Quadriplegic sailor Geoff Holt arrived in Port Patrick last Sunday 15 July, the first Scottish stop in his attempt to sail around the British coast.

Geoff, 41, who is paralysed from the breast line down as the result of a swimming accident when he was 18,  left Peel on the Isle of Man at 1300hrs in his 15ft Challenger Trimaran ‘Freethinker’.  The sea was much rougher than the team had anticipated and after just an hour Geoff was tempted to turn back. But, having been weather bound in North Wales for three weeks, Geoff persevered despite the big waves, anxious to make some good ground.

Originally Geoff was due to stop at Port Logan, but decided to sail on to Port Patrick, nine miles south of Stranraer, where he and his team spent the night. ‘It was pretty scary,’ he said, ‘and it was much too rough for the rib to get close enough to give me anything to eat.  I covered 35 miles in six hours but it was certainly the hairiest sail in my boat so far’.

The next stop on Geoff’s round Great Britain voyage is Campbelltown.