John Silverwood

True stories can just as exciting as fictional ones, as this riveting tale of a family's survival at sea illustrates. John and Jean Silverwood decided that a sailing trip was just what their family needed, as a way to give their children an education in what is really important, and a way to rejuvenate themselves and their marriage. They faced challenges they never imagined, the biggest of which was the wreck of their sailing craft upon a reef. In the aftermath John's leg was nearly severed show more when the mast collapsed on it and the entire family is left stranded on a coral reef fighting for their survival. The first part of the book is the tale of this incredible night when the Silverwood's faced the fight of their lives, interspersed with the stories of what led them up to that point. The second part of the book switches from Jean's point of view to John's where he tells about his post-accident recovery and the story of a previous ship that wrecked on the same reef. I enjoyed the first part more than the second as there was a lot more suspense since I kept wondering how in the world the father was going to survive. Their family dynamics were easy to relate to as well, as Jean was good about not sugar coating the tough times they went through with John's alcoholism. Definitely give this one a listen for a true life, thrilling adventure and uplifting story of family togetherness. show less

People doing things that I can’t even fathom have always fascinated me. I couldn’t put this book down. Having just raised two teen aged children myself, I couldn’t begin to imagine how this family coped for two years on a boat. Throw in a shipwreck far from any major land mass and I was hooked.

Jean Silverwood’s description of her family’s harrowing survival of the shipwreck made me feel like I was right there going through it with them. It definitely gives you a new perspective on show more what’s important in life. You learn from her account that sailing in paradise isn’t always a bed of roses and that you must learn to go where the wind takes you. show less

A breezy, exciting tale of adventure and survival, Black Wave is the story of a married couple from California who took their four children on an extended sabbatical at sea aboard their 50-plus foot catamaran. The book is written by the Silverwoods with (what I suspect to be considerable) help from established writer Malcolm McConnell. The first part of their story, related by Jean (the wife/mother) cleverly interweaves the major plot line (their cat's wreck against a reef in the Pacific) show more with more minor adventures (including pirate encounters!) and family dramas that took place along their voyage.

John (the husband/father) narrates the second part, which is largely the history of an 1855 ship wreck on the same reef, occasionally contrasting the story of his own fight for survival. Like getting two adventure stories for the price of one, I personally was fascinated by the wreck of yore.

My eyes rolled more than once throughout the couple of pages John devotes to sharing (and I got the impression that the sharing was quite important to him) details of his intimacies with Jean during their journey. This is my biggest criticism in a book where I was somewhat expecting not to like or sympathize with the protagonists (attractive, well-off Californians.) My expectations were unfounded, and the book proved a worthwhile maritime yarn. Heavily featuring the Silverwoods two capable and even heroic teen aged children, I would recommend the book for restless teens, as well as armchair adventurers and salty types. show less

I read Black Wave in one sitting.

It is the story of a family of six on a two-year, two-ocean voyage on board the Emerald Jane, a fifty-five foot long catamaran. But this book does not read like a logbook. In telling their story, the authors, or maybe I should say the survivors, focus on the details about the voyage that act as anchors for the emotional threads of their story.

The book begins with Jean Silverwood's retelling of the night when the Emerald Jane wrecked on a coral reef in the show more south Pacific. The boat was breaking up around them and John was pinned to the deck by the broken mast, leg almost severed, near death from loss of blood. That night technology first endangered them by guiding them onto a reef and then saved them by sending signals from their distress beacon to a satellite that forwarded the signal to Australia and to California.

Through Part I of the book, Jean moves from details of the wreck through emotional links to the past to touch on the sources of the courage and heroism of her four children, Ben age 16, Amelia age 14, Jack age 9, and Camille age 5. She also tells how and why she and her husband, John, decided to uproot their family for life on a boat, sailing from Long Island, New York, through the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, and the Pacific. Her narrative ends with the arrival of rescue.

In Part II John tells of waking in a hospital in Tahiti and picks up the narrative of their rescue by paralleling the Emerald Jane's wreck with the wreck of the ship Julia Ann, which went aground on the same reef in 1855. John’s narrative, too, is an emotional map rather than chronological narrative. When John describes what happened to himself in that wreck and its aftermath, he says, “I went through a door and I came out on the other side, quite changed.”

At the end of her section, Jean answers, as she calls it, the big question: Was it worth it? Yes.

Is this book worth reading? Oh, yes. show less