Imagine a sport where the participants put themselves under the same level of stress as a soldier fighting on the front lines of a war, that’s the reality of sailing in the Volvo Ocean Race Round The World. Participants are pushed close to the brink, to that precarious point of balance where one error or an unseen hazard could deliver cataclysmic consequences. It is not a threat Volvo Ocean Race sailors face just once: it is ever-present over months of competition, staged in a coliseum comprising the most menacing of oceans This is Life at the Extreme, a 31,350-nautical-mile endurance test around the planet under sail. Life at the Extreme documents the tragedy and triumph of the Volvo Ocean Race Round The World 2005-06, where sailors on board the fastest single-hulled sailing vessels the world has ever seen pushed themselves to the very edge in pursuit of becoming Volvo Ocean Race champions. For ocean-racing sailors, the Volvo Ocean Race represents the pinnacle of achievement. The world's top offshore sailors and the sport's rising stars team up for a wild ride around the planet in the world's fastest monohulls, racing in the roughest oceans and most dangerous weather nature has to offer. Author Rob Mundle chronicles the remarkable events of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06, where unprecedented speed records were set and unimaginable tragedy occurred.