Sea Trials: Around the World with Duct Tape and Bailing Wire

A shipwreck might end a dream of circumnavigating the globe. Not for the Wilcox family.In 1973 the Wilcox family sets off to sail around the world aboard the 40-foot sailboat Vela. Thirteen months later they are shipwrecked on a coral reef with surf tearing a huge hole into the side of their boat.With years invested in saving money preparing the boat and learning to navigate by the stars parents Chuck and Dawn refuse to give up. Fourteen-year-old Garth is determined to continue while eleven-year-old Linda never wanted to go in the first place. Can they overcome the emotional physical and financial challenges to transform from castaways into circumnavigators?To triumph they must rebuild their boat on a remote Pacific island. Damage sustained on the reef and a lack of resources haunt them the rest of the way around the world as they face daunting obstacles including wild weather pirates gun boats mines and thieves plus pesky bureaucrats and cockroaches as stubborn as the family. Without a working engine and no way to communicate with the outside world they struggle to reach home before their broken rig comes crashing down and they run out of food on a trial that tests them to their limits.