On the morning of November 21, 1980, two small boats set out from Cape Cod for Georges Bank, a prosperous fishing ground one hundred miles out to sea. The National Weather Service had forecast typical fall weather, and the young crew aboard the Sea Fever and the Fair Wind had no reason to expect that this trip would be any different from the dozens they’d made earlier in the season. What they didn’t know was that the only weather buoy in the area was malfunctioning as the National Weather Service had failed to reveal this critical data. As the two boats headed out, a colossal storm was brewing, a furious maelstrom that would batter the boats with sixty-foot waves and hurricane-force winds. This true story of catastrophe and survival at sea is a vivid moment-by-moment account of seventy-two hours in the lives of eight men.