b"WhenSallyGardiner-Smithwasborn, enough about sailing to realize her course board.Howeverselfconfidentsheher family was six months into a two- along the coast would be more dangerous appeared on the outside, she admitted toyear sailing trip that would take them to than sailing in open ocean. She could havingnervesabouthertripandtriedThe Bahamas and then on to the Yucatan run aground or collide with other vessels only to think about it in small segmentsPeninsula, Belize and Guatemala. When inthebusycoastalwaters,saidPete so it would seem less daunting. I toldSally was between the ages of four and Passano ofWoolwich, who sailed alone myself that I knew I could pull up thesix, she and her family sailed across the in the mid-1990s from New Zealand to anchor and sail for the day and put theAtlantic to the Mediterranean. On that Brazil.Hesaidhewasneverworried anchor down again. I knew I could dotrip, Sally and her older sister Elin went when sailing until he came within 100 that every day, she said.to a public school in Barcelona for about miles of land. Herfather, WillyRitch,hadalsofour months.Aftergraduatinghighschoolin2014, Sally convinced her parents to lether sail to Florida. She charted her jour-neydowntheEasternSeaboardtoFloridaseastcoast,theneasttoTheBahamas, west to the Gulf of Mexico andontoFloridaswestcoast.Ifallwentaccordingtoplan,shewouldarriveintime to make the August 2015 freshmenorientationatEckerdCollegeinSt.Petersburg.Shechosethecollege,theonly one she applied to, for its waterfrontlocale.Her parents were in total support oftheirdaughtersplans. Theyearbefore,they had purchased a boat for Sally, a 43-year-old Ericson fiberglass sailing yacht,for $7,000. Perhaps setting the stage fortheirdaughterswanderlust,theyhadchosen it for its basic design and because A younger Sally and her sister Elin in Barcelona.they figured it was the largest boat a per- Sallyfiguredshehadalreadycon- givenheraUSBflashdrivethatcon-son could operate alone.quered the loneliness factor, having left tained a memo to remind her to checkTheboatsoriginalnamewasThe her family in Maine at age 16 to travel to her engine oil and coolant, informationOther Woman. Sallys grandfather painted Thailand. She studied for a year there, and on how to keep the battery charged andit blue, Because I always wanted a blue lived with local families. instructions on proper care of the sails.boat, she said. She christened her boat Besides,shewouldhaveherfirst AsAthenamovedawayfromtheAthena,aftertheGreekgoddesswho mate, Elli, to keep her company. dock, one of Sallys aunts shouted, It'sembodies wisdom and bravery. Sally rea- On October 1, 2014, Sally figured okay to go.sonedshewasabouttoembarkona she was as prepared as she ever would be Ifyoupromisetocomehome,journeythatwouldhelphergrowin to set sail from her home in Woolwich, Sally shouted back, finishing the the tra-confidence and maturity. Athena would Maine on her 29-foot boat. Elli, wearing ditional phrase the family used wheneversee her safely through. herownyellowlifejacket,wasbyher a family member embarked on an adven-Sallyspentthesummerworking side.Ill be a weird dog person by the ture. She gave Elli a tight squeeze.atRobinhoodMarineCenterin end of this trip, she said to her family at Only a couple of days into her jour-Georgetown and put $1,000 in the bank. DiMillosMarina. ney,beforeleavingMaine,SallyhadThat would be the money she would live Wearing a life jacket of her own that already experienced a bit of terror as sheon for the next year. Her plans included wouldinflateautomaticallyshouldshe entered YorkHarbor.Sheaccidentallypicking up odd jobs among the sailing fall in the water, and equipped with sev- backed over her dinghy line while tryingcommunity along the way, like babysit- eral navigation charts on her iPad, a radio to grab a mooring, causing the engine toting and cleaning boats, to keep her bank beacon to alert search and rescue services stopwhenthelinebecameentangledaccount healthy.intheeventofanemergency,a withthepropeller.ShepanickedforaAlex Agnew, who publishes Ocean DeLorme-made satellite communication momentasshepreparedtokeepherNavigatormagazineforrecreational device to update her parents on her posi- powerlessboatfromsmashingintothesailorssaidSallycouldexpectafair tion and a cellphone, Sally was ready to rocks on shore.amount of loneliness, boredom and occa- go. She was also given a net with which Then, she remembered her anchorsionalmomentsofterror.Sallyknew toscoopElliupincaseshefellover- and threw it overboard. 30 THE NEW BARKER www.TheNewBarker.com"