Expedition MS | Ocean Sailing for People Living with MS

Life with MS should still have room for adventure.

Too often, it doesn’t. Medicine and research work hard on the disease, and the life around it gets far less attention: the friendships that go quiet, the plans that leave without you, the world getting smaller.

Why we say go

"I'm a sailor who can't sail. I played ice hockey. I'm a skater who can't skate."
An Expedition MS advisor living with MS

3 in 4: people with moderate MS couldn't keep up their social and leisure life over ten years; Johansson et al., Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 2020

What we do

Expedition MS is a global sailing expedition that uses offshore sailing and documentary storytelling to support people living with multiple sclerosis, their caregivers and the communities that serve them.

Global sailing expeditions
We're building toward a voyage around the world, port by port. In each city the boat runs day sails with the local MS community, with passages and ocean crossings in between. People living with MS sail every leg, and you choose how far: a few hours, a few days or a few weeks.
Media and storytelling
We’ll work with documentary makers and creators, such as Echo Bay Media (opens in a new tab), to film the journey. The films will be made so anyone watching from home sees what’s possible. Someone watching today could sail next.
Fundraising and community support
As the stories travel, they’ll bring in the partners and supporters who fund the next crew. Supporters can also turn their own challenges, like a ride, a run or a family day, into support.

See how it works

A white sailing catamaran crossing a calm, sunlit bay below a rocky hillside.

The first voyage

It starts with one week at sea. People living with MS, their families and experienced sailors crew one boat together. What we learn that week shapes every voyage after it.

Crew: People living with MS, family and experienced sailors
Experience: None needed. You learn the job aboard.
Boat: Chartered
Dates: People on the crew list hear them first.

Get on the crew list Help make it happen

Tim Archie, smiling, leaning on a table at a summer gathering. — Tim Archie. Where this began.

It started in one family.

Tim Archie lived with primary progressive MS for twenty years. It kept taking more from him, and his family kept going anyway: to New York, to Maine, onto boats, planes, trains and automobiles. When he fell, he cracked a joke, so the family motto became We Crack Ourselves Up. In 2017, the year before he died, the Archies rode their first Bike to the Bay as Team Archie, and they’ve raised over $380,000 for the National MS Society since. Expedition MS is what comes next.

Read our story

Who's behind it

A sailor leads it
Duff Archie is a US Sailing keelboat instructor. He spent ten years as lead instructor at Washington Sailing School, taught basic sailing to more than 50 Ensigns at the US Naval Academy, and finished second in class in the 2026 Annapolis to Bermuda race. He now races out of Charleston on a team led by a disabled skipper.
The founders who did it first
In 2014, Danish physician Mikkel Anthonisen launched Oceans of Hope (opens in a new tab), and its yacht sailed around the world crewed by 94 people living with MS from 16 countries. Rob Munns went on to found Oceans of Hope UK (opens in a new tab), and Rob says it has taken more than 2,000 people with MS sailing. They’ve now backed us taking it further: from the US, port by port around the world, and onto film.
A film team that knows the sea
Echo Bay Media is our documentary partner. Co-founder Andre Dupuis won Gemini Awards for his photography on the travel series Departures, and their crew has filmed as far south as Antarctica.