Due to his parents' modest means, he spent his entire childhood at boarding school. Drake made the Latin motto 'sic parvis, magna' his own, emphasising the fact that despite his humble origins he felt destined for greatness.Ĭhichester was born in 1901 into the humble family of a Church of England clergyman. His reputation of 'Dragon' of the sea, as suggested by his surname, spread quickly after the attack on Cadiz and his incursions in South America and the Caribbean. The eldest of twelve children, at thirteen he boarded a cargo ship and just nine years later became the captain of a ship in the North Sea.

'Sic parvis, magna - Great things from small beginnings'įirstly, they shared the same first name, Francis, they were both born in England, had a humble background, and travelled since a very young age.ĭrake was born around 1540 into a family of farmers. The prayer is an invitation not only to the explorers of the unknown but to us all, it's an exhortation to challenge our limits and 'push back the horizons of our hopes'.īut who were Sir Francis Drake and Sir Francis Chichester and what did they have in common? To cope with the separation from her husband during his solo sailing adventure, Sheila, a strong believer in positive thinking and prayer, had little cards printed out with the prayer attributed to Drake and gave them to friends and family. Sheila Chichester's story made me think of the similarities between two great seafarers who each wrote a chapter of sailing history: Francis Drake and Francis Chichester.

So often, beside every great man there's a great woman. While looking for the third annex to the Italian edition in which he detailed the Gipsy Moth IV's sail plan, I stumbled upon a chapter written by his wife Sheila Chichester. In 1967, Chichester was the first to circumnavigate the globe solo via the three great capes, stopping only once it took him nine months and one day.

In my 'sea library' I found Sir Francis Chichester's 'Gipsy Moth Circles the World'. When I found out about the Global Solo Challenge (GSC) and its innovative format that favours the use of existing boats and no specific class, I went in search of the designs of the vessels used by the pioneers of single-handed sailing around the globe. The epic voyage of Sir Francis Chichester © pitnik

Gipsy moth circles the world