Rimas Meleshyus doesn’t sail; he
drifts, as he puts it, “Kon Tiki-style.” Perhaps he should try sailing his sailboats. Meleshyus was rescued last June off Saipan, 137 days after leaving Hilo, Hawaii. In 2016 he was rescued off Hawaii after a 46-day drift from California. In
2014 he was rescued off American Samoa after drifting for months. And in 2012
he was rescued after grounding on a remote island during a 34-day passage across the Gulf of Alaska. “I’m a very determined person,” Meleshyus told the Whidbey News-Times in 2015.
This article originally appeared in the December 2017 issue.
