beaches. This included dismantling a wooden storage hut down along the coast and delivering it back to base—all part of the original permit’s conditions. It sounds straightforward, but it took five days to accomplish. Due to the size and rounded shape of the Island, there was significant swell everywhere on every day. We had to move our anchor position many times as the fronts went through one after another, and at 46 ° south with the onset of winter, it was getting chilly, with snow already sticking to the high ground. The cliffs above the east-facing Transvaal Cove host the South African Meteorological Station that has been in existence since the 1940s. It is a science station now, but like so many of these remote pieces of real estate that originally claimed scientific research as a motive for occupation, it was a simple land grab back then, much the same as what happened in present-day British Antarctic Territory during World War II. A British base established in Terra Australis in the early 1940s had the convenient excuse of monitoring German activities in the South Atlantic. This ruse was only revealed when Foreign and Commonwealth Office files that had been closed to the public were discovered by historical researchers in 2010. Let’s call it “the Great Game” of the Southern Ocean. Despite their beauty, Marion, and its outlier Prince Edward Island, are not for the cruiser. They are even more off the beaten path, on the way to nowhere. Gough, which is sort of on a logical route of a north/south passage of the Atlantic if making for Cape Town, is on the edge of the South Atlantic high at 40° south. Why not at least give it a look? This is hard to justify for Marion though, and again a rigorous permitting process from the South African government is designed to keep you off the island. And that brings me to a funny story we heard from the people on Gough about a single-hander who, not long ago, spent several days on the island enjoying himself while getting his engine fixed with help from the base personnel. We heard the same story on Marion. Clever chap! We sailed into Cape Town on April 21. Within three weeks,
Changing out of our dry suits to dismantle the gear hut at Kildalkey Bay.
Greenpeace had taken ownership of Pelagic Australis, after 18 years of adventures in the Southern Ocean under the Pelagic Expeditions brand. We had little time to reflect during what was a tumultuous year and a half for us, let alone the world, but looking back on it now, we managed to cherry-pick our way through a pandemic and survive by grasping what could be construed as far-fetched projects given the time and place. Having good people on board and on shore was no less significant. All this underpins the value of small boats to get stuff done if you are willing to duck and dive through layers of bureaucracy, not to mention Southern Ocean weather systems. In 18 months, from the start of the pandemic, during the swan song of Pelagic Australis, I had set foot on four of the South Sandwich Islands, on Gough, and on Marion. They were all new territory for me, which was a fitting and satisfying end to a great Pelagic story. Pelagic Australis has been re-christened as Greenpeace’s Witness. 2
SKIP NOVAK Best known for his participation in four Whitbread Round the World Races, Skip Novak continues to explore our world. Winner of the Blue Water Medal, CCA’s prestigious award that was given for years of voyaging to high latitudes, his expeditions continue to thrill. Skip joined Vinson of Antarctica, the Pelagic 77 he brought to fruition from concept to launch, and in July of 2021 completed Vinson’s first science expedition to Svalbard, supporting German geologists.
issue 64 2022
85
