Can you imagine living in one of the coolest cities in the world, having a well-respected — and well-paid — job, with some awesome benefits and job stability? I bet you can. But can you then imagine discovering your true life’s passion and having to take $60,000 salary pay cut in order to follow it? I bet that’s a little bit harder.

Yet, this is exactly what Denise Meagher did. 

Denise Meagher is a sailing instructor in Manhattan’s Hudson River Community Sailing (HRCS) and a former captain of the Schooner Unicorn — the only all-female crewed tall ship in the world. This is a story of how one smilingly ordinary day changed the course of her life forever.