I’m going to give it my everything. I’m going to give everything to the competition, but my world doesn’t end there. I am not going to try to beat everyone at all costs. I want this to be beautiful. … Ocean racing is about more than competition.
Isabelle Joschke looked death in the face, and prepared her life raft.

The 2016 British Transat got off to a rough start. Two boats dropped out in the first two days, then the weather collapsed. Joschke was in a match with a British boat when her boat’s hull cracked on the port side and began shipping water. Here’s her account:

• “I had to go on port tack, which made me head towards an area with icebergs. I entered that ice zone at night, and I was not able to leave until the next morning. I couldn’t see anything in the night, the boat would not go less than 5 knots, and I was in a place where no cargo ships were passing because we were in iceberg country. I was in a no man’s land. I still see myself saying to myself: ‘There you are, there is no way out, you can’t do anything more but do not stress any more about it.’
• “I prepared my survival canister, my TPS suit, and the raft. I would never have imagined it this way. I thought I was going to be a bag of nerves but I went to sleep, feeling a bit confident. I was ready.”