Postponing my GGR campaign until 2030

It was with regret that a week ago, I announced on social media my withdrawal from the 2026 GGR, due to start at Les Sables-d’Olonne in 56 days on September 6th. While on a slow jog on the sea wall near Lymington Yacht Haven on Thursday June 25th, my right toe caught a bump, and I stumbled forward while airborne. As a reflex to avoid a hard fall, my right foot came forward under me. I landed on my forefoot with all my weight and momentum. The raised heel created an eccentric load on my Achilles tendon which destroyed it.

I heard a loud pop followed by an immediate sensation of burning and numbness above my calcaneus. The foot was slack, testing the tissue for damage by pinching the tendon painful. The trauma and swelling of the torn tissue was to intensify the pain over the following 48 hours. I was over a mile away from the marina, with no phone and not a soul around. While I could no longer rise on my toes, I could still raise them using the muscles in front of my shin including my tibialis anterior. I locked my right knee straight and my foot at 90-degrees, turned my foot to the side like a hockey stick then used my entire leg like a peg, rolling on my heel with each step. It took a while to return to CLARA.

I consulted the marina staff for a way to stabilize my ankle, but their first aid kit was mostly equipped to stop bleeding. They asked if I wanted an ambulance. I did not want to spend the night at a distant emergency room which was an open-ended proposition. Questions swirled in my head like how long I would wait, where I would stay, how I would return to CLARA…

The trauma site was painful to touch requiring protection.

My past rock-climbing experience came in handy to get onboard CLARA. I climbed up the ladder very cautiously, placing a spot under my right ankle on a rung and bracing my shin against the next rung up, while maintaining three-point contact at all times. Once onboard, I cut up an old t-shirt, wrapped it around my lower leg and foot then immobilized my ankle using packing tape. I laid down with a duffle bag under my foot which seemed to reduce the throbbing. This was a stop gap measure while I gathered myself.

During the first night, I slept with a loose cast made of packing tape.

I then alerted my university classmates in the Class of ‘83 WhatsApp group. I received strong encouragement to fly to İstanbul without delay; they would arrange the surgeon and the hospital. Then and there, I purchased a ticket for a red-eye flight from Heathrow arriving at 04:20 on Saturday. My friends also recommended a limo service that they used regularly for business travel. I had to let the service know when to pick me up once I knew which hospital.

I had also alerted GGR Race Committee and my fellow GGR skipper Ertan Beşkardeş who lives in Bournemouth just west of Lymington. He was to return home the following day on Friday by ferry from France. He had just completed his qualifying passage and left his vessel at Les Sables-d’Olonne. I had a doctor’s appointment at Winchester that same Friday to sign off on my medical exam, a prerequisite for the race. Ertan kindly offered to pick me up at Winchester then to take me to London Heathrow Airport. He was not going to leave me stranded at Winchester, only to hobble on and off trains given my condition…

Just four days earlier on Monday before the accident, I had completed a treadmill stress test protocol to verify my fitness. I also had completed a dental check along with vision and hearing tests, all the results of which the doctor would review before signing off. In the end, given my Achilles injury, the doctor signed off pending review by an orthopedic surgeon. She was worried about my overnight flight with the real risk of deep vein thrombosis. She directed me to the nearest A&E (Accident & Emergency) service where she wanted me examined, to at least provide blood thinning medication and a boot to immobilize my ankle.

Ertan was creative in using the luggage cart to push me to the check in booth ;)

When Ertan arrived with his wife Arzu, we stopped at the A&E, only to give up after a two hour wait. Time was running out before my flight. I was tempted to take some Aspirin for its blood thinning effect but decided against that as well, for fear of complications during the surgery. We had dinner together, later Ertan wheeled me from the garage to the check-in counter on a luggage cart. From there, the airline was kind to arrange a wheelchair to the gate.

When I reached Istanbul, I received additional wheelchair service across the sprawling airport. The limo picked me up at 06:00 then dropped me at the hospital in central İstanbul by 07:15. Immediately, they put a cannula in a vein on my left arm and took blood for labs. At 09:00 I was wheeled in for an MRI of my ankle and by 11:00, I was in surgery with Dr. Cezmi Enson. This was a massive rally by my classmates, arranging the necessary care just 34 hours after my accident, a small miracle!

With my surgeon Dr. Cezmi Enson.

Dr. Enson cleared calcification and bone spurs from the calcaneous before inserting biodegradable suture anchors. These will be absorbed by the body over time.

I stayed in the hospital for 48 hours after which my university track teammate Murat Kaan Güneri picked me up. He lived close to the hospital; so, returning for inspection and fresh bandages would be practical. I had been on a morphine drip twice a day while at the hospital. I fortunately required no further painkillers after I left the hospital. The discomfort of the surgery site inside the boot subsided after a few days once the trauma resolved itself and the swelling dispersed.

Friends from Boğaziçi University Class of ‘83. Friendships that reach back to our youth which have survived the years since, add meaning to our lives bridging the past with the present. I would later find out that they even gathered funds to cover the surgery costs. I am a fortunate man.

My distant cousin Emrah Uzun picked me up the Wednesday after the surgery and drove me to Ankara to visit my father. I had not let him know of the surgery knowing that at age 94, he would have wanted to travel to İstanbul to see me. He was pleasantly surprised of course… We had lunch altogether with my brother Erkan then returned to İstanbul the same day. I had to see my surgeon one last time that Thursday to change bandages and to receive his blessings to fly. I spent the weekend at Emrah’s place then took my return flight to the UK the following Monday.

The lift out for CLARA was on June 12th.

The decision with the yacht service team at Jeremy Rogers Limited was to suspend all work until my return after I healed. The surgeon had strict instructions for me to keep the boot on for six weeks and to avoid exercising the tendon for three months. There just was not enough time to heal before the 2026 race started. It would have been irresponsible to attempt to continue working on the boat in my condition. I made sure to send an email to Don McIntyre at the GGR Race Committee, officially asking to move my registration to their 2030 race.

My friend Harun Urhan based in Southampton had just helped me gather victuals a few days before my injury.

With any deadlines that we may have had for the 2026 race now gone, Jeremy Rogers team had the freedom to pivot and to reassign their resources to complete other tasks which they had put on hold just to meet my timeline. I was grateful for their efforts and good will; however, the universe was telling me to slow down.

CLARA has unfinished business from the 2022 race when Simon Curwen was at the helm. After leading the fleet all the way, they had to stop at Chile to repair the broken wind vane, thereby dropping out of official classification. Now, I myself have unfinished business while my Achilles regains functional strength. I have not given up. Our audience will see in us two determined veterans, arriving at the start line in September of the year 2030, better prepared to take on this prestigious challenge called the Golden Globe Race.

Please make sure to follow the remaining 18 skippers as they launch in September to race solo and nonstop around the world. The menu link to follow is: LIVE link on the GGR website. Under that menu link, there is the tracking page as well as links to the GGR social media managed by the Race Committee.