NCERT Textbook - We're Not Afraid to Die...if We Can All Be Together | English Class 11 PDF Download

 Page 1


2.  “We’re Not Afraid to Die...
  
if We Can All Be Together”
Gordon Cook and Alan East
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
?? 	 honing our seafaring skills ?? 	 pinpricks in the vast ocean
?? 	 ominous silence 	 ?? 	 a tousled head
?? 	 Mayday calls
In July 1976, my wife Mary, son Jonathan, 6, daughter Suzanne, 7, and 
I set sail from Plymouth, England, to duplicate the round-the-world 
voyage made 200 years earlier by Captain James Cook. For the longest 
time, Mary and I — a 37-year-old businessman — had dreamt of sailing 
in the wake of the famous explorer, and for the past 16 years we had 
spent all our leisure time honing our seafaring skills in British waters.
Our boat Wavewalker, a 23 metre, 30 ton wooden-hulled beauty, 
had been professionally built, and we had spent months fitting it out 
and testing it in the roughest weather we could find.
The first leg of our planned three-year, 105,000 kilometre journey 
passed pleasantly as we sailed down the west coast of Africa to Cape 
Town. There, before heading east, we took on two crewmen — American 
Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler — to help us tackle one of the world’s 
roughest seas, the southern Indian Ocean.
On our second day out of Cape Town, we began to encounter strong 
gales. For the next few weeks, they blew continuously. Gales did not 
worry me; but the size of the waves was alarming —up to 15 metres, 
as high as our main mast.
Chap 2.indd   12 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
Page 2


2.  “We’re Not Afraid to Die...
  
if We Can All Be Together”
Gordon Cook and Alan East
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
?? 	 honing our seafaring skills ?? 	 pinpricks in the vast ocean
?? 	 ominous silence 	 ?? 	 a tousled head
?? 	 Mayday calls
In July 1976, my wife Mary, son Jonathan, 6, daughter Suzanne, 7, and 
I set sail from Plymouth, England, to duplicate the round-the-world 
voyage made 200 years earlier by Captain James Cook. For the longest 
time, Mary and I — a 37-year-old businessman — had dreamt of sailing 
in the wake of the famous explorer, and for the past 16 years we had 
spent all our leisure time honing our seafaring skills in British waters.
Our boat Wavewalker, a 23 metre, 30 ton wooden-hulled beauty, 
had been professionally built, and we had spent months fitting it out 
and testing it in the roughest weather we could find.
The first leg of our planned three-year, 105,000 kilometre journey 
passed pleasantly as we sailed down the west coast of Africa to Cape 
Town. There, before heading east, we took on two crewmen — American 
Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler — to help us tackle one of the world’s 
roughest seas, the southern Indian Ocean.
On our second day out of Cape Town, we began to encounter strong 
gales. For the next few weeks, they blew continuously. Gales did not 
worry me; but the size of the waves was alarming —up to 15 metres, 
as high as our main mast.
Chap 2.indd   12 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
We ’re n ot Afr AId to d Ie ... 13
December 25 found us 3,500 kilometres east of Cape Town. 
Despite atrocious weather, we had a wonderful holiday complete with 
a Christmas tree. New Year’s Day saw no improvement in the weather, 
but we reasoned that it had to change soon. And it did change — for 
the worse.
At dawn on January 2, the waves were gigantic. We were sailing 
with only a small storm jib and were still making eight knots. As the 
ship rose to the top of each wave we could see endless enormous seas 
rolling towards us, and the screaming of the wind and spray was 
painful to the ears. To slow the boat down, we dropped the storm jib 
and lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stern. Then we 
double-lashed everything, went through our life-raft drill, attached 
lifelines, donned oilskins and life jackets — and waited.
The first indication of impending disaster came at about 
6 p.m., with an ominous silence. The wind dropped, and the sky 
immediately grew dark. Then came a growing roar, and an enormous 
cloud towered aft of the ship. With horror, I realised that it was not a 
cloud, but a wave like no other I had ever seen. It appeared perfectly 
vertical and almost twice the height of the other waves, with a frightful 
breaking crest.
The roar increased to a thunder as the stern moved up the face of 
the wave, and for a moment I thought we might ride over it. But then 
a tremendous explosion shook the deck. A torrent of green and white 
water broke over the ship, my head smashed into the wheel and I was 
aware of flying overboard and sinking below the waves. I accepted my 
approaching death, and as I was losing consciousness, I felt quite 
peaceful.
Unexpectedly, my head popped out of the water. A few metres 
away, Wavewalker was near capsizing, her masts almost horizontal. 
Then a wave hurled her upright, my lifeline jerked taut, I grabbed 
the guard rails and sailed through the air into Wavewalker’s main 
boom. Subsequent waves tossed me around the deck like a rag doll. 
My left ribs cracked; my mouth filled with blood and broken teeth. 
Somehow, I found the wheel, lined up the stern for the next wave 
and hung on. 
Water, Water, Everywhere. I could feel that the ship had water 
below, but I dared not abandon the wheel to investigate. Suddenly, 
the front hatch was thrown open and Mary appeared. “We’re sinking!” 
she screamed. “The decks are smashed; we’re full of water.”
“Take the wheel”, I shouted as I scrambled for the hatch.
Chap 2.indd   13 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
Page 3


2.  “We’re Not Afraid to Die...
  
if We Can All Be Together”
Gordon Cook and Alan East
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
?? 	 honing our seafaring skills ?? 	 pinpricks in the vast ocean
?? 	 ominous silence 	 ?? 	 a tousled head
?? 	 Mayday calls
In July 1976, my wife Mary, son Jonathan, 6, daughter Suzanne, 7, and 
I set sail from Plymouth, England, to duplicate the round-the-world 
voyage made 200 years earlier by Captain James Cook. For the longest 
time, Mary and I — a 37-year-old businessman — had dreamt of sailing 
in the wake of the famous explorer, and for the past 16 years we had 
spent all our leisure time honing our seafaring skills in British waters.
Our boat Wavewalker, a 23 metre, 30 ton wooden-hulled beauty, 
had been professionally built, and we had spent months fitting it out 
and testing it in the roughest weather we could find.
The first leg of our planned three-year, 105,000 kilometre journey 
passed pleasantly as we sailed down the west coast of Africa to Cape 
Town. There, before heading east, we took on two crewmen — American 
Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler — to help us tackle one of the world’s 
roughest seas, the southern Indian Ocean.
On our second day out of Cape Town, we began to encounter strong 
gales. For the next few weeks, they blew continuously. Gales did not 
worry me; but the size of the waves was alarming —up to 15 metres, 
as high as our main mast.
Chap 2.indd   12 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
We ’re n ot Afr AId to d Ie ... 13
December 25 found us 3,500 kilometres east of Cape Town. 
Despite atrocious weather, we had a wonderful holiday complete with 
a Christmas tree. New Year’s Day saw no improvement in the weather, 
but we reasoned that it had to change soon. And it did change — for 
the worse.
At dawn on January 2, the waves were gigantic. We were sailing 
with only a small storm jib and were still making eight knots. As the 
ship rose to the top of each wave we could see endless enormous seas 
rolling towards us, and the screaming of the wind and spray was 
painful to the ears. To slow the boat down, we dropped the storm jib 
and lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stern. Then we 
double-lashed everything, went through our life-raft drill, attached 
lifelines, donned oilskins and life jackets — and waited.
The first indication of impending disaster came at about 
6 p.m., with an ominous silence. The wind dropped, and the sky 
immediately grew dark. Then came a growing roar, and an enormous 
cloud towered aft of the ship. With horror, I realised that it was not a 
cloud, but a wave like no other I had ever seen. It appeared perfectly 
vertical and almost twice the height of the other waves, with a frightful 
breaking crest.
The roar increased to a thunder as the stern moved up the face of 
the wave, and for a moment I thought we might ride over it. But then 
a tremendous explosion shook the deck. A torrent of green and white 
water broke over the ship, my head smashed into the wheel and I was 
aware of flying overboard and sinking below the waves. I accepted my 
approaching death, and as I was losing consciousness, I felt quite 
peaceful.
Unexpectedly, my head popped out of the water. A few metres 
away, Wavewalker was near capsizing, her masts almost horizontal. 
Then a wave hurled her upright, my lifeline jerked taut, I grabbed 
the guard rails and sailed through the air into Wavewalker’s main 
boom. Subsequent waves tossed me around the deck like a rag doll. 
My left ribs cracked; my mouth filled with blood and broken teeth. 
Somehow, I found the wheel, lined up the stern for the next wave 
and hung on. 
Water, Water, Everywhere. I could feel that the ship had water 
below, but I dared not abandon the wheel to investigate. Suddenly, 
the front hatch was thrown open and Mary appeared. “We’re sinking!” 
she screamed. “The decks are smashed; we’re full of water.”
“Take the wheel”, I shouted as I scrambled for the hatch.
Chap 2.indd   13 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
14 Hornb Ill Larry and Herb were pumping like madmen. Broken timbers hung at 
crazy angles, the whole starboard side bulged inwards; clothes, crockery, 
charts, tins and toys sloshed about in deep water.
I half-swam, half-crawled into the children’s cabin. “Are you all 
right?” I asked. “Yes,” they answered from an upper bunk. “But my 
head hurts a bit,” said Sue, pointing to a big bump above her eyes. I 
had no time to worry about bumped heads.
After finding a hammer, screws and canvas, I struggled back on 
deck. With the starboard side bashed open, we were taking water 
with each wave that broke over us. If I couldn’t make some repairs, 
we would surely sink.
Somehow I managed to stretch canvas and secure waterproof hatch 
covers across the gaping holes. Some water continued to stream below, 
but most of it was now being deflected over the side. 
More problems arose when our hand pumps started to block up 
with the debris floating around the cabins and the electric pump short-
circuited. The water level rose threateningly. Back on deck I found that 
our two spare hand pumps had been wrenched overboard — along with 
the forestay sail, the jib, the dinghies and the main anchor.
Then I remembered we had another electric pump under the 
chartroom floor. I connected it to an out-pipe, and was thankful to 
find that it worked.
The night dragged on with an endless, bitterly cold routine of 
pumping, steering and working the radio. We were getting no replies 
to our Mayday calls — which was not surprising in this remote corner 
of the world.
Sue’s head had swollen alarmingly; she had two enormous black 
eyes, and now she showed us a deep cut on her arm. When I asked 
why she hadn’t made more of her injuries before this, she replied, “I 
didn’t want to worry you when you were trying to save us all.”
____________
By morning on January 3, the pumps had the water level sufficiently 
under control for us to take two hours’ rest in rotation. But we still had 
a tremendous leak somewhere below the waterline and, on checking, 
I found that nearly all the boat’s main rib frames were smashed down 
to the keel. In fact, there was nothing holding up a whole section of 
the starboard hull except a few cupboard partitions.
We had survived for 15 hours since the wave hit, but Wavewalker 
wouldn’t hold together long enough for us to reach Australia. I checked 
Chap 2.indd   14 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
Page 4


2.  “We’re Not Afraid to Die...
  
if We Can All Be Together”
Gordon Cook and Alan East
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
?? 	 honing our seafaring skills ?? 	 pinpricks in the vast ocean
?? 	 ominous silence 	 ?? 	 a tousled head
?? 	 Mayday calls
In July 1976, my wife Mary, son Jonathan, 6, daughter Suzanne, 7, and 
I set sail from Plymouth, England, to duplicate the round-the-world 
voyage made 200 years earlier by Captain James Cook. For the longest 
time, Mary and I — a 37-year-old businessman — had dreamt of sailing 
in the wake of the famous explorer, and for the past 16 years we had 
spent all our leisure time honing our seafaring skills in British waters.
Our boat Wavewalker, a 23 metre, 30 ton wooden-hulled beauty, 
had been professionally built, and we had spent months fitting it out 
and testing it in the roughest weather we could find.
The first leg of our planned three-year, 105,000 kilometre journey 
passed pleasantly as we sailed down the west coast of Africa to Cape 
Town. There, before heading east, we took on two crewmen — American 
Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler — to help us tackle one of the world’s 
roughest seas, the southern Indian Ocean.
On our second day out of Cape Town, we began to encounter strong 
gales. For the next few weeks, they blew continuously. Gales did not 
worry me; but the size of the waves was alarming —up to 15 metres, 
as high as our main mast.
Chap 2.indd   12 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
We ’re n ot Afr AId to d Ie ... 13
December 25 found us 3,500 kilometres east of Cape Town. 
Despite atrocious weather, we had a wonderful holiday complete with 
a Christmas tree. New Year’s Day saw no improvement in the weather, 
but we reasoned that it had to change soon. And it did change — for 
the worse.
At dawn on January 2, the waves were gigantic. We were sailing 
with only a small storm jib and were still making eight knots. As the 
ship rose to the top of each wave we could see endless enormous seas 
rolling towards us, and the screaming of the wind and spray was 
painful to the ears. To slow the boat down, we dropped the storm jib 
and lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stern. Then we 
double-lashed everything, went through our life-raft drill, attached 
lifelines, donned oilskins and life jackets — and waited.
The first indication of impending disaster came at about 
6 p.m., with an ominous silence. The wind dropped, and the sky 
immediately grew dark. Then came a growing roar, and an enormous 
cloud towered aft of the ship. With horror, I realised that it was not a 
cloud, but a wave like no other I had ever seen. It appeared perfectly 
vertical and almost twice the height of the other waves, with a frightful 
breaking crest.
The roar increased to a thunder as the stern moved up the face of 
the wave, and for a moment I thought we might ride over it. But then 
a tremendous explosion shook the deck. A torrent of green and white 
water broke over the ship, my head smashed into the wheel and I was 
aware of flying overboard and sinking below the waves. I accepted my 
approaching death, and as I was losing consciousness, I felt quite 
peaceful.
Unexpectedly, my head popped out of the water. A few metres 
away, Wavewalker was near capsizing, her masts almost horizontal. 
Then a wave hurled her upright, my lifeline jerked taut, I grabbed 
the guard rails and sailed through the air into Wavewalker’s main 
boom. Subsequent waves tossed me around the deck like a rag doll. 
My left ribs cracked; my mouth filled with blood and broken teeth. 
Somehow, I found the wheel, lined up the stern for the next wave 
and hung on. 
Water, Water, Everywhere. I could feel that the ship had water 
below, but I dared not abandon the wheel to investigate. Suddenly, 
the front hatch was thrown open and Mary appeared. “We’re sinking!” 
she screamed. “The decks are smashed; we’re full of water.”
“Take the wheel”, I shouted as I scrambled for the hatch.
Chap 2.indd   13 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
14 Hornb Ill Larry and Herb were pumping like madmen. Broken timbers hung at 
crazy angles, the whole starboard side bulged inwards; clothes, crockery, 
charts, tins and toys sloshed about in deep water.
I half-swam, half-crawled into the children’s cabin. “Are you all 
right?” I asked. “Yes,” they answered from an upper bunk. “But my 
head hurts a bit,” said Sue, pointing to a big bump above her eyes. I 
had no time to worry about bumped heads.
After finding a hammer, screws and canvas, I struggled back on 
deck. With the starboard side bashed open, we were taking water 
with each wave that broke over us. If I couldn’t make some repairs, 
we would surely sink.
Somehow I managed to stretch canvas and secure waterproof hatch 
covers across the gaping holes. Some water continued to stream below, 
but most of it was now being deflected over the side. 
More problems arose when our hand pumps started to block up 
with the debris floating around the cabins and the electric pump short-
circuited. The water level rose threateningly. Back on deck I found that 
our two spare hand pumps had been wrenched overboard — along with 
the forestay sail, the jib, the dinghies and the main anchor.
Then I remembered we had another electric pump under the 
chartroom floor. I connected it to an out-pipe, and was thankful to 
find that it worked.
The night dragged on with an endless, bitterly cold routine of 
pumping, steering and working the radio. We were getting no replies 
to our Mayday calls — which was not surprising in this remote corner 
of the world.
Sue’s head had swollen alarmingly; she had two enormous black 
eyes, and now she showed us a deep cut on her arm. When I asked 
why she hadn’t made more of her injuries before this, she replied, “I 
didn’t want to worry you when you were trying to save us all.”
____________
By morning on January 3, the pumps had the water level sufficiently 
under control for us to take two hours’ rest in rotation. But we still had 
a tremendous leak somewhere below the waterline and, on checking, 
I found that nearly all the boat’s main rib frames were smashed down 
to the keel. In fact, there was nothing holding up a whole section of 
the starboard hull except a few cupboard partitions.
We had survived for 15 hours since the wave hit, but Wavewalker 
wouldn’t hold together long enough for us to reach Australia. I checked 
Chap 2.indd   14 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
We ’re n ot Afr AId to d Ie ... 15
our charts and calculated that there were two small islands a few 
hundred kilometres to the east. One of them, Ile Amsterdam, was a 
French scientific base. Our only hope was to reach these pinpricks 
in the vast ocean. But unless the wind and seas abated so we could 
hoist sail, our chances would be slim indeed. The great wave had put 
our auxilliary engine out of action.
On January 4, after 36 hours of continuous pumping, we reached 
the last few centimetres of water. Now, we had only to keep pace with 
the water still coming in. We could not set any sail on the main mast. 
Pressure on the rigging would simply pull the damaged section of the 
hull apart, so we hoisted the storm jib and headed for where I thought 
the two islands were. Mary found some corned beef and cracker 
biscuits, and we ate our first meal in almost two days.
But our respite was short-lived. At 4 p.m. black clouds began 
building up behind us; within the hour the wind was back to 40 knots 
and the seas were getting higher. The weather continued to deteriorate 
throughout the night, and by dawn on January 5, our situation was 
again desperate.
When I went in to comfort the children, Jon asked, “Daddy, are we 
going to die?” I tried to assure him that we could make it. “But, Daddy,” 
he went on, “we aren’t afraid of dying if we can all be together — you 
and Mummy, Sue and I.”
I could find no words with which to respond, but I left the 
children’s cabin determined to fight the sea with everything I had. 
To protect the weakened starboard side, I decided to heave-to — 
with the undamaged port hull facing the oncoming waves, using an 
improvised sea anchor of heavy nylon rope and two 22 litre plastic 
barrels of paraffin.
That evening, Mary and I sat together holding hands, as the motion of 
the ship brought more and more water in through the broken planks. We 
both felt the end was very near.
But Wavewalker rode out the storm and by the morning of January 
6, with the wind easing, I tried to get a reading on the sextant. Back in 
the chartroom, I worked on wind speeds, changes of course, drift and 
current in an effort to calculate our position. The best I could determine 
was that we were somewhere in 150,000 kilometres of ocean looking 
for a 65 kilometre-wide island.
While I was thinking, Sue, moving painfully, joined me. The left side 
of her head was now very swollen and her blackened eyes narrowed 
to slits. She gave me a card she had made.
Chap 2.indd   15 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
Page 5


2.  “We’re Not Afraid to Die...
  
if We Can All Be Together”
Gordon Cook and Alan East
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
?? 	 honing our seafaring skills ?? 	 pinpricks in the vast ocean
?? 	 ominous silence 	 ?? 	 a tousled head
?? 	 Mayday calls
In July 1976, my wife Mary, son Jonathan, 6, daughter Suzanne, 7, and 
I set sail from Plymouth, England, to duplicate the round-the-world 
voyage made 200 years earlier by Captain James Cook. For the longest 
time, Mary and I — a 37-year-old businessman — had dreamt of sailing 
in the wake of the famous explorer, and for the past 16 years we had 
spent all our leisure time honing our seafaring skills in British waters.
Our boat Wavewalker, a 23 metre, 30 ton wooden-hulled beauty, 
had been professionally built, and we had spent months fitting it out 
and testing it in the roughest weather we could find.
The first leg of our planned three-year, 105,000 kilometre journey 
passed pleasantly as we sailed down the west coast of Africa to Cape 
Town. There, before heading east, we took on two crewmen — American 
Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler — to help us tackle one of the world’s 
roughest seas, the southern Indian Ocean.
On our second day out of Cape Town, we began to encounter strong 
gales. For the next few weeks, they blew continuously. Gales did not 
worry me; but the size of the waves was alarming —up to 15 metres, 
as high as our main mast.
Chap 2.indd   12 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
We ’re n ot Afr AId to d Ie ... 13
December 25 found us 3,500 kilometres east of Cape Town. 
Despite atrocious weather, we had a wonderful holiday complete with 
a Christmas tree. New Year’s Day saw no improvement in the weather, 
but we reasoned that it had to change soon. And it did change — for 
the worse.
At dawn on January 2, the waves were gigantic. We were sailing 
with only a small storm jib and were still making eight knots. As the 
ship rose to the top of each wave we could see endless enormous seas 
rolling towards us, and the screaming of the wind and spray was 
painful to the ears. To slow the boat down, we dropped the storm jib 
and lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stern. Then we 
double-lashed everything, went through our life-raft drill, attached 
lifelines, donned oilskins and life jackets — and waited.
The first indication of impending disaster came at about 
6 p.m., with an ominous silence. The wind dropped, and the sky 
immediately grew dark. Then came a growing roar, and an enormous 
cloud towered aft of the ship. With horror, I realised that it was not a 
cloud, but a wave like no other I had ever seen. It appeared perfectly 
vertical and almost twice the height of the other waves, with a frightful 
breaking crest.
The roar increased to a thunder as the stern moved up the face of 
the wave, and for a moment I thought we might ride over it. But then 
a tremendous explosion shook the deck. A torrent of green and white 
water broke over the ship, my head smashed into the wheel and I was 
aware of flying overboard and sinking below the waves. I accepted my 
approaching death, and as I was losing consciousness, I felt quite 
peaceful.
Unexpectedly, my head popped out of the water. A few metres 
away, Wavewalker was near capsizing, her masts almost horizontal. 
Then a wave hurled her upright, my lifeline jerked taut, I grabbed 
the guard rails and sailed through the air into Wavewalker’s main 
boom. Subsequent waves tossed me around the deck like a rag doll. 
My left ribs cracked; my mouth filled with blood and broken teeth. 
Somehow, I found the wheel, lined up the stern for the next wave 
and hung on. 
Water, Water, Everywhere. I could feel that the ship had water 
below, but I dared not abandon the wheel to investigate. Suddenly, 
the front hatch was thrown open and Mary appeared. “We’re sinking!” 
she screamed. “The decks are smashed; we’re full of water.”
“Take the wheel”, I shouted as I scrambled for the hatch.
Chap 2.indd   13 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
14 Hornb Ill Larry and Herb were pumping like madmen. Broken timbers hung at 
crazy angles, the whole starboard side bulged inwards; clothes, crockery, 
charts, tins and toys sloshed about in deep water.
I half-swam, half-crawled into the children’s cabin. “Are you all 
right?” I asked. “Yes,” they answered from an upper bunk. “But my 
head hurts a bit,” said Sue, pointing to a big bump above her eyes. I 
had no time to worry about bumped heads.
After finding a hammer, screws and canvas, I struggled back on 
deck. With the starboard side bashed open, we were taking water 
with each wave that broke over us. If I couldn’t make some repairs, 
we would surely sink.
Somehow I managed to stretch canvas and secure waterproof hatch 
covers across the gaping holes. Some water continued to stream below, 
but most of it was now being deflected over the side. 
More problems arose when our hand pumps started to block up 
with the debris floating around the cabins and the electric pump short-
circuited. The water level rose threateningly. Back on deck I found that 
our two spare hand pumps had been wrenched overboard — along with 
the forestay sail, the jib, the dinghies and the main anchor.
Then I remembered we had another electric pump under the 
chartroom floor. I connected it to an out-pipe, and was thankful to 
find that it worked.
The night dragged on with an endless, bitterly cold routine of 
pumping, steering and working the radio. We were getting no replies 
to our Mayday calls — which was not surprising in this remote corner 
of the world.
Sue’s head had swollen alarmingly; she had two enormous black 
eyes, and now she showed us a deep cut on her arm. When I asked 
why she hadn’t made more of her injuries before this, she replied, “I 
didn’t want to worry you when you were trying to save us all.”
____________
By morning on January 3, the pumps had the water level sufficiently 
under control for us to take two hours’ rest in rotation. But we still had 
a tremendous leak somewhere below the waterline and, on checking, 
I found that nearly all the boat’s main rib frames were smashed down 
to the keel. In fact, there was nothing holding up a whole section of 
the starboard hull except a few cupboard partitions.
We had survived for 15 hours since the wave hit, but Wavewalker 
wouldn’t hold together long enough for us to reach Australia. I checked 
Chap 2.indd   14 12/5/2024   10:02:17 AM
Reprint 2025-26
We ’re n ot Afr AId to d Ie ... 15
our charts and calculated that there were two small islands a few 
hundred kilometres to the east. One of them, Ile Amsterdam, was a 
French scientific base. Our only hope was to reach these pinpricks 
in the vast ocean. But unless the wind and seas abated so we could 
hoist sail, our chances would be slim indeed. The great wave had put 
our auxilliary engine out of action.
On January 4, after 36 hours of continuous pumping, we reached 
the last few centimetres of water. Now, we had only to keep pace with 
the water still coming in. We could not set any sail on the main mast. 
Pressure on the rigging would simply pull the damaged section of the 
hull apart, so we hoisted the storm jib and headed for where I thought 
the two islands were. Mary found some corned beef and cracker 
biscuits, and we ate our first meal in almost two days.
But our respite was short-lived. At 4 p.m. black clouds began 
building up behind us; within the hour the wind was back to 40 knots 
and the seas were getting higher. The weather continued to deteriorate 
throughout the night, and by dawn on January 5, our situation was 
again desperate.
When I went in to comfort the children, Jon asked, “Daddy, are we 
going to die?” I tried to assure him that we could make it. “But, Daddy,” 
he went on, “we aren’t afraid of dying if we can all be together — you 
and Mummy, Sue and I.”
I could find no words with which to respond, but I left the 
children’s cabin determined to fight the sea with everything I had. 
To protect the weakened starboard side, I decided to heave-to — 
with the undamaged port hull facing the oncoming waves, using an 
improvised sea anchor of heavy nylon rope and two 22 litre plastic 
barrels of paraffin.
That evening, Mary and I sat together holding hands, as the motion of 
the ship brought more and more water in through the broken planks. We 
both felt the end was very near.
But Wavewalker rode out the storm and by the morning of January 
6, with the wind easing, I tried to get a reading on the sextant. Back in 
the chartroom, I worked on wind speeds, changes of course, drift and 
current in an effort to calculate our position. The best I could determine 
was that we were somewhere in 150,000 kilometres of ocean looking 
for a 65 kilometre-wide island.
While I was thinking, Sue, moving painfully, joined me. The left side 
of her head was now very swollen and her blackened eyes narrowed 
to slits. She gave me a card she had made.
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16 Hornb Ill On the front she had drawn caricatures of Mary and me with the 
words: “Here are some funny people. Did they make you laugh? I 
laughed a lot as well.” Inside was a message: “Oh, how I love you both. 
So this card is to say thank you and let’s hope for the best.” Somehow 
we had to make it. 
____________
I checked and rechecked my calculations. We had lost our main 
compass and I was using a spare which had not been corrected for 
magnetic variation. I made an allowance for this and another estimate 
of the influence of the westerly currents which flow through this part 
of the Indian Ocean.
About 2 p.m., I went on deck and asked Larry to steer a course of 
185 degrees. If we were lucky, I told him with a conviction I did not 
feel, he could expect to see the island at about 5 p.m.
Then with a heavy heart, I went below, climbed on my bunk and 
amazingly, dozed off. When I woke it was 6 p.m., and growing dark. I 
knew we must have missed the island, and with the sail we had left, we 
couldn’t hope to beat back into the westerly winds.
At that moment, a tousled head appeared by my bunk. “Can I have 
a hug?” Jonathan asked. Sue was right behind him.
“Why am I getting a hug now?” I asked.
“Because you are the best daddy in the whole world — and the best 
captain,” my son replied.
“Not today, Jon, I’m afraid.”
“Why, you must be,” said Sue in a matter-of-fact voice. “You found 
the island.”
“What!” I shouted.
“It’s out there in front of us,” they chorused, “as big as a battleship.”
I rushed on deck and gazed with relief at the stark outline of Ile 
Amsterdam. It was only a bleak piece of volcanic rock, with little 
vegetation — the most beautiful island in the world!
We anchored offshore for the night, and the next morning all 28 
inhabitants of the island cheered as they helped us ashore.
With land under my feet again, my thoughts were full of Larry 
and Herbie, cheerful and optimistic under the direst stress, and of 
Mary, who stayed at the wheel for all those crucial hours. Most of all, 
I thought of a seven-year-old girl, who did not want us to worry about 
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