Customer Reviews

Red Sky In Mourning: The True Story of a Woman's Courage and Survival at Sea

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have just finished reading Red Sky In Mourning. I have to say that no book has ever touched me in this way. Once I started to read it I could not even put the book down. I read it from cover to cover in my first sitting and then stayed up most of the night thinking about it. The next morning I awoke and read it again-it is incredible. The book is more than a story it is woman opening up her heart and letting it all out and letting the whole world in. Tami Oldham Ashcraft writes with such honesty and clarity it is as if you were there witnessing the events of her life rather than reading about them. I laughed, I cried, but most of all, this book warmed my heart to know there is love in this world like Tami and Richard shared-what an incredible person Tami Oldham Ashcraft must be. If you are going to buy one book this year I would highly recommend this on. I have already read my copy several times and will more than like read it several more.

Let's never hear about the weaker sex again. The riviting story of Tami Oldham's tragedy at sea will convince anyone that there is no such thing. A storm at sea swept her fiance, Richard, away to his death and knocked her cold for 27 hours. She awoke to find a demasted yacht, little food and devasting loneliness. But she pulled herself together with the help of a "Voice" and navigated across the open sea in a crippled, jury-rigged vessel to safety.

Even though the reader knows that she made the journey successfully one can not help but be anxious for her safety and welfare throughout 41 day voyage. When she happened to find an unexpected container of drinking water on board I could taste the sweet water and rejoiced with her.

A splendid read. I just caution anyone to be prepared to stay up very late reading this sad, but uplifting adventure, and to keep a glass of water nearby, because you won't want to stop.

No one can explain a particular terror as knowingly as the one who experienced it. Such is the case with Tami Ashcraft who brings authentic emotion to her compelling true life story and reading.

A dauntless, seaworthy sailor, Tami Oldham, and her fiancé Richard Sharp, shared their love for each other and a love of adventure. They were hired to take a four-master, the Hazana, from Tahiti to American shores. They sailed on a cloudless, gorgeous day. Almost three weeks later they faced a ferocious hurricane. Fighting with all their minds and might, Richard secured himself to their boat and instructed Tami to go below.

Only seconds passed before she heard Richard's anguished cry not realizing that he had been lost in the sea. She must have fainted for it was only when she regained consciousness that she realized the damage done to their craft and the apparent hopelessness of her predicament.

Forty-one days past before she found safety. "Red Sky In Mourning" is a tale of love, loss, and courage made even more meaningful because it is all true.

- Gail Cooke

What a wonderful book, by a courageous woman. As I read the book, I felt that I was there with her during her struggles and triumphs. And the ending is very positive and doesn't leave the reader hanging. She's overcome a great deal in life at a young age, and has gone on to become a very solid and interesting wife and mother, I suspect. Yes, the book describes a real tragedy, the kind of thing that a sailor prays to avoid. However, there are real lessons to be found, such as equipment and design flaws aboard her boat, as well as the 'human factors' which she discusses openly. I've made purchases and upgrades to my boat (I liveaboard and cruise fulltime) based on her book and her lecture at the Annapolis sailboat show. Just buy the book, and you won't be sorry!

I have read more harrowing shipwrecks-at-sea story than this one perhaps, where odds of surviving were even less favorable. It also stands to reason that if you go sailing during a storm-racked area of the ocean, you may very well not make it back to land. But the story of Tami Oldham and what happened to her and Richard Sharp when they encountered Hurricane Raymond while sailing Hazana from Tahiti to California is absolutely compelling. This book has a richly detailed narrative; the story is woven skillfully using flashbacks to inform the reader of the history of these two people before they became caught up in a horrific experience.
The story also contains lot more. When I first started this book, I was not sure if I liked Tami. Her character seemed rather headstrong. But character she had. You learn to like her a lot. From the admission of her fears and mistakes to the sadness and guilt she shares over Richard's death and to the responsibilites she resumes after rescue, you see a new person emerge. This is a person who experiences a very dramatic epiphany.
Tami and Susea also brought Richard's character to the fore, right up to the last desperate moments of his life where he protects his fiance's, an act of what we call chivalry but that in his case, was truly part of who he must have been.
Another element introduced in the story was The Voice that helped Tami throughout her 41 days alone at sea. We guess that it is really the common-sense side to Tami that is trying to keep her in balance during this time but guess is all you can do - we will never know for sure but as a reader, I found it a satisfying mystery. Perhaps,as Tami had wondered, I hoped it might be Richard himself.
I cried towards the end of this book at Tami's symbolic letting go of this man. And again, when she mentions, years later, how her second daughter was born with the birth sac still intact - and what the midwife informs Tami is its significance.
Despite the letting go, however, I can't help but believe that Tami has resurrected Richard in the eyes of her readers, a last kind act on her part to thank him for helping her make it to safety.

Tami lost her boyfriend and the rigging of the boat they were delivering from the South Pacific to San Diego, during a hurricane they tried to avoid.

Her story is of profound love, desperation, madness and survival, told like only that lived through it can.

Beautifully written, entertaining and a few lessons for the rest of us sailors.

On top of the entertaining and poetical value (has both) it has important information on what to do (and avoid) on a similar situation. More importantly, how to avoid being in one on the first place!

Capt. Pablo Vitaver

Tami has a great story. A young woman alone in the middle of the Pacific with the rig down. How did she manage to sail Hazana to the entrance of.... Well, you read it and find out. Hazana is alive and well and lives at slip 540 in the Ala Wai Harbor at Waikiki. "Hazana" is a Spanish word that means "a feat of strength". Tami and the boat live up to the name. Hazana is a Trintella 44 built in Holland by Anna Weaver.
Aloha,
Jeff

I met the author on a taxi ride from providence, RI, to Newport, RI. My wife sent me the book for Christmas, and I read it in one sitting. She speaks of the sea and sailing without being too "yachty", and speaks of faith and love and hope without being cloying or sappy. Certainly not a "Popular Mechanics" account of survival, this is an excellent story, and well written. Highly recommended.

You will not be able to put this book down! I learned so much about sailing from reading this book and the other reviews make it clear that even experienced sailors have as well.
One reviewer who really enjoyed the book criticized the fact Tami and Richard were so much in love they were not afraid to show it in the way they spoke with each other. I find nothing at all odd about calling each other "Love". It is similar to using the nickname "Sweetheart". Absolutely and totally believable in my opinion.

As I read this book the descriptions of the places and the story was such that I found myself back in time, caught up in their beautiful world 22 years ago. Tami if you ever come to New England to speak I would love to attend! Now more than ever I would love to sail. Tami and Richard shared moments which many people will never experience in an entire lifetime.

I recommend this book to people of all ages and backgrounds. This is a story which even those who live far from the sea can relate to. The freedom and exuberance of youth and love, the excitement of an adventure, the loss of one we haved love with all our heart, tragedy, despair, hope, courage, survival....and once again living and loving.

This book held me spellbound. I was surprised when I found myself reaching for the kleenex as I finished the book. Perhaps I had finished the journey with Tami as I read the book. The fate of the Mayaluga was probably the final incident which started the tears for me. I will not ruin the ending for all of you. We all know what Richard would have chosen for the Mayaluga and it would be great to have an update on this.
The photographs were so nice to have included in the book and I only wish there had been more photographs of the places they had visited! Purchase this book and you will treasure it!

I was expecting a true adventure book, but was very pleased to find the adventure being more than just the shipwreck she survived. The author's passion for the sea , the beauty of the South Pacific, and her love shared with Richard were described in such easy realism that I was drawn right in with them, as if I was seeing it myself. The focus of the book for me was the vivid recollections of the sights & experiences. This was such an enjoyable read for me, easily the quickest of the past year, I absolutely loved it.