Description

The Atlantic is only 3,500 miles wide.

It kills more sailors than oceans twice its size.

Every four years, solo sailors line up in Saint-Malo and sprint alone across the Atlantic in La Route du Rhum—a race so fast, so compressed, and so unforgiving that a single mistake can end everything.

In The Narrow Sea, Julien Peltier takes readers inside the most brutal solo race on Earth, where boats fly at 40 knots, storms stack without escape routes, and exhaustion becomes a permanent state. From the disappearance of Alain Colas to Florence Artaud's historic victory, from multihulls that revolutionized speed to modern foiling machines that strain human limits, this is the untold story of a race that rewards obsession—and punishes hesitation.

Blending investigative reporting, historical narrative, and psychological immersion, The Narrow Sea reveals why short races can be deadlier than long ones, why sailors keep returning despite broken bodies and empty bank accounts, and why the Atlantic never forgets.

For readers of Into Thin Air, The Perfect Storm, and Endurance, this is not a sailing book.

It is a book about speed, solitude, and the thin line between control and chaos.

A standalone volume in The Edge of the World series.