In this thesis, I am adopting an interpretivist position in that I scrutinise the world around me, my place in that world and the reality of this positioning. I, subjectively, examine this reality and positioning. As an inquiry into the congenitally disabled male experience, my thesis seeks to make honest and authentic contributory claims to knowledge by examining the interplay of disability with Goffman’s studies regarding shame and ‘the spoiled identity.’ Approached through an autoethnographic lens, I examine ‘identity’ and its tentative reorientation through Freirean consciousness and Mezirow’s Theory of Transformative Learning. I set this work is in the context of my experiences as a congenitally, disabled man taking part in the 2002 Cutty Sark Tall Ship’s Race. It was a seminal episode in my life prior to which I had come to recognise that I was falling significantly behind my peers in terms of educational attainment, career opportunities and in my relationships. I was literally ‘all at sea.’ Then I joined the ship! The sea proved emancipatory. It was while in the middle of the Bay of Biscay that I began to consciously reflect on my life choices and the role disability played in the actualisation and determination of those choices. And it was at sea that I started to see myself for the first time in terms of capability rather than disability. Further, the exhilaration of witnessing up-close the majesty and power of the ocean effected a renewed zest for life and a desire to acquire the knowledge to best live that life. It was here that I started to question my foundational ‘frames of reference,’ and presuppositions regarding identity, ideals, desires, and expectations. It was aboard the Anne-Margaretha that I first began to realise that my own life experiences as a man with a disability were atypical and in that, had a value. It was here that I began to open up to tell my own story.