Chay Blyth, the first person to sail around the world from east to west, is now "Sir Chay."
Princess Anne, filling in for her mother, Queen Elizabeth II, knighted the 57-year-old son of a Scottish railway worker Thursday at Buckingham Palace."It's extraordinary if you think that I have come from such a working-class background," Blyth said.
When he set out on his first great adventure, rowing with fellow paratrooper John Ridgeway from the United States to Ireland in 1966, Blyth had never sailed more than six miles.
Four years later, he began his solo nonstop trip around the world in the 59-foot yacht British Steel. He returned to Britain on Aug. 6, 1971, after 292 days at sea.
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