Sailing to the Far Horizon: The Restless Journey and Tragic Sinking of a Tall Ship

Of the legions of wayfarers who shared in the tall ship Sofia’s diverse and colorful history, only seventeen were on board when she went down. Of those who survived to tell the tale, none has…until now. More than twenty-five years ago, Pamela Sisman Bitterman began her journey on board a 123-foot, sixty-year-old sailing ship being readied for its second global circumnavigation. The details of events from this journey endure as vividly today as when Bitterman was a naive shellback swabbie, later ship’s bos'un, and finally acting first mate. In the end, she was merely one on a liferaft of grateful survivors. Sailing to the Far Horizon draws on original journal entries, photographs, and excerpts from official Coast Guard documents that chronicle the fascinating enigma that was the Sofia and its dramatic end.