Into the Wild

I sailed across the Pacific Ocean as a deckhand on a 110' sailboat. The barometer had been dropping all day and about 200nm off the coast of the Tuamotu Islands an immense storm showed up on radar. We changed course, but the vessel was not fast enough to outrun the storm.

Anticipating the storm’s power and acknowledging that I would need to muster all my strength, I attempted to get some sleep before my 1200-0400 shift, yet nature had other plans. I was literally thrown out of my bunk by the force of a wave hitting the hull. I fell out of my bed into the bunk below. I put on my personal flotation device and used the tether to latch myself down to the wall/bed in a futile attempt to get some rest. I laid there terrified and anxious with salty ropes preventing me from falling out of bed. I worried if I had what it took to lead the forthcoming watch – little did I know at the time but four months later I would take my captains license exam and become the youngest female in the world to obtain a 200-ton Yachtmaster Captains License. When 1200 rolled around I donned my full foul weather gear and left myself doubt in my bunk. I knew that, the moment I stepped on deck, fear would not serve me. There was only space for clear-headed and calculated action.

I tried to rise to the occasion. With sails reefed, buckets of rain soaked the watch team to the bone. We flew down immense waves, in the trough of the waves I would look up to the peak having to tilt my head backwards as if looking up at a Manhattan skyscraper. I assumed a wide stance, tightly gripping the ships wheel and ensured everyone on watch was tethered to a jack-line. The storm gave us a good beating. In the end, we safely made landfall and I learned that you can have all the training in the world but sometimes the ocean throws terrifying things at you and you just have to alter course, cope the best you can, and respect the oceans immense power.

The ocean has been in my veins since I was born. On my first trip out of the house as a baby, my parents took me deep-sea fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and growing up on a barrier island in Florida, I was taught to swim alongside walking. I started sailing Optimists around the age of seven, but racing was never really my thing – I would see a manatee and sail off course to go watch it. I loved being on the water but wasn’t particularly concerned with the regatta. At sea, I feel at home. There is no better feeling in the world than looking across the horizon in all directions and not seeing any land. The ocean offers a chance to escape the hyper-connected, over-stimulated state of modern-day life and cuts us off from the rattle and hum of modern society.