An Ocean to Cross: Daring the Atlantic, Claiming a New Life - Hardcover

Fordred, Liz

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0071355049 ISBN 13: 9780071355049

Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2000

Synopsis

"A spirited story of adventure. . . . Highly inspiring."--Kirkus, starred review

It was an extraordinary dream fueled by hope and courage. Liz Fordred and her husband, Pete, both paralyzed and with no sailing experience, made the unlikely decision to build a boat, haul it 1,200 miles to the coast, and set sail alone to see the world.

Their plan seemed impossible, the obstacles insurmountable. They had only time, the gift of laughter, an unstoppable resolve, and each other. After years of labor, their struggle to reclaim lives of purpose and adventure--lives lived without limits--launched them into the vast Atlantic. They had the whole world before them--and somewhere in it a new home and a new life were waiting to be claimed . . .

Life is about how you respond to not only the challenges you're dealt but the challenges you seek. . . . If you have no goals, no mountains to climb, your soul dies."--Liz Fordred

About this title

Review:

Highly inspiring for the disabled, and for everyone interested in making an adventure of life.

From the Back Cover:

Paralyzed from the chest down when she was thrown from a horse at age eighteen, Liz might have sunk into a twilight of self-pity but for her indomitable spirit. She met and married Pete Fordred, who had been paralyzed in a car accident, and together they fought to regain the independence and self-sufficiency they had known before their accidents. Eventually, they formed a seemingly impossible plan: to build a sailboat, and in it, see the world. They were disabled, intermittently broke, had never sailed, and lived in landlocked Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), a country embroiled in civil war and subject to global trade sanctions in the 1970s. But none of that would stop them.

Pete and Liz dedicated four years to building a livable, seaworthy boat from a bare hull. They constructed decks and cabins. They installed plumbing and wiring. They fabricated metal parts they couldn't buy, designed and built hydraulic lifts to get them on deck and below, and resolutely tackled one seemingly insoluble problem after another. At last, they trucked their boat 1,200 miles to Durban, South Africa, where they rigged it, learned to sail and navigate, and set forth into the vast Atlantic.

Whether battling bureaucrats, fighting seasickness and homesickness, fixing broken gear, or dragging themselves over slippery decks in a three-day storm, Liz and Pete never exhausted their reserves of fortitude. They endured and transcended every difficulty, countering frustration with laughter and developing an uncanny sense of when and how to lift each other's spirits. One driving force that carried them across an ocean and into a new life was their determination to spread a message of hope and empowerment to other people with disabilities. Their pioneering journey did just that, while demonstrating to the world that physically disabled doesn't mean physically incompetent. An Ocean to Cross is an inspiring story of courage, self-empowerment, and ultimate triumph.

About this edition

• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0071355049
• ISBN 13: 9780071355049
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288