The Yellow Finch, a Black Bikini, and a Rat Called Hernandez: A Memoir

I was looking for a sailor to take me away on an adventure.

You can die making love, playing tennis, shoveling snow, mowing the lawn-or walking through Arrivals at an airport, like my husband, Lars. The morning of the day he died I dreamed that my family and I were standing at a bed where he lay with his eyes closed. It was June 28, 2002.

In the 1970 movie Woodstock, of all the hippies interviewed, one caught my eye: a naked guy sitting on a rock in a pond. "Do you always swim naked?" asks the cameraman. With a big toothy grin, he says, "It's the only way to swim." Later in the movie, he's seen on a pay phone talking to his girlfriend. With his wavy blonde hair spilling on to his face he's shouting, "It's a free concert! The gates are down!"

Lee (that hippie) and I met in person some 30 years later in Beaufort, South Carolina. I had recently lost my husband. Lee was looking for a first mate to sail the high seas of the world with him. I was looking for a sailor to take me away on an adventure. Fate brought us together at the perfect moment.

Wendy Fredell has been a model, graphic designer, newspaper contributor, and freelance writer, and has sailed over 24,000 miles to 50 countries. Her essay "A Budding Genius" was included in Oprah's book Live Your Best Life. When she's not sailing, she lives in Austin, Texas. The Yellow Finch, a Black Bikini, and a Rat Called Hernandez is her debut work.