In early December 2024, 40-year-old French sailor Charlie Dalin had Antarctica and icebergs to starboard, and behind him lurked a monstrous storm, barreling across the great swath of the Southern Ocean like an atmospheric bowling ball. It packed 60-knot winds and unruly 30-foot waves, living up to its nickname as the Sailor’s Graveyard. Here at the bottom of the globe, too far from rescue and pinned against the great White Continent while leading the Vendée Globe sailing race, Dalin had two choices. The first could cost him the lead, the second his life.

As one would expect from the most successful singlehanded ocean racer of his generation, Dalin went for broke, strapped himself into the pneumatic seat inside his boat’s cramped cockpit and hurled himself along the iceberg’s edge at 20-plus knots.

The environment outside his 60-foot projectile would have brought mere mortals to their knees in prayer, but as the wind shrieked and sharp waves pounded the underside of his carbon-fiber vessel, Dalin was in his element. He was confident his boat would endure the beating and the autopilot would steer it over, under, and through the oceanic minefield.

Consider doing the Dakar Rally, in a self-driving car, at full throttle, day and night, for days on end. Hardly any sleep, eating sporadically, always a wary eye on the weather, but in this case you’re surrounded by water with nobody around for possibly hundreds of miles. That gives a sense of the long, lonely and often stressful stretches of the Vendée Globe, considered the most grueling, nonstop, single-handed race in sailing history. By the end of the race, many of the boats look like they’ve been through a war.

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