Travels on the Edge

Dangerous adventures and near disasters came easy for Bette: being dragged by a crazy freighter captain out on deck in the midst of a hurricane, smuggling outlawed cosmetics from Hong Kong into Korea, and traveling from Bangkok to Angkor Wat in Cambodia at the start of the Cambodian War, where she faced border interrogation at gunpoint. Traveling by bus from Tacoma to Panama, Bette learned not to be so outgoing after a deranged bus station manager in San Jose, Costa Rica tried to rape her. The next close call came when the pilot who flew her to the San Blas Islands in Panama returned in an incoming storm and attempted to kidnap her and fly her to Colombia. Heading to the Caribbean, she found safer haven in Trinidad, with the exception of extremely bad timing, arriving when rampaging Rastafarians were killing tourists in Montego Bay. In Tahiti, Bette met John, a Canadian, who invited her to sail the South Pacific as his crew member. She ends up being gone two years; enduring storms, being lost at sea, running out of water and shortages of food. In the Cook Islands she meets Tom Neale, the "hermit of Suwarrow." While working as a Samoa News reporter in Pago Pago, her articles on corruption and nefarious activities resulted in her being attacked by gangs and threats of sinking their yacht. After completing her 2nd voyage to Suwarrow with John to shoot a film on Tom Neal, Bette decided it was time to head home and get her life back together...until the next adventure calls.