Markus Pukonen has spent nearly eight years travelling the world, all without the use of a single motor.
The idea for the trip came to Pukonen while he was fighting forest fires in B.C. Initially, the idea was to make a film to inspire people to live with a lighter footprint.“My dad called me up and told me he had two weeks to live,” said Pukonen. It saw highs – like forging new friendships – and some lows, like living through eight months of lockdown in northern India.
“There was no wind, and that was about six years into the trip, and [it] was the first time of the whole trip that I wished I could give up,” he said.Sign up for the CHEK Now daily email newsletter to get breaking news and the day's top stories sent to your email.But the wind came and he sailed on, south around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and across the Atlantic Ocean.He finally crossed back home into Canada at Niagara Falls.