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

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

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

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

There are a number of places on marine charts where even the most weathered sailors point and say, "Right there, nothing can go wrong. Everything has to go right." One place is the turbulent passage south of Cape Horn. Another is the dead center of the Indian Ocean.

Slowly, my brain let me in on the fact that I had just come this close to dying.

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.