“It’s hard to say what my favorite dive or the best experience is, you know? Certainly getting hit in the face by a whale yesterday was interesting!” Sally Wahrmann tells me with a boisterous chuckle. A playful humpback had love-tapped Wahrmann on a Zodiac cruise that afternoon, and she remains elated at the encounter.

We sit in the bar on MV Ortelius, an ice-hardened vessel run by Oceanwide Expeditions, after having enjoyed a splendid day on and in the icy waters of Antarctica. As divers tend to do, Wahrmann recounts some of her favorite dips and dives.

“This is my third time in Antarctica, and I’ve been to the Arctic twice,” she says. “The Arctic is more about the land creatures: walruses, reindeer, polar bears. You can’t get too close to the polar bears, because they can get dangerous. But we saw babies, and that was really special. The Antarctic is about what’s underwater, and what’s underwater is pretty cool.”

Wahrmann pulls up a video clip she keeps on her laptop desktop always, for instances just like this one when she wants to share the magic of the Southern Continent. She continues excitedly, “on my first dive in Antarctica, on our checkout dive in 2014, penguins came up from below right as we surfaced! It was the end of our dive, and they were just everywhere!”

Sure enough, as my eyes adjust to the hazy, krill-filled waters on her computer screen, gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) whiz by in every direction like lightning or underwater bullets. Wahrmann recalls she was delighted at the time, and she lights up with joy telling me about it today. She adds, “the whole time, I was thinking, ‘this is kinda neat. I gotta come back!’”

Wahrmann is a legend in the dive community and a member of the 2002 Class of the Women Divers Hall of Fame. Certified in 1978, she became known for her dives on the infamous wreck of Andrea Doria.

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Known as the “Mount Everest of Shipwreck Diving,” Doria became famed for its loot and the physical challenges associated with salvaging. Over the years, R/V Wahoo took willing customers to the wreckage, batting strong currents, extreme depths and other dangerous diving hazards for a chance to dive Doria. Adding to the danger, the wreckage sits 53 miles offshore from Nantucket, far from land and medical facilities.

On July 26, 1956, the Italian luxury passenger liner SS Andrea Doria collided with Swedish freighter Stockholm, resulting in the sinking of Doria off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts in the Atlantic Ocean.

At the time of its sinking, Doria measured roughly 700 feet and could carry 1,240 passengers and 560 crew. The vessel was well known for its opulence, Britannica reports, featuring grand artwork and three outdoor swimming pools. It also included several then-novel safety features, such as radar and watertight compartments. Nevertheless, due to heavy fog, high speeds, poor visibility and radar operator errors, Andrea Doria and Stockholm collided in the shipping lanes off Nantucket. While the latter survived the collision, the Doria sank 11 hours after impact. All were saved except for 51 who perished in the collision itself.

“Wreck diving is my favorite, absolutely,” Wahrmann says, “and the most challenging dives I’ve done were before mixed gasses and rebreathers were a thing. They were on Andrea Doria. You don’t touch that until 175 feet down, and we were just on air.”

“It went down on July 25, 1956, but we [R/V Wahoo] waited until 1981 to dive it because that was 25 years later,” Wahrmann explains. “Maritime law states that if the owner of the vessel–which could be an insurance company–hasn’t made an honest effort to retrieve a wreck in 25 years, then the lion’s share goes to the salvager. That’s why we waited.”

Still, in 1993, one of the Wahoo’s customers went to Admiralty Court in Washington D.C. to “arrest the wreck” of the Doria using an Admiralty Arrest. That gave them the rights to the wreck. They wanted to take artwork from the wreckage and wanted to ensure there weren’t any problems, Wahrmann tells me.

Wahrmann served as cook and crew on R/V Wahoo for seven years and has 60 logged dives on the famed wreck–all using air. She’s acknowledged by Wahoo owner Steve Bielenda as the fourth female diver ever on the Doria, with her first dive occurring in July 1982.

Recalling those dives, she reflects, “on every dive, even now, I bring a sausage or some other marker and a backup regulator. In those deep dives, I always had two independent tanks, some other source of air.”

She continues, “the other thing I always do is wear my mask under my hood. I never dive without my mask under my hood, because it saved my life on Doria. A guy knocked me down and knocked the regulator out of my mouth. I had my mask under my hood, or else I’d have lost it. So, now, I always wear my mask under my hood.”

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Nowadays, Doria is collapsing on itself, and the top of the wreckage sits below 190 feet. Many beloved dive spots on the wreck have deteriorated beyond recognition and/or penetration. Many say her heyday is over, but the legend remains.

“These were the most challenging and interesting dives I’ve done,” Wahrmann says, “but, I just enjoy diving.”

She shares something that Bielenda would often tell her: “You can do 20,000 dives, and when you do 20,000 and one, shit’s gonna happen. And, don’t ever forget it; you’re a beginning diver again. So, anytime I go to a new place, I am very trepid and cautious.”

With a knowing glance, she concludes: “We have a saying in New York: There are old divers and bold divers, but no old, bold divers.”