![]() The yacht suffered major damage and the crew returned to Hobart. ![]() The second attempt, conducted by a Russian-Ukrainian crew on the yacht Scorpius in 2012, ended at the D’Urville Sea. After performing temporary repairs, the crew was forced to retreat to Wellington, New Zealand. The first of them took place in 2005, when the Russian yacht Apostol Anrdey lost her rudder around the Ross Sea. The two known attempts to circle Antarctica’s waters below the 60th parallel ended before reaching the finish line. As a matter of fact, this route is the last significant tabula rasa on the world’s sailing map. Then, as the wind abates to 35 knots, we began to sail again, heading east once more on our voyage round Antarctica.įor years I had dreamed of sailing round Antarctica and within its waters – that is, entirely south of the 60th parallel. At a few hundred metres long and weighing probably tens of millions of tonnes, the ice is pacifying the waves in its lee, as if it were a harbour. We struggle for an hour before finally reaching the shadow of an ice island. Then we slowly start sailing against the wind and the enormous waves towards a giant iceberg that we’d already passed.īig seas and big ‘bergs kept Katharsis II’s crew on their toes We cannot slow down so we turn into irons to stop. The ice is everywhere, and it’s impossible to sail around them safely. In fact we are entering a cemetery of growlers. The waves start to build up, making it harder to manoeuvre in between the icy obstacles.Īfter three hours of running with the storm with the reefed staysail only, we sail in between some icebergs. ![]() The wind rises to over 50 knots, and from time to time, exceeds 60 knots. The wind is far stronger than the gauge was indicating and as the conditions continue to worsen I decide to drop the main. However, barely a half an hour later I have to jump back outside. I think we could still wait, especially considering the weather forecast, which predicts the wind won’t exceed 35 knots. The sea is rather calm and the wind instruments say it’s blowing 25 knots. We were eight days out from the south coast of South Georgia and once again we had skied smack into… ![]()
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