Film release: "The Colour of the Horizon": A blue water dream turns into a nightmare

At some point you always suffer from hallucinations, loneliness and lack of sleep - it doesn't sound very promising what Richard Sharp (played by Sam Claflin) tells young Californian Tami Oldham Ashcraft (Shailene Woodley) about single-handed sailing on their first date. And yet she is enthusiastic about Sharp's lifestyle, who has sailed his 36-foot yacht "Mayaluga" to Tahiti, where the two meet.

The story - Dropout couple sails across the Pacific

Sharp and Oldham become a couple and plan to sail around the world on "Mayaluga", or at least to Japan first. But it wasn't to be that far. An offer to transfer the 44-foot yacht of a married couple friend back to California from the South Seas for a handsome fee thwarts their plans - they set off eastwards instead of westwards.

The background - Hurricane "Raymond" is approaching

A fatal decision, as soon becomes clear. In fact, the now 58-year-old American Tami Oldham Ashcraft and her partner were caught up in Hurricane Raymond on this ferry trip in 1983. Even on the big screen, the experienced sailor Sharp and the inexperienced but equally intrepid Oldham are unable to avoid the storm. A monster wave hits the ship. Capsize. The mast breaks. Silence.

The film begins with Tami Oldham regaining consciousness after this fatal moment in the devastated and half-submerged interior of the ship. She desperately searches for her partner, but discovers only the lifebelt with the carabiner open in the cockpit. Finally, she discovers the sailor in the water not far from the mastless yacht, clinging to the dinghy that has been washed overboard.

The denouement - truth vs. fiction

In the film, Oldham is able to get the seriously injured Sharp on board, but the responsibility for saving herself, the ship and her partner lies solely with her. The young woman fights with all her might to survive in the watery desert of the Pacific and to reach Hawaii under emergency rigging.

Shailene Woodley plays an inexperienced sailor who rises above the situation. Her role model was the real Tami Oldham Ashcraft, who was shipwrecked in the Pacific over 30 years ago. It was only much later that she processed her experiences in a book, which became the basis for the film.

The question of whether her partner will be rescued - or whether everything turns out to be just one of the hallucinations predicted at the beginning - is only answered late in the film. Once again, the film leaves behind the message so popular with blue water sailors that a lot is possible if you just want to - and fight.

The German version of "Adrift": the trailer for the feature film "The Colour of the Horizon"