Around South Georgia

Overview

During the months of October and November of 2005 I was fortunate enough to be invited along to assist a team called Adventure Philosophy. This is a New Zealand expedition team comprised of Graham Charles, Mark Jones and Marcus Waters who were aiming to be the first to circumnavigate the Island of South Georgia in sea kayaks.
Adventure Philosophy had previously been the first to sea kayak the entire length of the Antarctic Peninsula in 2001 and then in 2003 they sea kayaked 500km up the Beagal Channel, then traded paddles for crampons and pioneered a new route through the rugged Cordillera Darwin in Terra Del Fuego, Southern Chilie.

Oct 2005, Adventure Philosophy flew from NZ to the Falkland Islands and launched an attempt. Sharing a latitude with Cape Horn, South Georgia is situated 1400km East of the Falkland Islands and is exposed to some of the most inhospitable weather on the planet.
Sailing onboard the “Northhanger” a 54 four steel hulled ketch specifically designed for travel in the Polar regions, the team set off Oct 6th from Stanley the Falkland Islands main center and headed towards the Antarctic convergence on route to South Georgia.
South Georgia is a wildlife haven and has been referred to as the “Serengeti of the Polar regions” Returning in their thousands in spring each year masses of Elephant seals, Fur Seals, Albatross, and Penguins all congregate on the shores of this remote island to breed.
The numbers of each species are so prolific the beaches with which one would use to land ashore or camp are fiercely guarded and real estate is a scarce commodity.

Kevin Nicolas and myself fulfilled the role of crew members aboard “Northhanger” and were responsible for the supply of weather information to the kayakers as they progressed. Equipped with video and stills camera’s the “2nd unit” would often gain high vantage points in order to capture the kayakers paddling along the precipitous snow covered coastline.

The circumnavigation took 19 days to complete. Paddling in demanding conditions. The kayakers were tested the entire time by temperatures so cold ice formed on the kayaks whilst paddling and the winds were rarely blowing in their favour. The freezing conditions combined with the constant contact with turbulent seas and head winds made progress slow and incredibly hard work.
South Georgia’s southwest coast was the most exposed section of the journey. Huge peaks overlooking the sea, the terminal faces of glaciers protruding into the ocean and the predominantly westerly weather systems racing across out of the Drake Passage. Once the team rounded the southern most point of the island “Cape Disappointment” and continued around into the slightly more protected bays of the East coast they knew the trip was in the bag.
Before Returning to the Falkland islands the team retraced Sir Ernest Shacklton’s footsteps crossing the island from Posession Bay over into King Haakon Bay a trail Shacklton and his men traveled during their British Trans- Antarctic Expedition in 1914.