Quadriplegic sailor back sailing after three weeks stormbound in Abersoch

Quadraplegic sailor Geoff Holt,41, is back on the water after being weatherbound in Abersoch, North Wales for more than three weeks.

Weather conditions were suitable for Geoff to leave port yesterday morning, Wednesday 11 July, and he made good progress through Bardsley Sound and into Caernarfon Bay, stopping at Morfa Nefyn. Weather permitting, Geoff will sail on to Holyhead today.

Geoff is paralysed from the breast line down as the result of a swimming accident when he was 18, and is attempting to be the first disabled person to sail around the coast of Great Britain. The yachtsman left Southampton on 20 May, but his attempt has been severely hampered by unseasonal weather conditons.

The operation requires a huge amount of organisation; two motor homes and a Land Rover equipped with a winch and overhead crane hoist for lifting Geoff and his boat out of the water travel by road from port to port, meeting Geoff and his support crew at the end of each day.

Geoff’s wife Elaine, a former nurse, is part of the support team and drives one of the motor homes between ports, accompanied by their 5 year old son, Timothy, who cheers his Dad in to each port and who has become the team’s ‘official’ photographer.