Fewer people have successfully solo-circumnavigated the globe than have journeyed into space.

The seriousness of my situation started to sink in, and again I fought panic. I pushed it down, but it was harder this time, like my insides were an open can of shaken soda and I was trying to keep it from bubbling up out of the top.

All the ingenuity, all the high-tech gear, all the jury-rigging sometimes the sea would rip it all away until there was only you, the Creator, and His mercy.

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.

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

The terrifying physics of going up-mast in heavy seas are inescapable.

Terror ripped through me as I was falling, falling, falling toward the sea.