Mike Harker, Inspirational Sailor

by Nancy Knudsen on 7 Dec 2007 I first met Californian Mike Harker by chance in a bay in the beautiful Las Perlas Islands, off the coast of Panama. We had both just sailed from Panama and were heading across the Pacific, both bent on completing a world circumnavigation.

Immediately on meeting Mike, I was struck by his charismatic geniality, and found it easy to accept that he was a successful TV presenter in his second home of Germany, where he spent some of his formative years - he speaks German fluently.

However, it was many months before I learned the incredible story behind that easy going generous-to-a-fault exterior.

Mike is paralysed from the knees down.

Harker, now 57, was born and raised in southern California. As a child he was attracted to the sea, saying now that he always wanted a 'life of adventure'. Naturally good at sports, he was a competitive skier at the age of 10, and a national champion in his teens. He sailed as well, and won his first sailing regatta when aged only 16.

Constantly looking for adventure, he took up hang-gliding in the early days of that sport, but in 1977 he had a disastrous accident and fell 400 feet. This put him in a coma for nearly a year, and left him finally paralysed from the knees down. Told by the medical profession that he would never walk again, Harker took up photography, and developed a successful career as a photographer and cinematographer, picking up world wide assignments.

[Sorry, this content could not be displayed] However, his determination and positive outlook on life have resulted in an outcome that was never forecast by his doctors. While he cannot stand without at least touching something, he can walk, and has now developed a career which combines his love of sailing and his photographic and TV skills.

Mike is still completing his current world circumnavigation in his lovely Hunter yacht Wanderlust, having just reached East London from Durban in South Africa, which he describes as a pleasant sail or 22 hours.

You can follow the story of this inspirational sailor, by going to his dual language website