Pete Goss became a national hero on Christmas Day, 1996. While competing in the Vendee Globe, the non-stop, single-handed round-the-world yacht race, recognized as one of the ultimate human challenges, he received a Mayday from Frenchman and fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli. Turning into hurricane-force winds in the desolate wastes of the southern ocean, he scuppered his own chances in the race. However, forty-eight hours later the impossible had been achieved as he pulled the near-dead Dinelli from his life raft. Here, Pete Goss shares his adventures, thoughts, hardships and philosophy -- and the lessons learned -- during the race and the ten years of preparation for it.