Ailsa Harvey
51-year-old Ben Lecomte has reached the 1,000 nautical mile mark in his bid to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean.
The Frenchman, who became the first swimmer to swim across the Atlantic Ocean without a kickboard in 1998, set off on his new mission in June. Since leaving the shores of Japan, he has spent around eight hours a day in the water, averaging thirty miles in each session.
So far, the open water swimmer has encountered both physical and environmental challenges. These include bouts of seasickness, life-threatening typhoons, tropical storms, countless plastic pollution, predatory sharks and more.
