Asked how he passed the time during all those months, all by himself in the boat, he said, the ocean was like a living creature, every wave was different. People never get bored looking into the flames, and it’s the same with the ocean. He felt safe in the storms, locked inside his hermetic kayak, observing the raging elements through plexiglass – a speck in the middle of the Atlantic.
True to his tiger philosophy, when the most difficult moment came and he had to cross the powerful currents of the Gulf Stream (‘It’s like a river flowing north, only with 150 times more water than in the Amazon', he explained cheerfully) in adverse wind conditions, he persisted, stoically letting the kayak drift with the elements, only to return to his designated route later on.
When asked by the media, who wanted to know whether he was afraid, he said that the only time he felt fear was when he had to disclose the plans of the Atlantic crossing to his wife. The 3,5-metre shark he met along the way was only half the size of his kayak, so there was no reason to panic. Still, to let the animal who started to brutally nose the boat, know who was in charge, he knocked it on the head with a paddle. The shark respected his dominance and left.
On 22nd February 2021, Aleksander Doba passed away just as he lived – exploring the world. He died climbing Kilimanjaro, the tallest summit in Africa.
Aleksander Doba followed in the footsteps of other adventurous Poles who made journeys into the unknown. The first one in recorded history, Benedictus Polonus, a Medieval monk, travelled to the Mongol Empire before Marco Polo did. He left a report of the first European voyage to the court of the Khan undertaken between April 1245 and November 1247.
Benedictus Polonus