The Crossing

Living here in the big city, where it is so grey and crowded at the moment, it is hard to imagine that I once crossed the Southern Ocean, sailing all the way from South America to South Africa. People wonder if it isn't boring, spending all that time out at sea with very few landings to break the monotony. Day after day looking
out over a vast ocean, stuck on a small ship with a small group of people.

It's not boring being out there. You always have the world outside the ship to keep an eye on for a start. Sailing from Antarctica via South Georgia to Tristan da Cunha means you get to move from one bird population to another. You start out with the Antarctic birds, the Black-browed Albatrosses, the Penguins, and then you move on to South Georgia, where you get more Wandering Albatrosses and the King Penguins. And then further out on to the ocean you get more kinds of Albatrosses, the Yellow-nosed and the Shy, and more kinds of Petrels and Shearwaters. The Great Shearwaters are such beautiful birds, and this is the only place where you will get to see the Spectacled Petrel. And the landscapes as well as the seascapes are stunning.

Getting closer to South Africa you get to see fewer birds, and you actually get to see some ships. Some are fishing boats that attract all the birds. One of the first big ships we passed got in touch with us on the radio, and it turned out a former Europa crew member was on board. I'd been wearing his waterproof gear for the previous seven weeks.

Travelling all this way also means very slowly travelling from one climate to another, just as you move slowly from one bird population to the next. You start out at the Antarctic Peninsula at the onset of autumn. There are storms, the first snow starts to fall and it is cold and wet. You can't do all the landings you might have wished to do, and you can get a little chilly at times, to put it mildly. Moving towards your first stop it only gets a little warmer. Or we were lucky, when we landed at Grytviken on South Georgia we actually got sunshine, and a lovely walk over to Maiviken. The rest of the trip is a very gradual move from the cold Antarctic to the very warm South Africa. When you plan the trip you think mainly of being on the ship and of being down south, so you have a lot of warm clothes with you. And then you end up in the heat of Africa, going on a short bird safari.

What also keeps you from getting bored is the world inside the ship. Guest and regular crew together build up a routine, that people will quite easily get used to. It's all pretty straightforward. There are the watches to keep you occupied, you can be at the helm, help with all the sailhandling, or take on duties in the galley. The list of jobs to do is endless. When the weather gets a little warmer there is a lot of maintenance work that can be done, fixing things, painting the ship. You get used to getting up in the middle of the night to be up on deck somewhere doing something important. In the dark you get to see the most beautiful skies, because it still is really dark out there. On clear nights you can see all of the Southern sky, you can get beautiful views of the Milky Way. You can also see all the luminescent life beside the ship that migrates up to the surface at night. Little lights above and below you.

Living with a small group of people for several weeks is a very special experience. You get to know people quite well and this is a society you have to be part of for the duration, there is no escape. You are stuck together for seven weeks. There are some people you get to like and you get to spend a lot of time with, and there are people you try not to get too close to if you can help it. And people may move from one category to the next between the start and the end of the trip. A lot happens during that period, and you could write a book just on all that. Reaching Capetown is something of a shock after all that, almost from one moment to the next you move from this tiny, secluded world into all the life and colour of a big city.

Travelling aboard a three mast bark can feel a little like travelling back in time. You cannot hurry, you depend to a great extent on the wind to take you where you want to go. When you are not on watch, when there are no birds, there is time to read. I read all of Dan Brown and all of Jane Austen during this trip, a great way to unwind.

So, if you ever get the chance, take it. The landscape on south Georgia is stunning, Antarctica is a unique place, and Tristan da Cunha is the remotest inhabited island in the world and and well worth a visit. And travelling on a ship is the kind of experience you don't get anywhere else.