A storybook ending? Rescued writer gets the girl, sets sail

PORTLAND, Maine — A novelist who was twice rescued at sea has sailed 7,000 trouble-free miles and envisions a storybook ending to his journey.

Michael Hurley is completing a voyage from France to the Caribbean to North America with a first mate who is engaged to be his wife. Then he’s embarking on a new adventure by putting his boat into storage, getting married and moving to England.

The 60-year-old Hurley, who sold his North Carolina law firm so he could sail and write, has traveled far since he was plucked from his storm-battered sailboat by the student crew of the Maine Maritime Academy training vessel in 2015. It was the second time he had been rescued and lost his boat.

Despite the bad luck, his wanderlust remained unfulfilled, and he soon purchased a final sailboat. He signaled his intentions by naming it Nevermore.

This time, his luck changed. He found love while in the United Kingdom writing “The Passage,” a book that drew from his experience of being rescued. His fiancee, Jill Gormley, of London, said she had never been sailing before meeting him. Her introduction was a four-week sail to St. Lucia.

“We didn’t have a single argument in 28 days,” Gormley said, despite cramped quarters, canned food and an early bout of seasickness.

Gormley, who ran a program for children with special needs, was up for an adventure. The challenge, the 56-yearold Gormley said, was overcoming fear.

“I wasn’t bored. We chatted, played guitar, watched dolphins. Everything was new and exciting. The challenge was just not to be scared and trust that we were not going to sink,” she said in a telephone interview from Charleston, South Carolina. “It was coming to terms with the vastness of the ocean,” she said.