On 29 January he left Australia. The next night, the blackest he had 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 he could contact by radio, unless there was a ship nearby, would be on an island 885 miles away.
1月29日他驶离澳大利亚。第二天夜晚——这是他所经历过的最黑暗的一个夜晚——海面上波涛汹涌,小船几乎被风浪掀翻。食物、衣服、还有碎玻璃,全都混杂在一起了。幸好小船遭到的损坏还不算太严重。奇切斯特镇静地钻进被窝,睡着了。等他醒来时,大海又恢复了平静。然而,他仍禁不住想到,要是果真有什么意外,他能借无线电联系上的人,最近的也要在885英里以外的岛上,除非附近哪儿有条轮船。
After succeeding in sailing round Cape Horn, Chichester sent the following radio message to London: "I feel as if I had wakened from a nightmare. Wild horses could not drag me down to Cape Horn and that sinister Southern Ocean again."
奇切斯特成功地绕过合恩角以后,便通过无线电给伦敦发去如下电文:“我觉得好像刚从噩梦中醒来。就是野马也休想再把我拖回到合恩角和那凶险莫测的南大洋去了。”
Just before 9 o'clock on Sunday evening 28 May, 1967, he arrived back in England, where a quarter of a million people were waiting to welcome him. Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ knighted him with the very sword that Queen Elizabeth I had used almost 400 years earlier to knight Sir Francis Drake after he had sailed round the world for the first time. The whole voyage 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.
1967年5月28日,星期天,晚上将近9点,他回到了英国。有二十五万人等在那儿欢迎他。女王伊丽莎白二世手持宝剑敕封他为爵士。将近400年前,伊丽莎白一世也曾手持同一把宝剑,把爵位赐予完成首次环球航行的弗朗西斯·德雷克爵士。从英国出发,再回到英国,整个航程长达28500英里。奇切斯特一共花了九个月的时间,其中实际航行时间为226天。他终于完成了他想完成的伟业。
Like many other adventurers, Chichester had experienced fear and conquered it. In doing so, he had undoubtedly learnt something about himself. Moreover, in the modern age when human beings depend so much on machines, he had given men throughout the world new pride.
和许多别的冒险家一样,奇切斯特产生过恐惧而又战胜了恐惧。在这一过程中,他无疑对自身有了一些了解。此外,在当今这个人类如此依赖机器的时代,他赋予了全世界的人们以新的自豪感。