Triple amputee Craig Wood breaks down how he set two world records during 7,500-mile solo Pacific voyage
A British Army veteran sailed solo 7,500 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean, earning him two world records for becoming the first triple amputee to complete the mammoth 90-day feat.
Despite breaking his prosthetic arm halfway through the challenge, Craig Wood, 35, made history as he completed the journey from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Hiroshima, Japan, without any outside assistance.
Speaking to UNILAD Tech, Wood shared how he sailed his 41-foot catamaran, Sirius II, which was not specially adapted for someone with his disabilities, saying: “I didn’t do this when I was able-bodied, so I don’t actually have a reference point as able-bodied. Everything has been learned after injury.”
Wood was 18-years-old and just three months into his deployment to Afghanistan when he was blown up by a roadside bomb in 2009. After being in a coma for two weeks, Woods woke up in a UK hospital, having lost both of his legs above the knee and his left arm below the elbow.
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Since then, Wood has undergone over 20 surgeries and despite the adaptations he has had to make in his life, he shared that he ‘found his freedom on the ocean’.
And with seven years of sailing experience behind him, last year, the dad-of-three made the decision to embark on a feat never before completed by a triple amputee - sailing solo across the Pacific Ocean.
Wood set off on March 25, 2025, from Mexico and started to make his way to Japan, although it wasn’t all plain sailing, with one of the biggest issues coming when his prosthetic arm broke in the middle of the ocean.
Wood explained that the hook on his prosthetic had detached from its carbon-fiber socket after he put too much leverage through it while working on the boat.
With thousands of miles still separating him from Japan, simply stopping to get the equipment repaired was not an option.
Instead, Wood had to rethink how he operated the boat and find another way to carry on with the equipment available to him, explaining: “I had to change the method once again while crossing the world’s biggest ocean.”
‘It was just a truly spiritual, reflective, soul-searching endeavor’
Delving deeper into his experience, Wood went on to say: “It was night and day. It was yin and yang. It was some of the most incredible things I’d ever seen, experienced. Like seeing the Milky Way with a full moon and the blue bioluminescence in the water at the same time, and you’re just like, ‘Oh my god, this is amazing’. Seeing a moonbow and seeing all the wildlife. I saw some phenomenon that was just once in a lifetime, truly.
“And then the next day it’d be raining and there’d be sails in the water and I’d be shouting to high heavens. And then my engine would break and then my arm would break, and then my boom would come off… I’d say there were equally as many incredible days as difficult throughout the whole thing. It was just a truly spiritual, reflective, soul-searching endeavor.”
Despite his army training, Wood admitted that he struggled with the isolation of being alone at sea for three months.
He continued: “I don’t know if the military teaches you about isolation. Certainly, I didn’t feel like the military taught me isolation, but it did teach me crisis management. I don’t stress about something that’s happening that you can control… I don’t need to sit there freaking out”
Wood added: “I think the isolation thing and being away from family is quite a difficult one.”
The veteran arrived in Japan on June 25 where he was met by his wife and children.
The feat earned Wood two Guinness World Records for becoming the first triple amputee to sail solo across an ocean, and the first triple amputee to sail solo across the Pacific Ocean.
His remarkable journey has since been documented in Singlehanded, a film released on YouTube earlier this week.
To follow his adventures further, you can subscribe to Craig Wood’s channel here.
