Race Against Time

Just after 10.00 on the night of February 8th 2004, Ellen MacArthur crossed an imaginary line in the sea off Brittany to become the fastest person ever to sail solo round the world. The record was held by a frenchman, Francis Joyon. He'd slashed over 20 days off the previous record and many thought his extraordinary new benchmark would stand for 10 years or more. Most experts thought that the record would be beyond MacArthur. But in a superhuman effort that forced her to dig deeper than ever before, she proved the doubters wrong. Her effort captured the world's imagination and the scenes that greeted her return to Falmouth were euphoric. She had become, some claimed, the finest sailor her country had every produced. Drawing on logs, emails, sound and video diaries, this beautifully designed, fully illustrated book captures the drama, excitement, danger, joy and tears of a truly extraordinary achievement - in Ellen's own words.