How young Kiwi Susana Scott found herself teaming up with record breaker Geoff Holt (From This is Hampshire)

How young Kiwi Susana Scott found herself teaming up with record breaker Geoff Holt

10:21am Tuesday 15th September 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

“WANTED: a carer to join the trip of a lifetime on a high-profile record-breaking voyage across the Atlantic.”

When young New Zealander Susana Scott’s eyes fell on this mysterious advert placed in a magazine, she had to know more.

It had been three years since the 28-year-old started working in the UK as a live-in carer for quadriplegics and now she was after a new challenge.

The man behind the advert was none other than record-breaking disabled sailor Geoff Holt, recruiting for his next adventure.

The 43-year-old from Shedfield sailed into the record books in 2007 as the first disabled person to single-handedly circumnavigate Britain.

Now, 25 years since the accident that left him paralysed from the chest down, Geoff is planning to “exorcise a few ghosts” by sailing from Hampshire 3,000 miles back to the Caribbean beach where his life as an 18-year-old was so drastically changed.

Geoff will sail the luxury 60ft catamaran Impossible Dream on his own – but with the voyage expected to take three weeks, he needs a helping hand to carry out everyday tasks.

Cue Susana. She and Geoff hit it off after meeting for the first time in February, and in June she moved in with Geoff, his wife Elaine and their seven-year-old son Tim.

Since then she has been put through her paces on a competent crew course so she knows what to do should disaster strike.

“I’m really nervous about the trip but also really excited,” Susana said.

To see Geoff giving a tour round Impossible Dream, click below

“The thing that bothered me most was not knowing how I’d be on a boat, but the course has sorted that out.

“I’m just looking at it as a big adventure.”

Geoff dreamed up the challenge after writing a book about his adventures.

“I did the crossing three times when I was a teenager, twice when I was 16,” he said.

“Now I have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sail back across the Atlantic Ocean again. It’s also about exorcising a few ghosts.

“Twenty-five years ago I left that beach in an ambulance and now 25 years later I am going to turn up at the beach as a quadriplegic yachtsman in charge of a luxury 60ft catamaran.”

Geoff launched the project, dubbed Personal Atlantic, at the PSP Southampton Boat Show.

He and Susana now have just three months to prepare for the trip from Beaulieu to Cane Garden Bay in Tortola.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)