On a humid August afternoon in 1981, 21-year-old waitress Tamara Ennis set out on a catamaran with friends off Ormond Beach, Florida. By nightfall, she would be alone in open water, battling riptides and circling sharks with only her swimmer’s instincts and determination to survive.

The trip began with friends Randy Cohen, Christy Wapniarski, and boat owner Daniel Perrin. A sudden storm flipped their boat three miles offshore, leaving them clinging to the overturned hull without life jackets. A Coast Guard search passed nearby but failed to spot them.

As night wore on, the group grew silent. Tamara sensed Christy, only 19, had resigned herself to dying. By morning, Tamara urged the others to swim for shore, promising Christy that salt water would help her float.

But the ocean turned violent. A shark attacked Christy, pulling her under in a blur of thrashing water. Tamara, horrified, turned away and told herself: That’s not how I’m going to die.

When another shark brushed her hip, Tamara forced calm. She slowed her breathing, resisted panic, and told herself to “think like a fish.” Hours passed as riptides dragged her sideways, but she adjusted, swimming across the current and counting survival in minutes and hours.

By late morning, a lifeguard spotted her nearly nine miles from the capsized boat. Exhausted but clear-headed, she reported the situation: one dead, two missing, and a boat still adrift.

Within hours, Daniel was found walking the beach and Randy was rescued and hospitalized. Christy’s body was never recovered. Authorities later noted the group might have survived by staying with the boat—but Tamara’s choice to swim saved her.

Forty years later, she credits her survival to calm, discipline, and refusing despair. “I didn’t let the negative thoughts win,” she said. “I just kept swimming.”