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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN num: 9780786707416
ISBN number: 0786707410
Label: Da Capo Press
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: May 08, 2000
Publishing house: Da Capo Press
Sale Popularity Level: 304028
Studio: Da Capo Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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 subsequent 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.
Amazon.com Review:
On 25 December, 1996, Pete Goss turned his 50-foot yacht Aqua Quorum back into a hurricane-force headwind to rescue French sailour Raphael Dinelli. He risked his life and any chance of winning one of the world's great yachting challenges--the Vendee Globe nonstop, single-handed, round-the-world race. Instead, he was awarded France's highest honor, the Legion d'Honneur.
Close to the Wind is Goss's story. He starts the book with his years of preparation as a merchant seaman and skipper on one of the 10 yachts in Chay Blyth's British Steel Challenge. He describes how he attempted to get sponsorship but was constantly rebuffed, and he discusses the hardships he faced--nights before business meetings spent sleeping on platforms because there was no money to spare for a room, for instance. The drama of the Vendee is recounted in detail, down to Goss's having to operate on his elbow without anesthetic and with only the assistance of faxed instructions. And will he race again? In fact, he plans to set off on in a 115-foot catamaran in The Race, December 2000. --Amazon.co.uk
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Pete Goss was born to be close to the wind. Although Goss admits in this autobiography that he had rather weak goals growing up, it is clear that Goss is one of those persons born to be before the mast. Even his nine year stint in the Royal Marines was that of a compleat sailour as his military career focused on representing his Service in a series of transatlantic and other competitions. It all seems too serendipitous, at least until the reader realizes that Goss's life is one where his ambition and his circumstances happily coincide in an almost preordained fashion.
Perhaps that is why Goss's constant (realistic) financial concerns and searches for sponsorship grate so badly upon the reader. His money worries are a consistent theme in CLOSE TO THE WIND. And it is true that had Goss not pressed himself to continually move forward he probably would have been broke and unable to pursue his dreams. To me, Goss is not the bigger hero in this book, but rather his wife Tracey, who never seemed to flag in her devotion either to Pete or to his dreams.
The ultimate dream was to compete in the 1996-97 Vendee Globe, a single-handed circumnavigation across the Southern Ocean. For the Vendee, Pete Goss commissioned the building of "Aqua Quorum" a revolutionary high-speed sailboat with a pendulum keel. "Aqua Quorum" performed magnificently.
And so did Goss. A thousand miles from land in a Christmas Day Austral Summer hurricane under polar conditions, Goss received word that a race competitor, Raphael Dinelli, was aboard his sinking boat and facing certain death. Goss immediately turned "Aqua Quorum" back into the teeth of the storm, sailed nearly 200 miles back on his track, and plucked the hypothermic Dinelli from the sea.
Although Goss came in only fifth (in a field of six finishers) he was awarded the French Legion of Honor and an MBE by Queen Elizabeth for his rescue of Dinelli. CLOSE TO THE WIND is a tale of true heroism told in an honest, unassuming, but never diffident tone by a man who merely did what he felt he had to. And, more important than any accolades, is Goss's pleasure at making a new friend.
Rated by buyers 
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There seems to be an odd hero worship associated with this author and his book about adventure and glory seeking. I found Goss's feats to be impressive but the account disturbing. I finished the book wishing I hadn't read it. He comes across as quite impressed with himself and has little of the modesty and understatement that I have found more typical of good adventure writing. (Compare Bernard Moitessier's books about equally difficult sailing accomplishments.) If you are looking for a philosopher/adventurer, Goss is not it. His reliance on expletives in key passages gives the account a vulgar quality. Like many others I was mystified as to why so much ink was spent on the fund raising effort. There probably was a good story there but I don't think he told it. Clearly Pete Goss is an awesome sailor, but this book portrays him more as attention seeker and even his website still boasts about the rescue. If you haven't read sailing books before read Moitessier or Smeeton instead.
Rated by buyers 
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This book is basically a life story, with no details spared of the races leading up to the vendee, the innumerable business ventures. If you're a novice sailour and want to read this book to learn about racing and bluewater sailing and whatnot, you may find yourself learning more about fundraising, instead.
Granted, it is a decent book, it was a quick and light read, and it really really motivates one to get up and do stuff. While he spends a great deal of time talking about his effort to raise the cash, his tenacity is impressive and inspiring.
Rated by buyers 
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One of the great books of mankind's love for his brother. The strength of that love and the power of that love proven in the ice cold seas of the roaring forties. The saved and the saviour both watched over by an angel named Tracey whose love and faith in her husband, Pete, made it all possible for the heroic rescue of Raphael Dinelli.
Rated by buyers -
A great story of adventure, as the author describes his voyages around the world in several premier yacht races. Of course, the author did not chose a literary profession as a career, but never the less, he does a good job of describing in exciting detail the struggles and achievements of his life long obsession with some of the most challenging sailing events in the world.
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