Terror ripped through me as I was falling, falling, falling toward the sea.

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.

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

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

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.

When I saw the plane, I was absolutely astonished! Two emotions crashed over me: surging joy and crazy fear.

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