Guo Chuan completes first Chinese non-stop solo world sail
by Nancy Knudsen on 6 Apr 2013
Guo’s triumph SW
Circumnavigation, 18 Nov 2013-5 Apr,2014, lasts 137day20hour1min57sec. With this briefest possible entry in his Twitter account, Chinese sailor Guo Chuan announced that he had become the first Chinese sailor in history to complete a non-stop unassisted solo circumnavigation of the earth.
But it's what he did after crossing the finishing line that shows how it affected him, shown in these grainy photos to the left.
'After I crossed the finish line,' he said later, 'I was very emotional.
'So when 'Qingdao' arrived to about 20metres from the pontoon, I jumped in the water and swam to my family.
'I could not describe my mixed feeling at that moment, but I really wanted to do so...'
The former scientist returned to his home town Qingdao after five-and-a-half months of solo voyaging. He talked about his sadness that his father did not witness his triumph.
State News Service Xinhua quoted him as saying, 'He passed away in 2011 when I was training in Europe. It's been a regret that I failed to bid him farewell.
He added, 'I wish he could see me today.'
The 47-year-old set off on the epic trip last November, completing the 21,600 nautical mile journey travelling east via Cape Horn in Chile.
Guo, who has been sailing for 12 years after previously working on China's commercial satellite programme, also becomes the first man to sail around the world in an Akilaria Class 40 yacht -- a 40ft monohull sailboat - which is built as a racing hull, not for long range voyaging..
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