All the ingenuity, all the high-tech gear, all the jury-rigging sometimes the sea would rip it all away until there was only you, the Creator, and His mercy.

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.

On October 19, 2009, my sixteenth birthday, Wild Eyes officially became mine! Now it was really happening.

I will definitely attempt to sail around the world again. In fact, I can't wait for the chance to try again.

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.

The seriousness of my situation started to sink in, and again I fought panic. I pushed it down, but it was harder this time, like my insides were an open can of shaken soda and I was trying to keep it from bubbling up out of the top.

When a sailor overcomes crushing adversity, there's a massive sense of accomplishment.