85-Year-Old British Sailor, Crosses Atlantic On A Homemade Raft

Sailing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic is quite an accomplishment, but what these guys did was a bit more daring. First, they built their own tiny raft out of pipes tied together, and second, the four sailors proved that age is not a limiting factor:

Talk about your ancient mariners! British adventurer Anthony Smith, 85, and a senior citizen crew have sailed their tiny raft, An-Tiki, some 3,000 miles from Portugal’s Canary Islands to St. Martin in the Caribbean. They arrived this morning.

Smith and his three-man crew wanted to show what the elderly can do when they set their minds and hearts to it.

According to the adventure newsletter Expedition News, Smith’s latest escapde began more than three years ago when he placed the following advertisement in a London newspaper, The Daily Telegraph: "Fancy rafting across the Atlantic? Famous traveler requires 3 crew. Must be OAP [Old Age Pensioner]. Serious adventurers only." He got hundreds of eager replies from men fed up with gardening and playing bridge with their wives.

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