Around Alone not only recounts a remarkable sporting triumph, it also reveals the human side of one of sailing’s brightest new stars.
More people have gone into space than have sailed around the world alone. It is one of the most arduous tests of mental and physical stamina imaginable and the most prolonged endurance trial of any sport. When Emma Richards found that she was the youngest contender—and the only woman—in the 2002 Around Alone race, she wondered what she had gotten herself into.
Yet for Richards, the physical ordeals paled against the “soul-destroying solitude” of months alone aboard a yacht. And when, in the dead of night, her radio warned of marauding pirates, her profound loneliness turned to abject terror.
Emma Charlotte Richards (born in 1975) is a British yachtswoman. In 2002–2003, she became the first British woman and youngest person to complete the Around Alone, a 29,000 mile, single-handed round the world yacht race with stops. She was a crew member during the Volvo Ocean Race 2001–2002 on AMER SPORTS TOO.
From a young age she spent much time sailing. At 11 she competed in dinghy world championships. She took a degree in sports medicine at the University of Glasgow. She was awarded an MBE in the New Years Honours List 2004, in recognition of her achievements.
