An Ocean to Cross: Daring the Atlantic, Claiming a New Life 1st edition

Permanently crippled in a fall from a horse, Liz Fordred refused to accept the limitations assumed for her in the Rhodesia of the late 1970's. She met and eventually married an equally (if more quietly) determined accident survivor named Pete Fordred, and together they hatched an audacious plan: to build a boat and sail around the world. That they lived more than 1,000 miles from the ocean and had never sailed before would not stop them. Neither would their lack of money or the fact that basic boat gear was impossible to obtain in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Fabricating metal parts, learning carpentry, and resolutely tackling one seemingly insoluble problem after another, they built their boat in three years, trucked it to the South African coast, rigged it, learned to sail, and ultimately sailed the boat to America. In building the boat, Liz and Pete built their marriage and rebuilt their lives. Fordred's tone is forthright, good-humored, warm, and engaging. The reader can't help but like her. She would be a delightful shipmate. Her matter-of-fact descriptions of their challenges on shore and at sea reveal seemingly inexhaustible reservoirs of fortitude and optimism. All sailors dread those trips to the foredeck to change headsails in a storm, but they'll gain a new perspective on it through the eyes of a paraplegic. Thirty-six hours on deck battling high wind and seas is a hardship under any circumstances, but how much more so unable to stand, with nonfunctional stomach and back muscles, with your legs in spasm, with no way to get down to the cabin to cook or go to the bathroom? With no electronic navigation equipment aboard, they depended on Liz's celestial navigation. Imagine taking a sun sight with a sextant and no leg support on a rolling deck. This inspiring tale of triumph against long odds, now available for the first time in paperback, features a new endorsement from Christopher Reeve.