September 3, 2024 • 6 mins
At seven years old, Suzanne Heywood was living the life of a normal schoolgirl. She had friends, she had a family and she was living in England with her younger brother. Yet, her parents longed for a different life.
Promising the children a three-year trip, Suzanne and Jonathan were whisked away onto the family's yacht by their Captain Cook-obsessed parents.
What had started out as a three-year journey became a 10-year struggle, during which time both children were forced to live in the isolation of the boat.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
New Jersey and Amanda jam Nationagine being raised on a boat,
growing up surrounded by the ocean, away from the normality
of school and the usual childhood routines.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Sounds like a dream. Well this is what UK native
Suzanne Haywood did. This was her childhood and it wasn't
always a dream. She shares this unusual upbringing in the
story in her new book called wave Walker, and she
joins us now, Suzanne high, Hi, great to join you.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, I guess it's a lot of people say, what's
the matter with you, your big wingy, You get to
go with a boat when you're seven, get out of
school and everything. But having been on a few boats
with cranky sailors, I know that it's not ideal.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yeah, well, I think being on a boat is great.
The problem with my journey is that I was on
that boat for ten years and we got shipwrecked along
the way. We almost died. There was very limited schooling,
and imagine being trapped on a boat for ten years
when you can't have friends because she.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Wasn't expected to be years or you didn't think it
was going to be ten years, did you no?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
When we set out, my dad said the voyage was
going to be three years long, and then we had
a terrible shipwreck crossing from South Africa to Australia. We
ended up in Fremantle, spent a year repairing the boat,
so it was four years to get to the end
of the voyage. And then my father just decided to
keep sailing, and he just didn't seem interested in the
(01:26):
fact that my brother and me needed to go to school,
we wanted friends. We just kept on sailing and it
went on and on and on for year after year
after year.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
And your mom was in on this, wasn't she.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Well, my mum hated sailing and she got terribly badly seasick,
so I think that's one of the reasons why she
was quite grumpy on the boat. But unfortunately, her view
was that if my father was going to go sailing,
she was going to go with him. So my mother
was going to go, and therefore us kids had to
go with them.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So what was day to day life like? And even
though the ocean would be constantly changing, there would be
a sameliness to being on a boat just with you,
your brother and your parents for all that time.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yes, So for the first few years we were crossing
Big Ocean, so we crossed the North Atlantic and then
the South Atlantic Ocean, and then we crossed the Indian Ocean.
So we were at sea for six, seven eight weeks
at a time. And when you were a little kid
on a boat for that long, what you're doing is
you're spending most of your time below deck, which is
a pretty small space to be in, so you can't
(02:32):
go and run around, you know, you can't see friends,
you can't really do very much because you're trapped down below.
So my brother and I would make up games to
try and make the time go by. Later on when
we got to Australia and then onwards, we were stopping
from time to time, but we never stopped for that
long apart from when we were repairing the boat in Fremantle.
(02:54):
So most of the time we're just going from one
place to another. What was the.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Strangest thing you saw while you were sailing in terms
of flotsam, jets and animals. What some of the weird
stuff you saw.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
We saw some amazing stuff. So obviously whales and dolphins
and whales are quite scary if you're a sailor, because
there are many stories of boats that get damaged by whales.
We also once sail past in an exploding volcano that
was in the South Pacific. We went to some very
remote islands in Fiji where it was said that they
(03:27):
used to have cannibals, but I don't know if that's true.
I certainly never saw that myself, but we did see
some incredible things.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
And how do you go with your Are your parents
still with us?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
So sadly no, my mom died in twenty sixteen. My
parents were very very much against me ever writing my story,
and that's one of the reasons why it's taken me
so long to write it, because I knew that if
I told the story honestly as it was how I
experienced it, they would get very angry. And my father
(03:58):
is a naturally quite angry person, particularly if he's kind
of drinking. So it took me a long time to
get brave enough to tell it. But I eventually got
to the point where I had children who were the
same sort of ages when I'd really struggled on Wavewalker,
and then I looked at them as a parent and thought,
I just can't understand the decisions that my parents made
(04:20):
at the same age. And I really want to tell
my story.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Do you have resentment towards your parents now?
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Not now, because the past is the past. I mean
people do say kind of do you forgive them? And
I don't really forgive them, but it doesn't bother me.
I mean, I don't wake up in the morning feeling
angry about it. It is what it is. They made
some crazy decisions that were, you know, all based around
my father's dream of sailing this boat and didn't really
(04:50):
take any great account of what his children needed, any
sort of stability. But I don't really feel angry about that.
I'm now a mum myself. I've got my own three kids,
I've got my own career. I've written kind of several books,
wave Walker be in the kind of last one, so
I you know, I don't want to spend my life
doing that. So no, I don't kind of feel bitter
(05:11):
about it. But I'm very happy I've been able to
tell my story and that it's touched so many people
who actually often not at sea, but they've often had
similar sorts of experiences in their own family.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
And do you go for sale these days?
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Not very much, although I did go back and get
my yacht Master qualification before I wrote the book. A
little bit of imposter syndrome going on there. I think
I felt the need, the need to go back and
prove myself. But no, I'm afraid my three kids know
enough of my childhood to have refused any sailing adventures.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
That they wouldn't get on the boat.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I can imagine if you said, come on, kids, we're
going for sale, three years, a three.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Hours, worry, don't worry, We'll we're back soft.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Yeah, sure you say that, Susan Hayward. The book is great.
It's called wave Walker. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
You're very welcome. Thank you,
New Jersey and Amanda jam Nationagine being raised on a boat,
growing up surrounded by the ocean, away from the normality
of school and the usual childhood routines.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Sounds like a dream. Well this is what UK native
Suzanne Haywood did. This was her childhood and it wasn't
always a dream. She shares this unusual upbringing in the
story in her new book called wave Walker, and she
joins us now, Suzanne high, Hi, great to join you.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, I guess it's a lot of people say, what's
the matter with you, your big wingy, You get to
go with a boat when you're seven, get out of
school and everything. But having been on a few boats
with cranky sailors, I know that it's not ideal.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yeah, well, I think being on a boat is great.
The problem with my journey is that I was on
that boat for ten years and we got shipwrecked along
the way. We almost died. There was very limited schooling,
and imagine being trapped on a boat for ten years
when you can't have friends because she.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Wasn't expected to be years or you didn't think it
was going to be ten years, did you no?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
When we set out, my dad said the voyage was
going to be three years long, and then we had
a terrible shipwreck crossing from South Africa to Australia. We
ended up in Fremantle, spent a year repairing the boat,
so it was four years to get to the end
of the voyage. And then my father just decided to
keep sailing, and he just didn't seem interested in the
(01:26):
fact that my brother and me needed to go to school,
we wanted friends. We just kept on sailing and it
went on and on and on for year after year
after year.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
And your mom was in on this, wasn't she.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Well, my mum hated sailing and she got terribly badly seasick,
so I think that's one of the reasons why she
was quite grumpy on the boat. But unfortunately, her view
was that if my father was going to go sailing,
she was going to go with him. So my mother
was going to go, and therefore us kids had to
go with them.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So what was day to day life like? And even
though the ocean would be constantly changing, there would be
a sameliness to being on a boat just with you,
your brother and your parents for all that time.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yes, So for the first few years we were crossing
Big Ocean, so we crossed the North Atlantic and then
the South Atlantic Ocean, and then we crossed the Indian Ocean.
So we were at sea for six, seven eight weeks
at a time. And when you were a little kid
on a boat for that long, what you're doing is
you're spending most of your time below deck, which is
a pretty small space to be in, so you can't
(02:32):
go and run around, you know, you can't see friends,
you can't really do very much because you're trapped down below.
So my brother and I would make up games to
try and make the time go by. Later on when
we got to Australia and then onwards, we were stopping
from time to time, but we never stopped for that
long apart from when we were repairing the boat in Fremantle.
(02:54):
So most of the time we're just going from one
place to another. What was the.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Strangest thing you saw while you were sailing in terms
of flotsam, jets and animals. What some of the weird
stuff you saw.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
We saw some amazing stuff. So obviously whales and dolphins
and whales are quite scary if you're a sailor, because
there are many stories of boats that get damaged by whales.
We also once sail past in an exploding volcano that
was in the South Pacific. We went to some very
remote islands in Fiji where it was said that they
(03:27):
used to have cannibals, but I don't know if that's true.
I certainly never saw that myself, but we did see
some incredible things.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
And how do you go with your Are your parents
still with us?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
So sadly no, my mom died in twenty sixteen. My
parents were very very much against me ever writing my story,
and that's one of the reasons why it's taken me
so long to write it, because I knew that if
I told the story honestly as it was how I
experienced it, they would get very angry. And my father
(03:58):
is a naturally quite angry person, particularly if he's kind
of drinking. So it took me a long time to
get brave enough to tell it. But I eventually got
to the point where I had children who were the
same sort of ages when I'd really struggled on Wavewalker,
and then I looked at them as a parent and thought,
I just can't understand the decisions that my parents made
(04:20):
at the same age. And I really want to tell
my story.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Do you have resentment towards your parents now?
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Not now, because the past is the past. I mean
people do say kind of do you forgive them? And
I don't really forgive them, but it doesn't bother me.
I mean, I don't wake up in the morning feeling
angry about it. It is what it is. They made
some crazy decisions that were, you know, all based around
my father's dream of sailing this boat and didn't really
(04:50):
take any great account of what his children needed, any
sort of stability. But I don't really feel angry about that.
I'm now a mum myself. I've got my own three kids,
I've got my own career. I've written kind of several books,
wave Walker be in the kind of last one, so
I you know, I don't want to spend my life
doing that. So no, I don't kind of feel bitter
(05:11):
about it. But I'm very happy I've been able to
tell my story and that it's touched so many people
who actually often not at sea, but they've often had
similar sorts of experiences in their own family.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
And do you go for sale these days?
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Not very much, although I did go back and get
my yacht Master qualification before I wrote the book. A
little bit of imposter syndrome going on there. I think
I felt the need, the need to go back and
prove myself. But no, I'm afraid my three kids know
enough of my childhood to have refused any sailing adventures.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
That they wouldn't get on the boat.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I can imagine if you said, come on, kids, we're
going for sale, three years, a three.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Hours, worry, don't worry, We'll we're back soft.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Yeah, sure you say that, Susan Hayward. The book is great.
It's called wave Walker. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
You're very welcome. Thank you,
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