I guess I am a Mike Harker groupie. I qualify because I’ve heard him present his story several times now. One of the reasons I made the sojourn to Oakland last week to the Strictly Sail boat show was to hear about his latest round of adventure; circumnavigating the world in only 11 months !

Mike, who is a film maker by trade, is an inspiration to anyone for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the story of his recovery from a hang gliding accident that left him paralyzed below the knees. As a kid, he was a high speed waterskiing champion and used to laugh at the thought of a sailboat going 6 miles per hour. In his early adult years he was a pioneer of the hang gliding sport. During that period he did enough crazy things to officially call him certifiable ! After a decade of recovery from his accident, he gained partial use of his legs and bought a sailboat without knowing the first thing about actually sailing one. He sailed out to Catalina island and then had to figure out how to turn around. He didnt kill himself or destroy the boat so he decided to join the Baja Ha-Ha, an annual rally for cruisers from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. It was on this trip he got bitten by the cruising bug. Interestingly, Hunter marine caught word of his feat and asked him to do some filming for them and become a spokesperson when he upgraded to a larger boat that he sailed most of the way around the world. As he neared home, Hunter asked him to come down to Florida and help them design a 49 foot, true blue water cruiser. He got hull #1 and took off on a whirlwind tour that saw him show the boat at the Sydney Boat Show in Australia and the Miami Boat Show on the other side of the world, a few months later. His presentation about that trip, that I heard in Oakland occurred about 25 days after he completed it !

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