Meet Anne Sheehan who now lives in Ballard

The last time I saw this intrepid lady she was demonstrating yogurt smoothies at a supermarket. She had a big grin on her face like she just knew that if I drank enough of her product it would make a man of me.

To change the subject from yogurt. I asked her to tell me some terrifying or hilarious moments in her life I could tell our readers.

She thought for a moment and said she had two stories and in between smoothie customers she regaled me while my wife, Elsbeth, was shopping.

Thirty-five years ago Anne was into sailing boats and was co-captain with her first mate aboard an 86-foot ketch exploring the South Pacific.

She was at the helm while her mate was lolling forward on the rail, bare feet dangling over the side. The ketch was moving at a good clip in a choppy sea and heaving side to side when suddenly the mate lost his perch and slipped overboard. In a flash the sailboat was too far away to throw a line and he was out of sight before she could change course.

Her worst fear was sharks, which start feeding at 5 p.m.

Desperately she sailed the turbulent sea in a two-hour search until she finally spotted him. He was floating nearly unconscious on his back and, in spite of the frustration of his body rising and falling into 6-foot troughs she managed to grab him by his swimsuit, but the flimsy thing came off and he started drifting away. Hanging on by one hand she luckily grabbed his arm and was able to drag him to safety.

On a lighter note, intrepid Anne and her first mate were in Tahiti getting ready to sail to Bora Bora when two men, Andy Wright and Jimmy Wrong (no kidding) approached them and asked for a free ride for some fishing and clam digging.

The sailboat was built with raked masts which allowed them to attach scuppers to the tip of the masts and when the rounded hull leaned deeply the scuppers dipped into the shallow water and swept up the shells.

Arriving at Bora Bora the two hitchhikers decided to try spear fishing and swam away from the anchored ketch to try their luck. They forgot about the time and Anne got panicky about the 5 o'clock rule. Sure enough she spotted some big shark fins heading for Wright and Wrong. Too late to sail over she took an amazing whistle that cannot be heard by human ears and blew it madly. It worked. In seconds she spotted numerous dolphins heading for the sharks, leaping and attacking by smashing into the shark gills till they drove them away.

Jerry Robinson is publisher of the Ballard News Tribune and can be reached at publisher@robinsonnews.com