In October 1983, life couldn’t have looked more promising for Tami Oldham Ashcraft and her fiancé, Richard Sharp.
The two experienced sailors were about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime — delivering a luxurious 44-foot yacht from Tahiti to San Diego.
But just a few weeks into their journey, the unthinkable happened.
Something shifted
It was supposed to be a dream — a 4,000-mile voyage from Tahiti to San Diego aboard a beautiful yacht called Hazana. The yacht’s owners had offered the couple $10,000 and a pair of first-class airline tickets to complete the expected 31-day voyage and sell the boat once they reached the coastal town in California.
At first, everything seemed to be going smoothly.
Then, as the couple cruised through what should have been calm waters, something shifted. Hurricane Raymond — a Category Four monster — changed course without warning.
“I’d sailed through gales and storms before, but never a hurricane,” Tami later told Stylist. “We had tried to escape it for three days, but the boat could only go 15 miles per hour. I was petrified.”
140-mile-per-hour winds
She and Richard boarded up the yacht, donned their raincoats, and prepared to ride it out.But nothing could prepare them for what came next — 140-mile-per-hour winds and 50-foot waves slamming into the small vessel like wrecking balls.
Sharp insisted that Tami, then 23, stay below deck. He clipped himself into the safety harness and shouted that he’d handle the storm.
Moments later, Tami heard his final words:
“Oh my God!”
The boat capsized. The impact hurled her into the cabin wall — and the world went black. When she opened her eyes again, Tami was surrounded by destruction.
The 44-foot yacht was half-submerged, debris floated around her, and seawater sloshed against her body. Richard was gone.
Unconscious for 27 hours
She had been unconscious for 27 hours. When she finally woke, the storm had passed, but her nightmare had only begun.
The Hazana was broken. The masts were gone, the sails were shredded, and the radio and navigation system were dead. The cabin was filling with seawater.
And Richard’s safety harness — the one that should have kept him tethered — dangled uselessly in the waves.
“I was just a mess,” Tami said later.
“I had a major head injury and had lost so much blood. After screaming and being in so much shock, I lost all my energy, and ended up in the fetal position.”
But even through the grief and confusion, survival instinct took over.
Tami began pumping water out of the cabin. With a broken pole and a storm jib, she built a makeshift sail. Her only tools were a watch and a sextant — the same ancient navigation device sailors had used for centuries.
”All the electronics on the boat were fired. I had no way to cook. The stove was smashed and the propane went over,” Tami told Hawaii-Tribune Herald.
Lived on canned fruit salad and sardines
It soon became clear to Tami that no one was coming to rescue her.
If she wanted to survive, she would have to save herself.
She plotted a course for Hilo, Hawaii — 1,500 miles away.
For 41 days, Tami fought the Pacific Ocean alone.
Her supplies were meager — canned fruit salad and sardines — and her heart was shattered. But she pushed on, guided by the stars, the sun, and sheer willpower.
“I wasn’t going to sit around and wait to be rescued,” she said. “I kept myself busy and distracted from the grief. It was good that I had the navigation to focus on; if I didn’t constantly focus on steering, I wouldn’t be going in the right direction.”
At night, the ocean stretched endlessly, both beautiful and cruel. Some nights, she swore she could still feel Richard’s presence beside her.
“I wrapped one of his shirts around a pillow,” she said softly.
“I felt his presence with me the whole time.”
There was also one other thing that haunted and worried her.
“My biggest concern was water.”
The boat had 25 gallons onboard, but Tami still rationed it carefully, worried she might not make it to Hawaii.
“I had about a Dixie cup of water a day. I think I lost about 40 pounds.”
Spotted her battered yacht
Tami came close to being spotted and rescued several times. Two ships and a low-flying aircraft passed nearby — but no one saw her.
On the forty-first day, the impossible happened — a Japanese research ship spotted her battered yacht just outside Hilo Harbor. Tami had done it.
Against all odds, she had survived.
Her story, one of love, loss, and raw human endurance, became a global inspiration. Years later, after recovering from her injuries, she wrote Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea, which was later turned into the Hollywood film Adrift, starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin.
“Definitely the hardest part was dealing with Richard being gone,” she told the Chicago Tribune. “There were times I didn’t even want to live anymore because I didn’t know how I was going to go on.”
Today, Tami lives quietly on San Juan Island, off the coast of Washington. She still sails, still feels the ocean’s pull — and every day, she wears a small pendant shaped like a sextant, encrusted with a diamond.
“It reminds me of how I got home,” she says. “It saved my life.”
Millions have since watched her story unfold in Adrift — and many say they’ll never look at the ocean the same way again.
If this story moved you, share it — so more people remember the power of love, courage, and the human will to survive.
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