In February 2011, I set off on the inaugural adventure to prove to the world that people with diabetes can do anything. When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, my doctor told me that some things were now off limits. I could not drive a big-rig. I could not fly a plane. And I could not sail alone. 

 

I am not a person who likes to be told I can't. I really had no interest in driving a big-rig. I wasn't in any hurry to fly, but I loved to sail. And this was just the challenge I would need.

 

I didn't want to worry my husband or mom too much, so I stayed in the States. And I knew it had to be some place warm. I just don't do cold. And I wanted the geography to make the challenge. Sailing to the end of the Florida Keys made a perfect destination.

 

So after a year of planning and training and learning about how to manage diabetes on a sailboat alone, I set off for my first big adventure. When I returned, I chronicled my adventure along with my life dealing with diabetes in the memoir, Islands and Insulin. 

 

That first adventure whet my appetite for adventure. It would set me on a course which I have yet to see the final destination.