We're still collecting donations
On the 30th November 2024 we'd raised £4,500 with 143 supporters in 155 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
“I LOST MY LIMBS AND FOUND MY SEA LEGS” Support me on my 6,000 nautical mile journey across the Pacific from Mexico to Yokohama.
by Craig Wood - Record breaking solo sail from Mexico to Japan in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom
On the 30th November 2024 we'd raised £4,500 with 143 supporters in 155 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
I am Craig Wood, and aged 18, as an army recruit from a small village just north of Doncaster, I was three months into my first tour in Afghanistan when life changed in an instant, and forever.
An IED blast took both my legs and left hand and my face was ravaged by shrapnel. Waking up 14 days later from an induced coma, I lost count of the number of operations in the months that followed.
It took eight months to learn to walk again and four-and-a-half years of rehabilitation work at the dedicated Headley Court facility in Surrey to improve my quality of life,
On returning home as a triple-amputee, there was only one thing left to do, return to the hobby my father had taught on our family trips to Bridlington and sail. It was escapism and freedom, and eventually gave me a reason to carry on living.
Fifteen years on, I live on our boat, Sirius II, with my wife, Renata, and two young children for much of the year. It’s a nomadic lifestyle true to the characters we’ve become and one which the whole family embraces.
Most days are an adventure. I operate an open boat policy, inviting all-comers onboard to share food and fellowship as well as providing free education on how to sail - whether you have a disability or not.
My next adventure will be a demanding solo sail over 6,000 nautical miles from La Paz in Mexico to Yokohama in Japan at the beginning of 2025.
Sailing via Hawaii, where I’ll only stop if required to replenish supplies or make repairs to the boat, the weather is predicted to present the biggest challenge to completing the route. A three-month window at the start of 2025 is forecast to be the best slot to set sail and the whole trip is predicted to take up to 80 days.
My boat for this voyage will be a 41-foot aluminium catamaran, a custom-built yacht made for the tougher conditions I expect to face. Built in 2008 in France, I purchased her in Guatemala in 2022.
The journey will be filmed for a post-sail documentary, with live video updates and regular vlogs broadcast on my YouTube channel. The coverage will both chart my day-to-day adventures and break down barriers for people who don’t know how to sail.
As well as the individual challenge, once I have raised enough to enable the crossing, I will then be raising money to support other amputees across the world, with funds donated to Blesma and Turn 2 Starboard, two of the charities that helped me the most when times were difficult.
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