SIR CHAY BLYTH
Sir Chay Blyth, born in Hawick in the Scottish Borders in 1940, is unarguably one of our country’s finest adventurers. While in the Parachute Regiment in 1966, he rowed the Atlantic Ocean in a 20ft open Dory alongside Captain John Ridgway, covering 3,000 miles from Cape Cod in North America to the Aran Islands off Ireland in 92 days. (This feat later inspired the creation of The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, AKA ‘the world’s toughest rowing race’). The pair braved two hurricanes and vicious storms, rowed past whales bigger than their boat, and survived on severe rations.
Not content with just one adventure of a lifetime, Blyth made history for a second time in 1971. He became the first person to sail around the world non-stop in a westerly direction – that’s to say, fighting the prevailing winds and current. Going against the terrestrial spin of the globe is something that aviator and fellow yachtsman Sir Francis Chichester (who had completed an around-the-world solo voyage in 1966-1967) had labelled ‘impossible’. When Blyth successfully made it back to the Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble after 292 days at sea, the journey became known as ‘The Impossible Voyage’.
It is said that Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh wanted to be the first person to welcome Blyth ashore – and indeed he was. Prince Charles, Princess Anne and our then Prime Minister Ted Heath were also there alongside Blyth’s family.
‘It’s jolly nice to be back,’ said Blyth, as he made his way onto dry land. That’s right. A perilous journey that lasted nearly a year, and Blyth’s good old-fashioned British spirit still shone through. ‘Extraordinary’ doesn’t quite cover it.