Nigel Rogoff expects to spend about 130 days on the 3,000-mile trip, Sky News reported.

Rogoff took off Tuesday from a boat club in the Thames Estuary. He is accompanied by Richard van Niekirk, a South African who is following in a boat.

The two goals of the trip are to raise public consciousness about amputees and to raise money for the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Association.

Rogoff spent 23 years in the RAF, retiring in 1996. In 1998, while he was participating in a Christmas parachute show during half-time at Aston Villa, he plunged on to the stadium roof and then fell to the soccer field.