Imagine sailing around the world alone. For eight months you are surrounded by churning seas and wide open skies. All the responsibilities of navigation, repair and survival rest on your shoulders twenty-four hours a day. Does this sound fun, or crazy? To some people like the Around Alone sailors, it sounds downright irresistible. Throughout recorded history, more people have traveled into space than have sailed around the world alone, the ultimate test of seamanship and courage. BORN TO THE WIND captures the human drama of sixteen sailors as they set sail from Charleston, South Carolina in the Around Alone 1998-99 Race. Covering 27,000 miles, they spend eight months at sea battling hurricane force winds, loneliness and frustration. Before the winner crosses the finish line a Russian sailor is forced to perform surgery on himself. A skipper loses her boat after capsizing 1500 miles west of Cape Horn and is rescued twenty-four hours later by a fellow competitor. Remote controlled video cameras make it possible to record an unprecedented visual history of this global event.