When Emma Richards found herself as the youngest contender and only woman in the 2002 Around Alone race, she wondered what she had let herself in for. The 132 days and 29,000 nautical miles she spent alone at sea would prove the maturing of a naturally talented sportswoman and a remarkable human being.
Already a resilient yachtswoman, Emma quickly became her own navigator, engineer, sailmaker, doctor, rigger, cook, mechanic and computer specialist. She encountered and overcame extraordinary trials: poor and erratic weather, the threat of icebergs, a rogue supertanker, whales, extreme sleep deprivation, ravaged hands and multiple setbacks. She also fought through two tumultuous storms and bolts of lightning so fierce she could smell the burning as they flashed in the sea around her. Climbing an 82-foot mast to make emergency repairs in treacherous conditions left her battered and injured, stumbling like a newborn giraffe. Survival became as important as success.
Yet for Emma Richards the physical trials were nothing compared to struggling through the soul-destroying solitude of months alone in a yacht. And when a mystery crackle on the radio in the dead of night followed warnings of marauding pirates, the loneliness turned to abject terror.
"Around Alone" tells of a young woman's battle with the elements as she crossed 30,000 nautical miles for 132 days in a yacht. Adrift in pirate-infested waters, coping with soul-destroying solitude, this is the story of Emma Richards' epic, solo, round-the-world race.
