Hideshige Seki stands apart from other participants in Del Rey Yacht Club’s 19th biennial race to Puerto Vallarta—or perhaps any ocean race ever—as he prepares to join them on the starting line this month as part of his great adventure.

He has never been in a sailboat race. He didn’t even know about this race until a few weeks ago. And he has no illusions about winning.

“My boat is too heavy,” he says, “especially downwind.”

But it’s OK for sailing around the world. Seki will be one of the more experienced ocean sailors in the race. Last year, singlehanded, he sailed his Tayana 52, Polaire, across the Pacific Ocean from Tokyo to North America. It took him 40 memorable days until reaching Victoria, B.C. Then he harbor-hopped down the West Coast, making friends along the way, until arriving in Marina del Rey around the holidays.

That’s where Del Rey YC member Hiro Furaoku saw Seki sailing by, flying the Japanese flag—an uncommon local sighting—and said to fellow member Janet Michaelis, “I must go and see if this sailor needs anything.”

Furaoku arranged an end-tie for Seki near the club and Michaelis told him about the race.

Why not? Seki thought, it fit right into his plan. He was heading in that general direction, anyway.

“My plan is 10 years,” he said—a decade he intends to spend sailing around the world. From Puerto Vallarta he’ll sail to the South Pacific and beyond. Way beyond.

Polaire—named for the star—is one of 11 boats entered in the Salsa Division, which will start Feb. 16 and have three layovers along the 1,125-nautical mile voyage to the Mexican mainland. Although Seki has sailed solo so far, for the race he’ll have a Del Rey YC veteran crew of Norm Carabet as navigator, along with Jim Cody, Joe Ebin and Rick Toomin.

Race chairman David Ross said, “We are excited to have Polaire as an entry in our race. His is an amazing story and it is wonderful that he has adjusted his schedule to join us. We are honored to be a part of his journey.”

The Racing Division, led by Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80 and David Janes’ Scout Spirit, will have two starts on Feb. 21 and 23, going all out for Joss’s 22-year-old record of 4 days 23 hours 4 seconds.

Seki, 56, retired from the Japanese Navy two years ago with the rank of commander, serving as a naval aircraft engineer.

“I started thinking about this when I was 40 years old,” he said. “This was my friend’s boat. We were going to do this together, but he had heart trouble two years ago. In Japan I sailed south to Okinawa, but this was the first time I was away from land.”

Polaire has roller furling for its main sail and jib, but a few days out of Tokyo the jib halyard shredded at the top of the mast and Seki had to haul himself up to replace it, which was good practice for when it broke again before reaching Victoria.

In between he encountered 60-plus knots of wind but was unable to ease the main because of another gear failure, so Polaire was knocked on its side for three days. Prepared for the worst, Seki strapped on his EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon) device and rode out the storm.

Seki said, “I have had 300 plans” before settling on one he has charted in dated detail that will take him around the world and across the Pacific three times before finishing in Toyko in March of 2016. Polaire has a comprehensive navigation station with satellite access.

Seki doesn’t expect to be bored. To pass the time, he has 7,000 songs on his iPod and 100 DVDs to play on the TV.

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