I wanted to break the record, of course, and become the youngest person to sail around the world solo and unassisted.

One day that same year, I told my dad that someday, I would sail around the world alone.

There are a number of places on marine charts where even the most weathered sailors point and say, "Right there, nothing can go wrong. Everything has to go right." One place is the turbulent passage south of Cape Horn. Another is the dead center of the Indian Ocean.

The things that happen on the sea take you beyond yourself, beyond human capability.

Going up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.

It seems like people my age are over-protected today, even to the point where a lot of parents refuse to put their kids in the position to make important decisions, to aspire to great things, because they don't want to put them in a position to fail.

I will never forget the feeling of walking into my home, a place that while drifting helpless in the middle of the Indian Ocean I wondered if I would ever see again.