When a devastating stroke left Philippe Guglielmetti confined to a wheelchair, he refused to let it curtail his ambition to cross the Atlantic on his own boat
Don’tthink about it too much, just do it,” says Philippe Guglielmetti, his thick French accent still clearly identifiable a decade after moving to the US. “The more you think about it, the more reasons you will find not to do it.”
He’s talking about his decision to cross the Atlantic ocean on his own 40ft motor boat – a major achievement in itself but one that’s verging on the superhuman for someone who struggles to cross his own bedroom without help. Then again, Philippe is used to ignoring what he should or shouldn’t be able to do – the very fact he’s still alive is something of a miracle given the catastrophic stroke he suffered in 2014. “Statistically I should be dead,” he says, “that’s what the doctors told me. Now they want to study me to find out why I’m not!”
Philippe was only 50 years old when his life changed forever mid-way through a taxi ride in Paris. “I had read about illnesses that affect people in their 40s and recognised the symptoms straight away. I told the driver to take me to the hospital and explained to the doctors I was having a stroke.”
Sceptical as the doctors were about this self-diagnosis, a scan confirmed his worst fears. Philippe was placed in an induced coma and ended up spending six weeks in a French hospital before being deemed well enough to fly back to the US for further rehabilitation.
The initial prognosis was not good. He couldn’t walk, he struggled to speak, he’d lost fine control of his hands and he suffered from debilitating double vision that left him dizzy and unable to judge distances. The only thing that kept him going was his determination to carry on living life to the full. That and the promise of a Japanese toilet!
“I know it sounds crazy but the thing I was most worried about was not being able to go to the loo on my own. When my wife Florence suggested we buy a Japanese toilet that could wash my bottom for me, it was a life-changing moment.”
It’s a telling insight into how much life has changed for Philippe since that fateful day. He’d been a keen boater since childhood, learning to sail an Optimist dinghy from a young age and accompanying his parents on their modest sailing yacht near their home in the South of France. But while his parents made a point of never using the engine unless they absolutely had to, Philippe always yearned for the powerful motor yachts he saw blasting past them. “I remember thinking that one day when I am an adult, I will have a fast motor boat like that,” he says.
