After Howells had spent a year drifting through the South Pacific, and another six months on the Australian eastern seaboard, working his way up north from Sydney, to explore the astonishing beauty of the coral formations provided by the Great Barrier Reef, he made passage across the Indian Ocean under a storm jib, with the occasional use of a trysail.

There had been plenty of wind, and the old dog was delighted to arrive in Durban, half-way through a single-handed circumnavigation, in a boat he had built himself, which was being sailed without the benefit of any mechanical contrivance - just a mast and sail, an oil lamp and several boxes of matches: so having made port, he tied up at the Point Yacht Club feeling rather pleased with himself. However, while enjoying the remarkable hospitality provided by the members of the club, he was introduced to two people who, by just being there, soon altered his perspective.

Pete & Liz had built their boat in Zimbabwe, then trailed her overland, one thousand two hundred miles to Durban, and were about to embark on an ocean passage with the intention of visiting Florida.

Of course there were problems; but they had got their vessel to Durban, and if anybody seemed deserving of a helping hand it just had to be the Fordreds.

The astonishing descent from healthy young people to the misery of becoming paraplegics, is set out in... An Ocean to Cross; a remarkable tale of ingenuity and determination that, having described the circumstances, explains how they overcame their difficulties and managed to sail unaccompanied and still in their wheel chairs, from Cape Town to the States.

The book also presents a generous acknowledgment to those people (the dog included) who were able to help them during their learning curve of a passage from Durban to the Cape.