The former Royal Marine won international fame in 1997 when he was rescued after surviving on "sheer determination, a little water and a little chocolate" for five days in the upturned hull of his boat in the Southern Ocean during the Vendee Globe race.
Later, I went on my laptop, logged on to Google Earth, found Madagascar, and was able to visually travel across the ocean from that island country to Cape Town by slowly spinning the globe with a click-and-drag.
Mr Goss became a global hero when he turned back in a southern ocean hurricane to rescue fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli in the 1996-97 Vende Globe round the world single-handed race.
Just this week James Cameron took a solo dive to the deepest part of the ocean, while Sir Richard Branson used millions to fund his attempts to travel around the globe in a balloon.