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The author, his wife Mary, his six-year-old son Jonathan and his seven-year-old daughter Suzanne set sail from Plymouth, England for a round-the-world voyage by sea. They started their long journey by their boat Wavewalker in July 1976. Their journey upto Cape Town was quite pleasant. Before heading east they took the services of Larry Vigil and Herb Seigler. Thus there were four adults and two children on Wavewalker when they faced the danger of death. A section of their ship was damaged and a lot of water had entered the ship
The reaction of the adults when faced with disaster and danger was that of ‘horror’ when the author saw a wave like no other he had ever seen. When his head smashed into the wheel and he was flying overboard and sinking below the waves, he “accepted” his “approaching death.” When his wife Mary came to him, she “Screamed” and said, “We’re sinking!” Larry and Herb were pumping “Like madmen.” But the children seemed to be more calm and less panicky. When the author entered their cabin they said that they were all right. Sue said that her head hurt a bit, when her condition was much more critical than that.
Later on, when the author found her head swollen alarmingly and she had a deep cut on her arm, the author asked her why she had not made more of her injuries before. Then the brave seven-year-old girl replied, “I didn’t want to worry you when you were trying to save us all.” januuary 5, the situation became again desperate.
Then the author went into com.., ‘ a children. His six year old son Jonathan said courageously, ‘We aren’t afraid of dying all be together you and Mummy, Sue and I.” That evening the author and his wife sat together holding hands, as the motion of the ship brought more and more water in through the broken planks. They both felt that the end was very near. But the children were unaware of the feeling of death.
His daughter Sue gave a card to her daddy on which caricatures of her parents were drawn. Inside the card, there was a message: ‘Oh, how I love you both. So this card is to say thank you and let’s hope for the best.’ This shows their optimism. The author ‘with a heavy heart’ went below, climbed on his bunk and dozed off. When he woke up at 6 p.m. he thought that they had missed the island. Just then Jonathan and Sue came to him and asked for a hug. His son called him the best daddy in the whole world and the best captain. Then his daughter told him the happy news that he had found the island.
Whereas the author did his best to save them from the calamity, the children had their own contribution. Sue did not want them to worry about a head injury. It was so serious that subsequently to remove a recurring blood clot between skin and skull, six minor operations had to be performed. The six-year-old Jonathan was not afraid to die. Of course, Larry and Herb remained cheerful and optimistic under the direst stress. And Mary stayed at the wheel during all those crucial hours.