Unit Two
Text
At sixty-five Francis Chichester set out to sail
single-handed round the world. This is the story of
that adventure.
SAILING ROUND THE WORLD
Before he sailed round the world single-handed, Francis Chichester had
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already surprised his friends several times. He had tried to fly round the
world but failed. That was in 1931.
The years passed. He gave up flying and began sailing. He enjoyed it
greatly. Chichester was already 58 years old when he won the first solo 5
transatlantic sailing race. His old dream of going round the world came
back, but this time he would sail. His friends and doctors did not think he
could do it, as he had lung cancer. But Chichester was determined to carry
out his plan. In August, 1966,
at the age of nearly sixty-five, 10
an age when many men retire,
he began the greatest voyage of
his life.Soon, he was away in
his new 16-metre boat, Gipsy
Moth. 15
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Chichester followed the
route of the great nineteenth
century clipper ships. But the
clippers had had plenty of
crew. Chichester did it all by
himself, even after the main
steering device had been damaged by gales. Chichester covered 14,100
miles before stopping in Sydney, Australia. This was more than twice the
distance anyone had previously sailed alone.
25 He arrived in Australia on 12 December, just 107 days out from Eng-
land. He received a warm welcome from the Australians and from his family
who had flown there to meet him. On shore, Chichester could not walk
without help. Everybody said the same thing: he had done enough; he
must not go any further. But he did not listen.
30 After resting in Sydney for a few weeks, Chichester set off once more
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in spite of his friends'attempts to dissuade him. The second half of his voy-
age was by far the more dangerous part, during which he sailed round the
treacherous Cape Horn.
On 29 January he left Australia. The next night, the blackest he had
35 ever known, the sea became so rough that the boat almost turned over.
Food, clothes, and broken glass were all mixed together. Fortunately, the
damage to the boat was not too serious. Chichester calmly got into bed and
went to sleep. When he woke up, the sea had become calm again. Still, he
could. not help thinking that if anything should happen, the nearest person
40 he could contact by radio, unless there was a ship nearby, would be on an
island 885 miles away.
After succeeding in sailing round Cape Horn, Chichester sent the fol-
lowing radio message to London: -I feel as if I had wakened f rom a night
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mare. Wild horses could not drag me down to Cape Horn and that sinister
45 Southern Ocean again. -
Just before 9 0'clock on Sunday evening 28 May, 1967 , he arrived
back in England, where a quarter of a million people were waiting to wel-
come him. Queen Elizabeth II knighted him with the very sword that
Queen Elizabeth I had used almost 400 years earlier to knight Sir Francis
50 Drake after he had sailed round the world for the first time. The whole voy-
age from England and back had covered 28,500 miles. It had taken him
nine months, of which the sailing time was 226 days. He had done what he
wanted to accomplish.
Like many other adventurers, Chichester had experienced fear and
55 amquered it. In doing so, he had undoubtedly learnt something about him-