Mike is such a great guy, sailing around Australia for a charity that provides kids in poverty stricken areas with wheelchairs. He sent me an e-mail yesterday saying:
Hi Ralph
Sorry it’s been a while but I have been busy. I set off last April to travel back to my boat in Darwin. To hopefully set off for Timor, and to physically distribute some wheelchairs myself, However first a cyclone and then I got lucky and the cyclone changed course. Rioting broke out in Dili, East Timor, my destination, and marshal law was declared. So I went down to a pearl farm in north west Australia and did my first three months as a pearl technician.
Then finally in September 2006 I set sail for Timor-5 days later I sank my anchor into Dili mud. I had a great experience as a paraplegic, experiencing the third world but more so giving twenty kids a chair. I have attached a couple of pics of my adventure.
Right now I am back in Australia and hope to return to Timor in March 2006 with another container laid of wheelchairs.
Keep well,
Mike Rowney
Here is a (link) to an interview I did with with Mike right before the IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championshipo in Perth, AUS last year.
