He wasn't even born on the shore of a lake. He didn't star in either Pirates of the Caribbean or Indiana Jones, but he brings something, and it's an essential part of the charisma of their main characters - the character of a lone wolf, willing to face the greatest hardships to satisfy his supernatural curiosity about the ocean, about the world.
Short list of his achievements is more than impressive. Can we imagine a lifeboat crossing of the Atlantic, in the path of Columbus's caravels, on a diet of ... zooplankton, or the even crazier crossing of the Pacific from Lima to Fiji - 100 days, 8300 nautical miles again by lifeboat. In 1979-1981, in exactly 777 days, he made his first circumnavigation - from Sozopol to Sozopol, 42,000 nautical miles, together with his wife Ju and their 6 year old daughter Yana, on board the yacht Tivia.
Thirty years ago, in 1988, Doncho entered the annals of world sailing with his solitary round-the-world voyage on the yacht Tivia - 164 days from Buenos Aires to Buenos Aires. What makes this achievement significant? The voyage is non-stop in any port, in winter and passes entirely south of the “hottest” - the roaring latitudes south of the 40th parallel in the Southern Hemisphere. Despite the vast amount of footage shot, no film of this phenomenal voyage on the Tivia has been produced to this day.
Between oceans and seas, work in television, books and participation in politics, all his life Doncho lives like a happy shipwrecked man and always reaches the saving shore. This December 4, 2018, we, the Challenge Days audience, will have the great privilege of being his new shore. We will welcome an extraordinary Bulgarian, carrying all the wisdom and history of the infinite ocean and the undying spirit of the adventurer.
Doncho Papazov, zodiac sign Pisces, born in pre-war 1939 in Sofia!