Sailing Around Edge Of Antarctica Zip Tiesduct Tape

It turns out there are things I cant or do or do not have time to do alone.

It can be stressful to temporarily leave behind ones comfortable life of sailing solo around the world.

Once I think I have things figured out I seem to add small hurdles like joining a boat going to Antarctica.

I committed to Joining Barry Kennedy on Spailpin on his Dix 38 pilot house while in Sri Lanka.

I was pretty sure I could find a safe spot for Tiama in South Africa in time, get my prosthetic sorted, get clothing suited for the trip, and get myself to Chile and back all without sacrificing the work and maintenance required to get Tiama back in shape after a long trip across the Indian ocean.

I was unsure how all this would happen but it just did thanks to several incredible people, most of which I had not met before.

My friend Adrian saw a picture I posted online with me taking a grindersawscrewdriverdremmelfile and a lot of sweatprofanities towards two prosthetic sockets I was trying to turn into one that would work.

He took it upon himself to reach out to a prosthetist he knew in South Africa.

When looking for this prosthetist he came in contact with Jeremy Kreik.

I was not sure what to expect but was hoping to get a new socket (the bit that fits on my residual limb) made.

In the U.S.A. Medicare pays around 7,000 usd for this and I had about 500usd that I could budget.

Sailing Around Edge Of Antarctica Zip Tiesduct Tape

If it couldnt be done for this amount I would go back to the Grindersawdremmelfilescrewdriversweatprofanities and possibly add zip tiesduct tape for good measure.

After a brief meeting Jeremy offered to not only make me one socket at his expence, but two so I could have a backup.

I specifically wrote at his expense instead of free because I know how expensive the materials and components for these are.

This man took two days of his time and spent his own money to help someone that he never knew existed just a few days earlier.

He even called Jackie Church with Ossur South Africa to get a new liner covered at their expense which is a 600usd part.

In just a few days these amazing people made me the best fitting and strongest prosthetic I have ever had and I went for my 1st run in over a year to test it out.

Barry and Wayne offered to cover my flight here when I was considering if I could afford to come.

We were supposed to crew together but when he found out he could not make it he still sent me the money to cover half of my ticket.

Dave Gruss, Erik Dalton with Jagged Edge Mountain Gear, and Todd Rutledge with Mountain Trip International donated me a ton of really nice cold weather gear and Sara Achter cut off the left arms and sewed them for me.

With the exception of Barry I have never met any of these people nor did they ask anything from me in return.

Zululand Yacht club sponsored my spot as long as I agreed to talk to the sailing kids about overcoming adversity(something I would have happily done without the free spot).

Between crowd funding and my Chagos fleet family dropping some cash on me I didnt have to pick and choose what gets fixed before crossing the Atlantic.

Nadene on Wakanui spent a lot of time on my crowd funding video.

Veronica with Mana Media always keeps my website running and fellow yachties always lend a hand (never literally) fixing the boat when I let them.