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Friday, March 29, 2024

VIDEO: Sailor overcomes injury to sail the East Coast

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As a young man in Burlington, Vermont, Johnny Markwith was given a 14-foot sailboat, and soon it was impossible to separate him from the waters of Lake Champlain. That gift from a neighbor started a lifelong love of sailing so strong that even a paralyzed arm couldn’t weaken it.

Instead, a debilitating injury made Markwith’s love of sailing that much stronger. It’s something people in Wrightsville Beach recently discovered after the seafarer spent several weeks anchored in town, offering locals the sailing experience while sharing his story of perseverance and perspective.

“I love taking people out sailing. I want to encourage people to experience sailing,” said Markwith, who turned an injury that cost him use of his right arm into a vagabond lifestyle on the water. “It’s a way of life for me. When I feel the raw power of the sails, there’s something very majestic about it.”

Before sailing to Southport, North Carolina, on Tuesday, Sept. 20, Markwith was anchored in Banks Channel for nearly six weeks, often docking his 27-foot Ericson sailboat, Vicky Lynn, at Wynn Plaza and giving new friends the sailing experience. His planned track was to sail north to Boston, but being behind schedule, he visited newly made friends from the area and decided to stay for a while.

“I kind of fell in love with this little town. It’s really friendly, it’s got a great beach vibe and great access to land,” Markwith said. His itinerary is to sail south to West Palm Beach, Florida, for the winter months.

It’s a long way from the sailing lifestyle he was leading just two years ago, before it was crushed under the wheels of a hit-and-run driver. Working as a first mate on  a 100-plus-foot yacht in West Palm Beach, Florida, Markwith was riding his scooter home from work one June evening when he was hit by a car whose driver never stopped and who was never seen.

“I joke that if there were witnesses, I’d have a bigger boat,” Markwith quipped.

The accident not only left Markwith with neuropathy in his right arm, robbing him of its use, as well as a broken jaw and neck, but it also left the uninsured man virtually penniless, as medical bills mounted to close to $600,000.

While he first believed the arm could be rehabilitated, he soon learned that his “flail arm” condition would never heal.

“I was kind of devastated,” Markwith said. “I cried. I broke down. I thought about sailing, piano, guitar, all the things that I wasn’t going to be able to do. But I vowed that I was not going to quit.”

And he didn’t. The following summer, after returning to Vermont to recuperate, he was back on the water, learning how to navigate a 21-foot sailboat with his dominant right arm confined to a sling.

Soon after, he raised the money to purchase the Vicky Lynn, including a little more than $2,000 from online fundraising site Kickstarter, and set out to find a new life on the water. Along the way, he works odd jobs and barters to make ends meet.

Markwith said he has embraced the challenge of sailing with use of only one arm, which can include demanding tasks like pulling lines and easing and trimming the sails that are often performed hand-over-hand.

“You just learn how to sail differently. I love problem solving. It’s not an obstacle,” he said. “It was a challenge at first, still some days I have challenges, but my biggest challenge is the weather, same as any other sailor. Other than that, you just figure it out, you make it work.”

Markwith said living on the water has helped change his perspective on life, encouraging him to live in the moment.

“So many people worry about yesterday or what they have to do tomorrow,” Markwith said, explaining he has made a mantra of 90 percent attitude, 10 percent effort.

“As long as you have a good attitude about something, it will only take a 10 percent effort to accomplish your goals,” he said.

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