SAILING A LEGEND
The year is 1968 and my uncle and I watch the TV in the far north of Scotland – black and white images of a yacht surrounded by smaller boats making its way into harbour. The announcer is describing the arrival back in Britain of Francis Chichester after a record-breaking circumnavigation on his yacht Gipsy Moth IV – the first person to singlehandedly sail around the globe via Cape Horn.
It seemed unimaginable to me, as a small boy, what Chichester had done. Of course, Uncle Wullie had been around the globe several times as a merchant seaman, but the realisation that Chichester did it alone inspired me towards sailing from that moment on.
Chichester’s voyage had only one planned stop-over, a place called Sydney, somewhere I’d only vaguely heard of. While wrestling with the boat in Bass Strait he was annoyed to see a motorboat approaching his yawing yacht. On board was yachting journalist Lou d’Alpuget armed with whisky and onions – a determined bid to get a scoop on Chichester’s arrival in Sydney. I’m not sure if the expletive-ridden conversation was ever published fully.
The tired Englishman had good reason for his black mood on that day in 1967 – he was exhausted from coaxing what was already a badly-performing boat through the Indian Ocean without self-steering.
