Being at sea is like watching the whole world in high-definition.

Slowly, my brain let me in on the fact that I had just come this close to dying.

The winds were blowing from west to east, pushing Abby's boat toward the rocks as Abby struggled with the autopilots below. If Wild Eyes reached those islands, she wouldn't run aground, keel in the sand. She would be smashed into pieces.

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

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

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.

On October 19, 2009, my sixteenth birthday, Wild Eyes officially became mine! Now it was really happening.