Geoff Holt reaches midway point in transatlantic challenge (From Daily Echo)

Geoff Holt reaches midway point in transatlantic challenge

4:06pm Thursday 31st December 2009 in Sport By Will Carson

DISABLED Hampshire yachtsman Geoff Holt has reached the halfway mark in an epic voyage across the Atlantic Ocean – but is now more than a week behind schedule.

The 43-year-old, pictured, from Shedfield near Fareham set off from Lanzarote onboard 60ft luxury catamaran Impossible Dream on December 11 and had hoped to arrive in Tortola in the Caribbean last Sunday (Dec27).

However Geoff and his two crew have been plagued with problems including engine trouble, which forced a stopover in the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, and a week of light winds.

Yesterday Geoff hit the halfway mark in the 5,000-mile trip.

He said: “After seven long days at sea the wind, almost exactly as forecast, had arrived. It was only about 12 knots from astern but it was a firm, stiff breeze, not the airy puffs of earlier. It was good to make progress again but the wind was still not the 20 knots forecast.

“I saw the Atlantic ocean exactly how I remembered it from 25 years ago; a deep, deep blue, five metre swells, three metre waves all with breaking white horses and the wind ripples clearly visible on the surface of the sea.

“This is it, this is the Atlantic as it should be.”

Poignantly, Geoff will return to the very beach where a swimming accident left him paralysed 25 years ago.

Geoff hit the headlines in 2007 when he became the first disabled person to sail solo around Britain.