But none of that kept me from picturing what a tsunami might look like if it did rise up and roar toward my little boat like some watery blue version of the Great Wall of China.

I am twelve thousand miles wiser, twelve thousand miles more resilient, and I have twelve thousand miles more faith in God.

I was so thankful that my parents trusted me enough and had enough faith in my abilities to let me follow my passion and try to do something great, even if I might fail.

Fewer people have successfully solo-circumnavigated the globe than have journeyed into space.

The things that happen on the sea take you beyond yourself, beyond human capability.

On June 10, the worst storm in the series swept across the middle of the Indian Ocean and Wild Eyes was directly in its path.

I wanted to break the record, of course, and become the youngest person to sail around the world solo and unassisted.

Wild Eyes was built for speed and I was flying down walls of water twenty and thirty feet high.

The open ocean often takes you past your physical limits and when it does, sailing becomes a mental game.

Going up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.

Terror ripped through me as I was falling, falling, falling toward the sea.

And all the insects ceased in honor of the moon.

Population when unchecked increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence only increases in an arithmetical ratio.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

Still, corruption and oppression are far too common threats to the democratic society.

Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom.

I'm a big fan of the Adidas three-stripe old-school zip-up tracksuit tops. I've got several for everyday wear, including an olive-green one, a burgundy one and a cream one with leather arms.

But as long as we think positively, I’m sure a solution will appear.

The truth is obtained like gold, not by letting it grow bigger, but by washing off from it everything that isn't gold

Tis easier to make certain things legal than to make them legitimate.

Values unrelated to modern reality are not just electorally hopeless, the values themselves become devalued. They have no purchase on the real world.