But none of that kept me from picturing what a tsunami might look like if it did rise up and roar toward my little boat like some watery blue version of the Great Wall of China.

One day that same year, I told my dad that someday, I would sail around the world alone.

Wild Eyes was built for speed and I was flying down walls of water twenty and thirty feet high.

I am twelve thousand miles wiser, twelve thousand miles more resilient, and I have twelve thousand miles more faith in God.

The swells were amazing! As big as three-story apartment buildings!

The open ocean often takes you past your physical limits and when it does, sailing becomes a mental game.

If a big wave came at the wrong moment, it would sweep me off into forty-eight-degree water, where I might last twenty minutes. Drowning quickly might be better.