Alan Gandy

Posts Tagged ‘sailing’

This weekend I’ve been doing some deep water sailing (if that’s what it’s called – what do I know?) with my friend Paul. We went to collect his boat which had been chartered on a one way trip to bring it home.

The view on approach

I’ve been sailing with Paul before off the coast of our little island and really enjoyed it, great fun as a day trip. But I think after this journey I might need some convincing to do a longer trip like this again! Not because it wasn’t fantastic – more due to my propensity to get sea sick!

First night, serious sea sickness (not aided by a fairly heavy night on Friday I suspect), after which I immediately went to sleep in my cabin to awake to the views of the open ocean some hours later.

I wasn’t sea sick again after I woke up the next morning – but spent the rest of the trip living in fear of it coming back. If you’ve never been sea sick you won’t understand just how unpleasant it can be! It sort of takes the shine of what should be a great experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Every now and then in life you meet someone who really makes an impression on you. This afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting Geoff Holt and his lovely assistant Susana…

Geoff was the fist quadriplegic to sail single handed around Great Britain – and is currently preparing to become the fist quadriplegic to cross the Atlantic unassisted with the sailing and navigation of the boat. Susana is accompanying Geoff to help with his personal needs

His boat, Impossible Dream, is currently moored at the Rubicon Marina in Lanzarote – you can’t miss it! It’s a seriously impressive catamaran with his name all over it! The 60 foot boat has been purpose built built by a fellow disabled sailor – and is worth, we were told, in the region of £2,000,000!

We wish Geoff and Susana a safe and enjoyable crossing when they set off on the 10th of December and are looking forward to following their adventures on Geoff’s website – www.geoffholt.com