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If the tradewinds don’t die on him again, a San Diego sailor with a prosthetic leg who’s making a solo voyage to Oahu should arrive before sunset Monday at Kaneohe Yacht Club.
John Silverwood, 65, calls his trip from San Diego to Oahu a “voyage of grateful redemption” to test himself after losing a leg in 2005 when he, his wife and their four children hit a reef in French Polynesia during a disastrous family trip. His left leg was cut off by a broken mast.
Silverwood and his wife, Jean, wrote a book about their doomed voyage called “Black Wave” that Jean said is being developed into a movie, tentatively also called “Black Wave.” Their story also has been featured on national television shows, such as CBS’ “48 Hours” and the Discovery Channel’s “I Shouldn’t Be Alive.”
In an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, John Silverwood wrote from his 38-foot cutter, the Espiritu Santo: “I have my hands ful (sic) running the ship, running my GOPRO video gear, and trying to keep up with communications. My goal is crystal clear, I’m a 65 year old guy with one leg. My job is to safely make it to your lovely island !!”
In a brief satellite phone interview on Thursday, Silverwood said his original Saturday arrival had been pushed back to Monday because “there was no wind at all for four days and I don’t have enough fuel to motor all the way to Oahu.”
After John flies home to San Diego, the Silverwoods hope to raise about $800,000 through their San Diego nonprofit organization, Godswell Sailing, to buy a 50-foot catamaran to teach sailing — and confidence — to others with disabilities or illnesses.
“I work with cancer patients, and he likes to take amputees sailing,” Jean said. “I always wanted to take cancer patients out on boats.”
But the Silverwoods need a more stable catamaran to teach sailing.
The monohull Espiritu Santo — it means “Holy Spirit” — “isn’t comfortable,” Jean said. “It’s like a racing boat.”
For now, John continues to make his way toward the Windward side of Oahu. It’s a solo trip that he’s been talking about ever since he bought
the
Espiritu Santo in Key West seven years ago, Jean said.
After he sailed the Espiritu Santo to Houston, then trucked it to San Diego, Jean said John kept planning a voyage to Hawaii by himself.
“I thought it would go away,” Jean said. “But he wouldn’t stop talking about sailing to Hawaii.”
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