They risked everything to break a record, win a race, prove a point, test themselves, or for reasons they can't explain. They include the first sailor to survive a Cape Horn rounding alone, the doctor who crossed the Atlantic in a tiny rubber raft without food or water, the twenty-four-year-old who became the fastest woman to sail around the world alone, and fifteen other singular adventurers whose stories have an enduring capacity to inspire and amaze. Book jacket.

Tom Lochhaas is a book editor and the author of short stories, critical essays, and boating articles. He is also the editor of Treacherous Waters: Stories of Sailors in the Clutch of the Sea, the companion volume to Intrepid Voyagers. A lifelong student of sailing literature, he is preparing for his own transatlantic voyage.

Introduction

Singlehanders

Harry Pidgeon. Around the World Single-Handed

". . . any landsman who builds his own vessel and sails it alone around the world will certainly meet with some adventures . . ."

Vito Dumas. Alone Through the Roaring Forties

"Wave after wave broke over my wretched waterlogged carcass."

Val Howells. Sailing into Solitude

"There's still one devil of a long way to sail . . ."

Alain Bombard. The Bombard Story

"The castaway must never give way to despair . . ."

Tania Aebi (with Bernadette Brennan). Maiden Voyage

"My heart is thumping so hard in my chest and I can't stop the tears of fear. Varuna is carried and thrown with each breaking wave . . ."

Anne Miller. Out of the Blue

"The noise of the surf was deafening, and I prayed that if I died the noise would go away, because I did not wish to leave the world in chaos."

Long-Distance Racers

Francis Chichester. Gipsy Moth Circles the World

"What had I expected from the Roaring Forties? . . . life is never quite like the tidy pattern that imagination makes of it."

Bernard Moitessier. The Long Way

"When you have long skirted vast expanses stretching to the stars, beyond the stars, you come back with different eyes."

Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall. The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst

"By now he had lapsed into a deeper madness . . ."

Naomi James. Alone Around the World

"I felt the shock, a mountain of water crashed against Crusader's hull, and over she went."

Dodge Morgan. The Voyage of American Promise

"There is something very satisfying in dealing with the quick and certain victories and defeats of sailing a small boat alone. There is also the danger and fear of sailing alone."

Ellen MacArthur. Taking On the World

". . . wow! It was amazing, as we just picked up a wave and accelerated, getting faster and faster . . ."

Little Boats

Robert Manry. Tinkerbelle

"Clutched in a welter of sizzling foam, we surfed giddily down the forward slope of a breaking wave . . . It was exciting. It was also dangerous."

Hugo Vihlen. April Fool

The way things are going now, I would welcome a nice cockroach for company."

Gerry Spiess (with Marlin Bree). Alone Against the Atlantic

". . . there was no ship. There would be no ship. I was alone, in the here and now, and I could do was hope to survive."

Human Drama

Miles Smeeton. Once Is Enough

". . . the time . . . would pass quickly as we settled down to our sea-going routine, and cups of tea would follow cups of tea, at about this time, on each succeeding day. . . . another marvellous day of sailing."

Lin and Larry Pardey. Seraffyn's Oriental Adventure

"Up until that moment the Arabs had been just a nuisance. But after that round of gunfire we were scared."

Deborah Shapiro and Rolf Bjelke. Time on Ice

"'Bring me to the midnight sun!' she cries. . . . What an amazing person. Even when injured, she has more spirit than most people."

Appendix 1. Bibliography

Appendix 2. Sources

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