Publisher: International Marine/McGraw-Hill, 2001
Liz met Pete Fordred in the early seventies and they soon married. Living some 1000 miles from the sea and with no experience, they wanted to go sailing and decided to build a boat. They took advice and had a 43 foot ferro-cement bare hull delivered. With very little money, they completed and fitted her out in Liz's mum's back garden. They had dug a big hole so the deck was nearly down to ground level. This made it easier for them to get to work on the boat with their wheelchairs.
Both were born and bred in Southern Rhodesia. Liz had an appalling fall from her horse at sixteen leaving her paralysed from the chest down. After a long and painful period in rehabilitaion, she returned to be a receptionist at the centre and met a boy she had known in school. Pete had been in a car accident and had similar difficulties.
They spent four years preparing the boat and trailed her down to Durban for launching. Border restrictions at that time and regulations giving harbour masters control of whether you put to sea or not caused difficulties. Money was always short but they had help from many who learned to admire and respect them after initial scepticism. Their perseverence in driving the project forwards and in redesigning the complex arrangements they needed to manage on their own was amazing. After sea trials with a small crew on board, and the passage round the Cape to moor in sight of Table Mountain with an experienced skipper, they completed the tasks.
They took off to cross the South Atlantic on their own. They called at St Helena, Ascension, and ports on the coast of South America before running up the Caribbean chain and homing on Fort Lauderdale. Their adventures in all kinds of weather and in overcoming many predicaments that came their way are a lesson to us all. Many are constrained by what is deemed impossible. Most things are possible to Pete and Liz.
The book is evenly split between preparation and the voyage itself. It is written in a lively and compassionate style, neatly presented with simple black and white photographs.
They took sixteen months over the 8000 mile journey. A final chapter updates us. After five years living aboard, latterly with their daughter, they bought a house and became American citizens - Zimbabwe now offered little. Usikusiku is very special and they live in sight of her mast but they have given up sailing. They now run a small engineering company and Liz writes and lectures - in particular seeking to encourage young paraplegics to widen their scope and to spread understanding among those who have tended to treat the physically disabled as "incapable". - PDD
Page prepared 2 April 2001