Black Wave: A Family's Adventure at Sea and the Disaster That Saved Them

Amazing story of survival. If you ever dream of taking your family out of the monotony of everyday life and wish to see them learn and grow in new ways - get this book. Drama and suspense - I couldn't put it down. Would make a great movie!

A magnificently written tale. I got it in the mail after work, and had finished reading it by bedtime. You know that all the family members survived, so it's not any mystery that keeps you turning the pages. It's lots of things. A very accurate description of each moment that engage all your senses. Insightful descriptions of each "character", mostly done by describing their actions. Adventuresome little "marine biologist" Jack is my favorite. All the different ways each of them enjoy living on Earth, as well as how they deal with life. Straightforward and honest. Exciting - besides the final crash, there's storms and pirates and lots of sea creatures. Along the way it was humorous: "If we were going to die, we were going to die with our flip-flops on." (Not meant as a humorous statement, given the coral and the will to DO something, but humorous in spite of all that.) And educational, learning about what it's actually like to 'sail around the world' and learning about another ship that crashed on the same coral reef in the 1800's. It not only got my adrenaline going, but restored my spirits and my faith in human nature.

Jean Silverwood narrates a heartbreaking account of the family catamaran
running aground and being torn to pieces on an invisible coral reef in the South Pacific, shattering not only their beloved boat, but many of the dreams that went with it.

She also details the battles her husband had with alcohol and her own doubts about the trip itself.

But, in the end, their courage and humanity shine through: they survive to return home, her husband undergoes more surgery on his leg and they survive the Great Firestorm of 2007 in San Diego.

I can't think of a more moving account of how an average American family coped with catastrophe and disaster at sea.

The ocean can be harsh and unforgiving of mistakes, but she also helps you find yourself and reservoirs of courage you never knew you had, in moments of peril.

This is a book written from the heart, an experience of adventure, a passage through troughs and crests in a thing called life. A powerful story of how ones dreams and perseverance can manifest through hard work, faith moved into action. How the ending of the story is joy, thankfulness and peace in the midst of controversy and storm.A renewed relationship with their creator,family,friends and marriage!
I never forget the day I was running on Sunday and spoke to a family member. An emergency signal had been sent out, we chuckled it was probably Jack pretending to be a pirate. Only Sunday evening I was speaking to the French physicians regarding the condition of John and Jean and consoling their older son Ben. Calling the family in the states to interpret the French language, making arrangements for the transition of John to a San Diego Hospital. This is a true, thrilling story of adventure which leaves you reading through the night as you cannot put the book down or me, well, deciding to read one chapter at a time savoring another well written book.
Jeanne Stryker, MD

If you're looking for the perfect summer read, you won't do much better than this tale of a successful San Diego real estate developer who lives out a lifelong dream by taking his perfect SoCal family of six on a sailing trip around the world, which turns into a nightmare when they run aground on a Pacific reef 350 miles due west of Tahiti, costing him his leg in the process. This first-person diary account reveals the Silverwood family dynamic on board their beloved Emerald Jane, warts and all, from John's own battles with alcoholism to Jean's control issues to the various adjustments of the kids--16-year-old Ben's longing for his friends back home and eventual emergence as a hero, 13-year-old Amelia's blossoming into a self-confident artist, 9-year-old Jack's fascination with ocean life and 5-year-old Camille's angelic innocence. There is something here that anyone with a family can relate to about escaping the rat race of modern life and taking to the high seas, anchoring in exotic ports from Bora Bora and Raiatea to Grenada and the Galapagos, crossing the Equator, sailing through the Panama Canal, being chased by pirates and surviving hurricanes with waves several stories high. The first 150 pages, narrated by Jean, describe the family's day-to-day duties, home-schooling the kids and how each one adapted to the journey, as she keeps coming back to the narrative's singular event--the wreck of the Emerald Jane on a reef in the middle of the night and the boat's giant mast pinning John's leg underneath. It's an amazing tale, with the last quarter including John's ruminations, which have him questioning his judgment and dealing with his own guilt by channeling an accident that took place 150 years ago on the very same reef that ripped apart his own sailboat. The Julia Ann, a vessel on its way from Australia to San Francisco in 1855, carrying coals from Newcastle in New South Wales, along with a group of Mormon missionaries bound for Utah, suffered a similar fate as the Emerald Jane. The story is a tribute to the family's gung-ho spirit of living to the fullest, and dealing with the consequences...as a family. "If real life catches you by the heel sometimes, it is worth it," John concludes. "Life is short anyway, so it may as well be beautiful." Not just a travelogue or a primer on sailing around the world, Black Wave is the story of a family that circled the ocean, only to find what they were looking for was right in front of them all along.