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Authors: Peter Nichols
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the Canadian Arctic. Ridgway always acquitted himself well, but Blyth positively embraced hardship.
Blyth had watched Ridgway first prepare for the OSTAR and then set his sights on a nonstop circumnavigation with irresistible envy. It seemed to him the grandest survival test of all. Ridgway had done some sailing and had made his 500-mile solo passage to Fastnet Rock and back, but Blyth had never sailed a mile. It didnât faze him; before he set off to row across the Atlantic, Chay Blyth had never even been aboard a boat. When he decided that he too wanted to sail alone around the world, nobody thought to ask a man who had rowed across the Atlantic what his qualifications were. If Ridgway could do it, so could Blyth.
Exactly as happened with Ridgway, Blyth was readily offered the use of a boat by a company eager to see its product tested in the high-stakes arena of a round-the-world race. The boat, named
Dytiscus III
, was a Kingfisher 30, another bilge-keeler, almost identical to Ridgwayâs
English Rose IV
.
Sailors, navigators, experts of all sorts lined up to instruct him and help him on his way. When he confessed to them his complete lack of sailing experience, none suggested it was absolute madness for a novice to sail to the Southern Ocean and Cape Horn in abilge-keeled family cruiser. All of them wilfully shoved common sense aside. Some did express doubts about the boat, but they all helped Blyth, eagerly, towards the edge of an abyss that none of them would have approached themselves.
Although they were preparing their boats at the same time, a quarter of a mile apart on the Hamble River, and saw each other often, Blyth didnât tell his former partner of his plans until shortly before they both left. He was too afraid Ridgway would ask him the question nobody else was asking: âWhat in Godâs name do you think youâre doing?â He concentrated on his preparations and studiously avoided examining the overwhelming weight of reasons against going.
Chayâs wife, Maureen, proved his most ardent champion and ally. Although their daughter was just 10 months old at the time of his departure, Maureen too looked only on the positive side. She helped him plan, pushed him on, and organised and packed all his food supplies, giving him an ample, healthy, and varied diet, including packages of paella, tins of haggis and roasted grouse, and a seemingly limitless supply of his favourite sweets, Smarties. Once at sea, he ate better than most of his competitors.
On the day of his departure â 8 June, one week after Ridgway had set sail â the 27-year-old Blyth told a
Sunday Times
reporter his reasons for going. âOut here itâs all black and white, all survival. Iâm not particularly fond of the sea, itâs just a question of survival.â
Few people leaving a dock for an afternoonâs sail in a dinghy have cast off with less experience than Chay Blyth had when he set off to sail alone around the world. Overwhelmed by the details of outfitting his boat, he never managed, as he had once hoped, the OSTARâs 500-mile qualifying passage (not required under Golden Globe rules, which, in the interest of including all-comers, conveniently presumed a certain level of competence). Chay Blyth had sailed no more than 6 miles by himself, and that in mostly calm conditions.
Friends came aboard
Dytiscus III
that Saturday morning, raised and set the sails and the self-steering gear, and then got off,while others went ahead in another sailboat so that Blyth could copy their manoeuvres as he left port under the gaze of television cameras. But with the wind vane steering the boat, there was nothing for him to do, so he sailed away with his hands in his pockets until he was out of sight.
Then he discovered he was lost. Out of sight of land for the first time, his hastily acquired navigational techniques deserted him. He knew only that he was somewhere in the English Channel, and that
Blyth had watched Ridgway first prepare for the OSTAR and then set his sights on a nonstop circumnavigation with irresistible envy. It seemed to him the grandest survival test of all. Ridgway had done some sailing and had made his 500-mile solo passage to Fastnet Rock and back, but Blyth had never sailed a mile. It didnât faze him; before he set off to row across the Atlantic, Chay Blyth had never even been aboard a boat. When he decided that he too wanted to sail alone around the world, nobody thought to ask a man who had rowed across the Atlantic what his qualifications were. If Ridgway could do it, so could Blyth.
Exactly as happened with Ridgway, Blyth was readily offered the use of a boat by a company eager to see its product tested in the high-stakes arena of a round-the-world race. The boat, named
Dytiscus III
, was a Kingfisher 30, another bilge-keeler, almost identical to Ridgwayâs
English Rose IV
.
Sailors, navigators, experts of all sorts lined up to instruct him and help him on his way. When he confessed to them his complete lack of sailing experience, none suggested it was absolute madness for a novice to sail to the Southern Ocean and Cape Horn in abilge-keeled family cruiser. All of them wilfully shoved common sense aside. Some did express doubts about the boat, but they all helped Blyth, eagerly, towards the edge of an abyss that none of them would have approached themselves.
Although they were preparing their boats at the same time, a quarter of a mile apart on the Hamble River, and saw each other often, Blyth didnât tell his former partner of his plans until shortly before they both left. He was too afraid Ridgway would ask him the question nobody else was asking: âWhat in Godâs name do you think youâre doing?â He concentrated on his preparations and studiously avoided examining the overwhelming weight of reasons against going.
Chayâs wife, Maureen, proved his most ardent champion and ally. Although their daughter was just 10 months old at the time of his departure, Maureen too looked only on the positive side. She helped him plan, pushed him on, and organised and packed all his food supplies, giving him an ample, healthy, and varied diet, including packages of paella, tins of haggis and roasted grouse, and a seemingly limitless supply of his favourite sweets, Smarties. Once at sea, he ate better than most of his competitors.
On the day of his departure â 8 June, one week after Ridgway had set sail â the 27-year-old Blyth told a
Sunday Times
reporter his reasons for going. âOut here itâs all black and white, all survival. Iâm not particularly fond of the sea, itâs just a question of survival.â
Few people leaving a dock for an afternoonâs sail in a dinghy have cast off with less experience than Chay Blyth had when he set off to sail alone around the world. Overwhelmed by the details of outfitting his boat, he never managed, as he had once hoped, the OSTARâs 500-mile qualifying passage (not required under Golden Globe rules, which, in the interest of including all-comers, conveniently presumed a certain level of competence). Chay Blyth had sailed no more than 6 miles by himself, and that in mostly calm conditions.
Friends came aboard
Dytiscus III
that Saturday morning, raised and set the sails and the self-steering gear, and then got off,while others went ahead in another sailboat so that Blyth could copy their manoeuvres as he left port under the gaze of television cameras. But with the wind vane steering the boat, there was nothing for him to do, so he sailed away with his hands in his pockets until he was out of sight.
Then he discovered he was lost. Out of sight of land for the first time, his hastily acquired navigational techniques deserted him. He knew only that he was somewhere in the English Channel, and that
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