Briton John Fairfax, the first known person to row alone across the Atlantic Ocean, has died at his Las Vegas home.
He believed a human could accomplish anything if they had confidence
The self-described professional adventurer, 74, died on February 8 of a suspected heart attack in Henderson, his wife Tiffany, said yesterday.
Mr Fairfax gained international attention in 1969 when he became the first person in recorded history to cross the Atlantic alone by rowing boat.
He dealt with sharks, storms and exhaustion on the six-month, 8,046-kilometre journey from the Canary Islands to Florida.
In 1972 he and his girlfriend, Sylvia Cook, became the first people to row across the Pacific Ocean. He survived a shark attack and cyclone on the year-long, 12,874-kilometre trek from San Francisco to Australia.
Mr Fairfax, born in Italy to an English father and a Bulgarian mother, wrote separate books about his ocean crossings that were both published in the 1970s.
“He was a man of unbelievable strength and courage and confidence in everything he did,” Ms Fairfax said. “He thought nature was a worthy challenge and he loved nature.”
Mr Fairfax used two different custom-made boats on the ocean journeys, she said, and used the stars to help him navigate. He survived by eating fish and had a system to convert ocean water into drinking water.
“On the Pacific, a shark took a big chunk of his arm” when he was spearing fish, Ms Fairfax said. “There you are on the Pacific Ocean and there’s no hospital, and you need to row. He was an amazing human being.”
He enjoyed many other adventures, including a trip to the Amazon jungle and a stint as a pirate. He also spoke five languages, was a talented chef and regularly played the card game baccarat at Las Vegas casinos, his wife said.
“He believed a human could accomplish anything if they had confidence,” she said. “When he would get an idea in mind, he would pursue it and say, ‘I can do it’.”
Ms Cook, 73, who lives near London, remained lifelong friends with Fairfax.
“He’s always been a gambler,” she told The New York Times. “He was going to the casino every night when I met him – it was craps in those days. And at the end of the day, adventures are a kind of gamble, aren’t they?”
His only immediate survivor is his wife of 31 years, who moved with him to Las Vegas in 1992 after a hurricane in Florida where they had lived.