This was the challenge faced by eight extraordinary sailors during their around-the-globe competition, the VELUX 5 OCEANS, from October 2006 to May.

Kojiro Shiraishi, a Tokyo-born, Kamakura-raised sailor, completed the 48,280-km (30,000 mile) odyssey in 118 days, 1 hour, 42 minutes, reaching Bilbao, Spain, aboard Spirit of Yukoh in second place behind Bernard Stamm of Switzerland, who got there 15 days earlier.

There were only two stops along the way: Fremantle, Australia, located on the nation’s west coast, and Norfolk, Va. In between, the sailors braved the conditions — isolation, storms, winds, heat, cold — all the while managing themselves and their 18.2-meter…