The Aftermath

In time, the young woman started putting down her story onto the page, which eventually turned into a book. Ashcraft titled the final piece Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea. As of this writing, it has been translated into eight languages and published in 15 countries.

In the book, Ashcraft not only tells every detail of her incredible tale, but also what she was thinking in each moment. “I wasn’t a master navigator by any means, but I enjoyed it. Once it became a life-and-death situation, I got real good, real quick,” she wrote in her book.