The Lonely Sea

by Yvette Allum

One of the things I love about underwater hockey is that the small community is made up of such a wonderful mix of people.

In a club that boasts a membership of less than 20 players, the Sydney the lonely seaUnderwater Hockey Club has members hailing from Columbia, England, France, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and even the occasional Australian.

Amongst this crowd, you need to do something really special to stand out.

On Friday 27 July, Yvette Allum's book, The Lonely Sea, was launched. The advertising blurb describes it as "The extraordinary true adventure story of how Sue Dockar survived for two days and two nights lost alone at sea after being swept away during a spearfishing contest in the shark-infested waters off the Queensland coast."

As somebody who counts Sooze as one of my friends, I obviously knew about Sooze's 'adventure', but, as Sooze is not one to blow her own horn, I really knew very little detail. I thus eagerly anticipated reading the book - expecting to get a fairly factual blow by blow account of the what had happened.

Well, the book delivers way more than I had expected. It is written in a humorous and honest style. It certainly belongs in the 'true story' genre - there is no attempt to Hollywood it all up. But, at the same time, it avoids ending up reading like an incident report. It really is a story, a story so powerful that it doesn't need sensationalising to make it exciting. And yes, the story is about Sooze, but the book is about so much more.

The narrative paints a picture all too familiar to anybody who has ever organised or participated in a sport that is essentially player-funded and hence run by volunteers. You see how numerous small mistakes, most made with the best of intentions, snowball together, and you wonder how it is possible that only one person was lost (well two actually, but the other was rescued early on), and how, indeed, it did not all end far, far worse. Hats off to Yvette for achieving this - it is clear that she must have had to do loads of research to ultimately achieve this perspective, and a good deal of perseverance and tenacity was doubtless required!

I cannot recommend this book enough. Buy it for yourself, because you will surely love to read the descriptions of people you know. Buy it for your friends and family, because it really is a great story. And, of course, buy it because Yvette and Sooze both deserve our support!

My favourite line in the book is a quotation from Mark Colys. I am too lazy to go back and look for it to make sure I quote it correctly, but what he basically said is that Sooze may come across as meek and mild, but the heart that beats inside her, is the heart of a lion.

by Julie Slotwinski. 

Attending the launch party (from left to right): Mick, Steph, Jodie, Katrina, Trumpy, Jules, Sooze, Doug, Marion, Lena, Yvette, Sue, Julia &Tara.

Buy now from the ABC Bookshop