Solo across the Pacific

Triple amputee Craig Wood sailed into the history books with a non-stop, 90-day, 7,506-mile unassisted voyage

- CRAIG WOOD

Before I set off on my solo sailing challenge, my wife suggested I take yeast. I remember saying, 'Am I really gonna make bread when I'm out at the sea and it's 40ft waves?' She said, 'I think you will'. I thought 'I'm probably not'. Oh man, she was so correct, bread is great out at sea.

I turned 34 during this passage, on 25 April. I don't eat cake, but I did make bread that day. I don't know if it was because it was my birthday, but I was definitely craving a burger.

I was thinking, 'but I've got no bread', and was at the point of having the burgers on their own when I found flour and then I was like, 'Ooh, let's see if I've got any yeast'. And I did-just one packet of yeast, which was a terrible mistake. I should have bought lots of flour and yeast. I made bread and had a big, fat boy burger.

Then I made a pizza with the spare dough and ate it all. And then the next day, I made a chicken pie, which was pretty good.

Pacific challenge

When I set off from Puerto Vallarta in Mexico on 25 March, bound for Hiroshima, Japan, my biggest concern was a collision at sea.

During the 90-day crossing, I didn't see whales or container-sized debris. I did, however, see something the size of a motorbike in a box.

I don't know if it was wood or what, but it was about that size. And then just your normal trash in the ocean.

This voyage has tested me and my 41ft Galileo catamaran almost to the limit, but I tried to stay in the moment and focus on my goal.

The thought of seeing my wife and children at the end spurred me on. We live aboard Sirius II for much of the year, and I know this boat inside out.

Before I set off, I fixed my reefing lines to a single line, but the way that my boom is angled created a chafe point at the gooseneck.