Small Boat To Freedom: A Journey of Conscience to a New Life in America

by John Vigor

Overview

Small Boat to Freedom is the moving and inspiring story of one man's decision to leave the country he loved because of a political situation he abhorred. John Vigor had it all, a loving family, a secure and well-deserved reputation as a syndicated South African newspaper columnist, and a lovely home in one of South Africa's most beautiful cities, Durban. But an apartheid-regime clampdown on freedom of expression forced Vigor to make the wrenching decision to abandon his idyllic life - and financial security - and leave South Africa on a thirty-one-foot sloop with his wife and seventeen-year-old son for a precarious voyage to a new but uncertain life in America.
At age fifty, Vigor had been a popular news-paper columnist for eighteen years, and a journalist for thirty years, working for anti-apartheid newspapers, raising a family of three sons with his wife, June, also a journalist. But in 1987 the South African government and its once untouchable apartheid policy was crumbling. In an attempt to clamp down on dissident opinion, the government began restricting writers. The Vigors knew it was time to leave, but to do so meant losing most of their savings, the scant remainder of which they used to purchase a boat for the dangerous voyage from Durban, past the treacherous Cape of Storms, around the Cape of Good Hope, and across the South Atlantic to Florida.
Small Boat to Freedom is an emotional and colorful account of two journeys - one of conscience, the other of courage - each inspired by the author's strength and that of his family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781574093032
Publisher:	Sheridan House, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/07/2011
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

John Vigor was born in Plymouth, England, a stone's throw away from the Mayflower Steps. He lived in England until he was thirteen, when his family emigrated to South Africa. A longtime newspaperman and a former South African sailing champion, he began a new life in America in 1987. He now lives in Washington State, where he sails on Puget Sound and writes.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
1	Fleeing Apartheid	1
2	Adventure by Default	23
3	Past the Wild Coast	37
4	Weatherbound in Port Elizabeth	53
5	Port Elizabeth to Mossel Bay	67
6	Mossel Bay to Cape Town	83
7	Joy and Tears in Cape Town	99
8	Cape Town to St. Helena	117
9	St. Helena Island	133
10	St. Helena to Fernando de Noronha	149
11	A Tropical Jewel	167
12	Fernando de Noronha to Bequia	183
13	The West Indies	201
14	St. Maarten to the Bahamas	215
15	The Bahamas to Fort Lauderdale	231
16	Epilogue	245
Appendix	Freelance in Closeup	255
	Bibliography	259

Editorial Reviews

A well-written and thoroughly enjoyable book, Small Boat to Freedom is no mere sailing story. The interweaving of South African politics, the history of the places visited, and the emotions of their departure add much depth to this tale.

Sail Magazine

Small Boat to Freedom is a heartfelt chronicle of escape and rebirth and will appeal to anyone who has ever been inspired to chuck it all and slip away on a high-seas adventure. An absorbing chronicle of how the Vigor family tests its resolve and skills in (a) serious ocean cruise to escape from their homeland, all the while remaining painfully aware of the not-insignificant fact that they have no jobs waiting (for) them when they reach their destination in America.

Ocean Navigator

Talk about dramatic exits. British writer Vigor and his family didn't leave South Africa for America just by buying plane tickets, but by boarding a 31-foot sloop and sailing across the Atlantic. This is the account of that improbable journey, and it's a compelling read, if rather belated. It was 1987, the old regime was crumbling, violence was rampant, and Vigor figured his family had lived through enough. It's that background of a dysfunctional nation, and the people trapped within it, that gives the book its unique texture. Separate currents racial politics, personal reminiscences and mano-a-mano combat with the sea come together to feed Vigor's narrative. As a longtime newspaper columnist, the author possesses an easy feel for language that hasn't deserted him. But the timing is somewhat odd, a fresh tale of a trip made 17 years ago. In the epilogue, Vigor attributes this to 9/11 and its aftermath; he had fled a regime which took away so many people's rights, and now he sees those same rights threatened again in his new country. An admirable statement perhaps, but it feels tacked on, after the rolling consistency of previous chapters. Still, the work's simple honesty is beguiling. Vigor seems to have absorbed the rhythms of the sea in his pacing: mostly gentle, occasionally bracing and leaving readers exhilarated for the experience. Agent, Julie Fallowfield. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly