I need not have worried about being unable to think of any queer behaviour of mine because in the end he said that he was investigating the effects of solitude with a view to forecasting what it would be like for the astronauts when projected into space. I’m relating this because since then I’ve come to some conclusions about it. First that the sailing solitude doesn’t have a real bearing on what the space travellers are likely to experience. On recalling some of my flights, I think that the sort of desolate loneliness you can experience in the air is quite a different matter. In 1931, nearly thirty years ago, I was making a solo flight in a seaplane from New Zealand to Japan, the first time that a long-distance flight had been made solo in a seaplane. I was crossing from New Zealand to Australia, 1,450 statute miles of a sea crossing and I was having a rough time between the small island of Lord Howe and the Australian continent. I had motor trouble, got into a severe small storm, and for hour after hour, had been expecting to be dumped into the sea. I remember that in this situation I had a desolate feeling of loneliness, such as I’ve never experienced at sea. When I reached safety and friendly people I felt cut off from them by a bottomless gulf of loneliness. I wrote then, ‘If man ever files alone out of the earth’s atmosphere into space – to the moon – though he return safely, he will not live. The awful emptiness of space will change his soul and isolate it. Never again will he be able to make contact with man, beast, plant, or anything. And across the gulf of unutterable loneliness cutting him off from the world he once knew, he will only see distantly through a film of strange, hard air. Perhaps the soul, belonging to space, will have recognized its home, and languish in utter loneliness for it until, loosening its hold on the body, it floats back again.’ This was my view nearly thirty years ago. Well, we shall soon know now. I wonder how it will turn out.
In this race I lost 10 pounds and I think I did a tremendous amount of work with my heavy gear. Blondie Hasler, who asserts that he did no work and held the helm for only one hour between the two continents also lost 10 pounds. David Lewis who had the most dehydrated foods and antibiotics, medicines and what not, lost 20 pounds. Val in Eira lost 18 pounds.
During my race I wrote a diary account of 50,500 words. You may wonder how I managed to do this when I complained continually of being overworked. Daily after breakfast when I had come through the night and was feeling rather pleased and optimistic with the next night some way off, I used to settle down after breakfast, get out my blue book and imagine I was talking to my wife or some friend. I used to look forward to starting my little prattle. And again later in the day with a glass of whisky in hand.
If you ask me whether I would enter for another solo Atlantic race, I would answer that perhaps it is a bit too soon after this one to answer, but I do feel I learned so much that I could knock time off my present record if I had the gear and boat that I would like and it certainly would be great sport to try.
SOLO ATLANTIC RACE 1960
Gipsy Moth III
No.1 jib (genoa)
No.2 jib
No.3 jib
No. 4 jib
No jib set
Ghoster jib
Full mainsail
Main with one reef
Main with two reefs
Main with three reefs
Trysail
No mainsail or trysail
No.1. jib boomed out
as spinnaker
No.2 do.
Bare poles
SAIL CHANGES
No. of Total of
times set hrs. set
17 398·58
11 246·00
7 144·45
1 24·00
3 12·50
3 22·05
23 418·00
6 42·50
4 37·35
6 58·04
7 79·15
25 186·56
2 35·22
2 33·22
5 47·50
Average
No. hrs. set
23·28
22·22
21·41
24·00
04·17
07·22
18·10
07·08
09·24
14·21
11·19
07·29
17·41
16·41
09·34
WIND
On the wind
636·24 hrs. = 26 days 12 hrs. 24 mins.
Wind-free
288·16 hrs. = 12 days 00 hrs. 16 mins.
Bare poles
47·50 hrs. = 1 day 23 hrs. 50 mins.
Total
972·30 hrs. = 40 days 12 hrs. 30 mins.
FOG 16 times 345·02 hrs. = 14 days 09 hrs. 02 mins. This amounts to over 1,430 miles of the route.
Glossary
After-peak
The lazarette or small hold under the counter.
Batten, sail
A long thin strip of plastic or wood inserted in a
pocket of the mainsail to keep the outer edge
from curling or flapping.
Block
Pulley.
Boom
A wooden pole with one end attached to the
mast – used to keep a sail outstretched.
Bowse down
To pull down forcibly with a rope or tackle.
Brail
To gather a sail together with a rope round it.
Burgee
A triangular flag, usually of a club, hoisted to the
masthead and useful for showing the wind
direction.
Check
To slack away a rope gently while keeping a
strain on it.
Cleat
A two-horned piece of wood bolted to a yacht
for securing the end of a rope.
Clew
The corner of a sail at the foot and outboard
(see sheets).
Counter
The curved overhanging part of a yacht’s stern.
Cringle
An eye or hole in a sail, usually protected by a
metal eyelet.
Dodger
A length of canvas or terylene lashed to the
lifeline and bulwark to keep spray out of the
cockpit.
Dolphin
A large post or pole driven into the river bed for boats to be moored to the top.
Earing
A length of cord attached to the sail to draw
part of it to the boom when reefing.
Gaff
A spar or pole with one end attached to a mast and the other end cocked up.
Genoa or
On a yacht usually the biggest jib with a long
genny
foot reaching from the stem to well aft of the
mast. G.M. III’s genoa is the No. 1 jib of 380
square feet; the ghosting genoa, a light jib of
385½ square feet for zephyrs.
Gooseneck
The fitting at the end of a boom for attaching
the boom to the mast.
Goosewinged
On a yacht it describes a jib set on the opposite
side to the mainsail, usually poled or boomed
outboard.
Grommet
A ring of rope made up to appear endless. A
deck quoit is a grommet.
Guy
A rope used to steady or keep in position
anything which otherwise would move.
Gybe
Turning a yacht downwind from one side of the wind to the other.
Halliard
In a yacht it is a rope of wire or cordage used to haul the head of a sail up a mast.
Hank
A metal link for attaching a sail to a stay.
Jib
A foresail. Formerly a sail set or tacked to the
jibboom or bowsprit projecting forward from the
stem; now the name for any foresail set on the
for
estay from stem to mast. G.M. has 5 jibs from
the ghosting genoa of 385 square feet to the
storm jib of 65 square feet.
Jigger
For G.M. III a short length of rope which can be
attached to a taut rope so as to take the strain
off it. Useful to release a sheet jammed on a
winch.
Jumper strut
Usually a short length of wood at right angles to the mast with a wire or jumper passing over the end of the strut to the mast, above and below, like a drawn bowstring and an arrow. It prevents the mast from bending.
Kedge
For a yacht a kedge means a light anchor usually
on a rope; and kedging means using a small
anchor to haul the yacht off mud or sandbanks.
Lee helm
Helm pushed over to the downwind side.
Leech
The sloping edge of a sail. It is the edge outboard or farthest aft.
Leeward
Downwind.
Log
A propeller drawn through the water, operating a
mileometer on the yacht to register the distance
sailed.
Luff
To head up the yacht towards the wind.
Pay off
To slack away or fall off to leeward.
Piston hanks
See Hank.
Port
Red – left-hand side looking ahead.
Preventer
A rope to limit the movement of something on a yacht such as a boom. (In 1711 it meant an extra rope used for additional strength.)
Pulpit
A metal framework projecting forward from the stem or aft from the stern.
Purchase
A device for increasing an applied pull.
Putty
Slang for mudbank.
Reach
Sailing with the wind more or less broadside on
Reef
To roll or brail up the lowest part of a sail to
reduce the windage.
Reeve
Thread or pass a rope through.
Rode
Wind-rode means caused by the wind to head
upwind; Tide-road means caused by the tide to
point upstream.
Runner
A rope with a tackle or purchase for staying a
mast from aft. In a yacht the bottom end can be
released from the deck.
Shackle
A link which is opened and closed to join chain to anchor, sheet to sail clew, etc.
Sheave
Pulley-wheel.
Sheet
The rope attached to the corner of a sail
outboard or farthest aft.
Slide
A wire rope used to stay or hold a mast in
position.
Slatting
Flapping with a sharp crack.
Shroud
A slide is a piece of metal moving along a metal groove or track. The mainsail is attached to a number of these which slide up the track on the mast.
Sole
Cabin sole means the floor of the cabin.
Spanker
A fore-and-aft sail with boom and gaff at the aft end of the ship.
Spinnaker
A sail ballooned out by poling one corner
outward.
Starboard
Green – right-hand side looking ahead.
Stranded
A rope with one of the strands parted or broken.
Strop
A spliced ring of rope.
Tackle
Blocks and rope used to increase a pull. A
three-part tackle has three ‘parts’of rope at the
moving block and increases the pull by nearly
three times.
Tiller-line
A length of cord for holding the tiller in position or controlling it.
Topping lift
A halliard or stay with a tackle for lifting a boom.
Transom
The flat end of a yacht which gives the stern a sawn-off look.
Warp
A rope such as used for moving a ship.
Weather, to
Means towards the direction from which the wind is coming.
Whipping
A binding at the end of a rope to prevent its fraying.
Copyright
First published in 1968 by Allen & Unwin
This edition published 2012 by Bello an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR Basingstoke and Oxford Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com/imprints/bello
www.curtisbrown.co.uk
ISBN 978-1-4472-3404-3 EPUB
ISBN 978-1-4472-3403-6 POD
Copyright © Francis Chichester, 1968
The right of Francis Chichester to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders of the material reproduced in this book. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to make restitution at the earliest opportunity.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The Macmillan Group has no responsibility for the information provided by any author websites whose address you obtain from this book (‘author websites’).
The inclusion of author website addresses in this book does not constitute an endorsement by or association with us of such sites or the content, products, advertising or other materials presented on such sites.
This book remains true to the original in every way. Some aspects may appear out-of-date to modern-day readers. Bello makes no apology for this, as to retrospectively change any content would be anachronistic and undermine the authenticity of the original.
Bello has no responsibility for the content of the material in this book. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not constitute an endorsement by, or association with, us of the characterization and content.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books
and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and
news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters
so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.
Alone Across the Atlantic Page 19