Liquid Courage

Drifting in open ocean, surrounded by sharks, I faced my greatest fear—and found something unexpected.

Brianna Randall

The outgoing tide shot us through the narrow pass at 10 knots, spitting our C&C 43 into the beatific blue of the South Pacific. We’d just spent a few days anchored inside the tiny atoll of Kauehi, 100 miles northeast of Tahiti in French Polynesia’s Tuamotus archipelago, to recover from a five-day passage from the Marquesas Islands. We were heading to a bigger atoll to replenish provisions. But first, my husband, Rob, and I had a request of our captain: Let us jump overboard. He thought we were nuts. There were no boats in sight. No people for miles. Just the endless expanse of the Pacific ahead and 3,000 feet of water under our keel. Plus, one of the biggest feeding frenzies on Earth was about to begin. Hundreds of…

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Cruising World (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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