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

by John Vigor

• ISBN13: 9781592282265
• ISBN10: 1592282261
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2004-05-01
• Publisher: The Lyons Press

Summary

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 the wrenching decision to leave his idyllic life-and financial security-and leave South Africa on a 31-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 journalist for eighteen 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 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.

Author Biography

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	p. ix
Fleeing Apartheid	p. 1
Adventure by Default	p. 23
Past the Wild Coast	p. 37
Weatherbound in Port Elizabeth	p. 53
Port Elizabeth to Mossel Bay	p. 67
Mossel Bay to Cape Town	p. 83
Joy and Tears in Cape Town	p. 99
Cape Town to St. Helena	p. 117
St. Helena Island	p. 133
St. Helena to Fernando de Noronha	p. 149
A Tropical Jewel	p. 167
Fernando de Noronha to Bequia	p. 183
The West Indies	p. 201
St. Maarten to the Bahamas	p. 215
The Bahamas to Fort Lauderdale	p. 231
Epilogue	p. 245
Freelance in Closeup	p. 255
Bibliography	p. 259
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