Close to the Wind »

Pete Goss was born in 1961 and as a child traveled around the world with his parents. He served in the Royal Marines for nine years prior to competing in the Vendée Globe Challenge. Goss has been awarded the Légion d'Honneur, France's highest award for gallantry, and the MBE and has been named Yachtsman of the Year. He lives in Cornwall with his family.

On November 3, 1996, former Royal Marine Pete Goss embarked on the most grueling competition in his sailing career: the Vendée Globe, a nonstop, single-handed round-the-world yacht race. For the next seven weeks he met every challenge in his stormy path, from combating waves the height of six-story buildings to grappling with his spinnaker in high winds. Then everything began going wrong: His sails were destroyed, his navigation equipment proved useless. And on Christmas Day his radio picked up a Mayday that a French competitor was sinking 160 miles away. Turning into the hurricane-force winds, Goss set out to rescue a near-dead man on a life raft somewhere in the vast wilderness of the merciless southern ocean. How he did it makes this extraordinary tale as amazing as it is thrilling.

Library Journal

During the 199697 Vende Globe Single-Handed Non-Stop Round-the-World Race, one sailor perished and three had to be rescued in the Southern Ocean off Australia. Goss, a professional British sailor, tells the story of his race experience along with his daring rescue of Frenchman Raphael Dinelli, a fellow racer. Beginning with his career in the Royal Marines, he tells of his love of sailing and his ultimate goal of competing in the Vende. It took him nearly ten years to finance and build his 50' composite boat with an innovative swing keel and lee boards. He constantly struggled for sponsorship to avoid creditors, even to the point of mortgaging his own house. An author promotion site at (http://www.PeteGoss.com) has audio clips of Goss retelling some of the more exciting parts of the book. This is a compelling and well-written account sure to be popular at public libraries.John Kenny, San Francisco P.L.