Los Angeles, Cal. — People usually watch movie trailers to see the stars. But when Tami Ashcraft saw a preview for Adrift, the experience was a little more personal.
"I can't even believe it's me!" said Ashcraft.
In 1983, Ashcraft and her fiancé, Richard Sharp, decided to take a break from pleasure sailing to take a job delivering a 44-foot yacht from Tahiti to San Diego. But weeks into their crossing disaster struck when one of the largest hurricanes on record changed course and barreled down on them. Ashcraft survived the storm but spent the next 41 days adrift in the Pacific before being picked up off the coast of Hawaii.
Years later, she would find calmer waters right here in the Northwest.
"I was looking at a couple of places up north and when I came into Friday Harbor I just went, ahh, this is it."
Ashcraft not only found a home in Friday Harbor, she also found a husband and a new life.
"I didn't ask for this tragedy to happen in my life, but you have to persevere and you have to have patience that you will get through it. But my life is wonderful today."
Ashcraft would write a book about her ordeal called, Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea. Around five years ago she was approached about turning her book into the movie, Adrift.
"I've always thought it would be a fantastic movie on the big screen. It's got so many elements: the love story, the adventure, the tragedy, the survival and then hope at the end of life moving on."
For cast members, Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, having Ashcraft personally advise them served as a source of inspiration.
Woodley said, "I really wanted, I think all it wasn't just me it was every single person involved, just wanted to make sure that we pay tribute to her in all the right ways and that she felt comfortable and that we had her blessing and her approval over every decision that we made. That was incredibly important to me," Claflin added, "All we wanted to do was do the story and these people justice and try to be as authentic as possible."
If Tami Ashcraft's reaction to the authenticity of the film is any indication, Adrift's course from the sea to the screen was well charted.
"I wept after I saw the first trailer. It just brought up all the old emotions of the whole situation. But I think the movie does the story credit and I'm so thrilled that it's being able to be told worldwide."
Adrift is now available on DVD.
Travel and Accommodations for this story provided by STX Films.
