Have you ever dreamt of sailing the world? Sir Peter Blake made that dream come true and died a hero!
Sir Peter Blake started sailing at a young age when he was seven he sailed in his first race. Peter lived in Auckland and that's where he gained his love for the sea. Peter was born in 1948 and had 3 siblings their names are Janet Tony and Elizabeth. The family only owned one boat and it was a family boat but when Peter sailed his first race he had his own boat. He and his family lived in a wooden bungalow in Bays water.His father Brian was a Gunboat Captain in World War 2. Brian and Joyce Blake and their children grew up with the sea as their playground.
Peter won the America’s cup twice in a row and won a couple of blue waters races. He also raced 1st Whit bread and that's when he was asked to join a crew with Doug Hazard Red Feather. He did One Ton Cup races. He did the round North Island race when he was asked to join Doug Hazard Red Feather in his first offshore race.
He retired from sailing because the amount of pollution was increasing so he encouraged young sailors to respect the ocean and that's when he became an environmentalist.
He said “I love what I see. I’ve spent so much time on the ocean I guess
I’ve told that story a million times, but to be sailing around the world in our first round the world races when our boats got surrounded in the Southern Ocean by many large albatross,I mean it was extraordinary one week they were there another they were gone.I don’t think my children and their children will be able to see one.I think the world should know that we are part of the environment not out of it.”
Sir Peter Blake is important to us not because he sailed the world or because he won races but because he cared for the ocean and the creatures in it and that's what I call a real hero!
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