Naomi James was the first woman to sail around the globe single-handedly. In June 1978, on her fifty-three-foot sloop Express Crusader, she completed her voyage after 272 days at sea, shaving two days off the record Sir Francis Chichester set in the Gypsy Moth IV in 1967. Her only disappointment was that she could not complete her journey nonstop. In 1980 James broke the women's record for sailing single-handedly across the Atlantic, and in 1982 she and her husband, Rob James, won the Round Britain Race.

Born in Gisborne, New Zealand, on 2 March 1949, Naomi Christine Power is the daughter of Charles Robert Power and Joan Doherty Power. James spent her childhood with her parents, brother, and two sisters on a remote dairy farm in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. They seldom saw people and visited the nearest town only once a year. James's early life gives no indication that she might someday accomplish major...