In pictures: Emotional scenes as Deaf sailor Gerry Hughes returns home!

There were emotional scenes shortly after midday today in Troon, Scotland, with the return of Deaf sailor Gerry Hughes after over 8 months at sea.

On Monday, Gerry became the first Deaf man from Britain to circumnavigate the globe. He is the first Deaf man in the world to do so via the five capes. In doing so he has become an inspirational figure to the Deaf community, who has had everyone saying “Go Go Go Gerry!”

On a live video feed, a crowd of photographers, film crew and members of the Deaf community looked out for Gerry’s boat.

Soon, there was cheering as what was first a speck on the horizon got closer and closer..

Then finally, we saw the man himself – sporting a blue Scotland flag, of course!

Gerry was quickly reunited with his wife Kay, and their two daughters – a moment that had many Deaf people watching the live feed (including this website’s editor) wiping away a tear or two. After 8 long months, they were back together.

All we can say is enjoy the party Gerry – after all those months alone at sea, you deserve it. Well done to everyone who’s there to greet him, it’s bound to be an amazing celebration!

Go Go Go Gerry!

Remember to give your support to Gerry by donating at this link: http://www.gogogogerry.com/

The Limping Chicken’s supporters provide: BSL translation, multimedia solutions, television production and BSL training (Remark! ), sign language interpreting and communications support (Deaf Umbrella), online BSL video interpreting (SignVideo), captioning and speech-to-text services (121 Captions), theatre captioning (STAGETEXT), legal advice for Deaf people (RAD Deaf Law Centre), Remote Captioning (Bee Communications), visual theatre with BSL (Krazy Kat) , healthcare support for Deaf people (SignHealth), specialist lipspeaking support (Lipspeaker UK), sign language and Red Dot online video interpreting (Action Deafness Communications) education for Deaf children (Hamilton Lodge School in Brighton), and a conference on deafness and autism/learning difficulties on June 13th in Manchester (St George Healthcare group).