Survival Against the Odds

Beating the odds is always a great feeling. Just ask anyone who has been accepted to a selective college, or unexpectedly won an athletic event. But beating the odds is never quite as exhilarating an experience as when the odds are against your survival.

Tami Oldham Ashcraft knows this feeling. At the age of 23, while she was sailing the South Pacific, Ashcraft was caught in a violent hurricane. The 50-foot (15-meter) waves overturned her boat. Ashcraft, who was below deck, was knocked unconscious. When she awoke 27 hours later, the boat had turned right side up again, but the storm had been so violent that the sails were destroyed, the motor was dead, and the radio was lost. Only the rudder, which steers the ship, was intact. Ashcraft was badly injured and disoriented.