September • 2011
Gael Force owner to sail final 7,000 of world voyage single-handed
A businessman from the Highlands of Scotland who has already broken his back and had to avoid pirates on a two-year round the world voyage, is to sail the final 7,000 miles of the journey from South Africa back to the UK single-handedly.
Father-of-two Stewart Graham, 47, owner of Highland-based marine equipment, supply and engineering group Gael Force, is to sail his Discovery 67 mono hull yacht the Rhiann Marie through the South Atlantic winter, hopefully avoiding the hurricane season and being battered by huge seas as he returns home.
If all goes well, Stornoway-born Stewart, who lives in Inverness, expects to make the journey in two months. But if trade winds force him from West Africa across the Atlantic to the Caribbean it will be next spring before he can return with Rhiann Marie.
Stewart had eight nuts and bolts, two rods and a metal plate permanently fitted into his spine after an off road motorcycle accident in the jungle in Malaysia in February on an earlier part of his trip. However he was back at the helm just one week after the accident.
He has also experienced a number of “threatening encounters”, including having the yacht approached at high speed at dawn by a boat with masked men wearing balaclavas, off Columbia. His yacht was hit by lightning in the Caribbean, which destroyed electronics including its essential autopilot system, and he has had to cope with high seas, ripped sails and damage to his rigging, plus the constant repairs required to keep a circumnavigation on track, with a minimum amount of sleep.
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