Additional details about the expedition can be found there as well. You can read Ben’s logbook here and follow his swim here.
Plastic pollution in the ocean, Lecomte argues, can be sharply reduced by each individual’s actions and choices. Practicing mindfulness is one of the first steps in making a big difference, and such actions take a lot less effort than Lecomte’s enormous swim across the ocean.
For deeper insights into the man behind this epic journey, take a peek at this video into his mindset.
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