Tori Murden

Bouchet also had failed in her attempted crossing, so the elusive record was still to be claimed. On September 13, 1999, a year after she eluded death in the North Atlantic, Murden set out again. This time, however, she would travel the safer east-to-west route from the Canary Islands to the West Indies. For two months, her odyssey went smoothly. By mid-November, she was 430 miles from Guadeloupe, on pace to beat the record time for a solo crossing—just over seventy-three days—set by Sidney Genders of Great Britain in 1970. Then came tropical storm Lenny. "It passed directly over her, capsizing the boat once and sending it on a violent, nauseating roller-coaster ride that lasted for hours," said Women's Sports & Fitness. "The thunder was constant and cacophonous, and Murden spent the night with her fingers in her ears, singing hymns at the top of her lungs to distract herself. By dawn, the worst was over, and within a couple of days, favorable winds returned."

On December 3, after rowing 3,333 miles in eighty-two days, Murden arrived at Bas-du-Fort, Guadeloupe. "There are times (alone at sea) that are incredibly sublime, and you feel like you're at once that puny speck of nothing and part of a grand universe," she told CNN upon her arrival. "There are other times when it's frightening and just lonely. And so along the roller coaster there are grand moments and sad moments, but I would-n't trade them for anything."

Following her historic journey, Murden returned to Louisville and married Charles "Mac" McClure, a retired forester to whom she proposed during a satellite phone call from the middle of the Atlantic. She went on to become active in civic affairs, first as development director for the Muhammad Ali Center, an arts and education complex, and later as a Spalding University trustee and a member of the task force facilitating the merger of the Louisville and Jefferson County governments.