On Sunday November 20, 2011 I sail for Antarctica. That’s something I’ve done more than 100 times before. But right now I’m as excited as I’ve ever been before. As I think back, I realise there hasn’t been a time when I wasn’t excited about travelling South – I’ll stop going when that happens. But there have been three polar voyages that stand out as special highlights.
There was my first time, sailing on the Kapitan Khlebnikov (on its final Antarctic season this year) down to the Ross Sea. I remember sitting in Christchurch’s Hotel Grand Chancellor (itself condemned after the February earthquake) – it was 1994 and after more than two decades of solid travel I realising my legs were shaking with excitement. Antarctica didn’t disappoint – it was the start of a long love affair with The Ice.
In 1999 I finally achieved another dream when I sailed to South Georgia for the first time. Earlier that year – on January 5, the day after my birthday I achieved my own personal goal when I rode my motorcycle on Antarctica – at Argentina’s Esperanza base. It was the first time anyone had accomplished a seven-continent motorcycle ride so the whole world was mine.
Now, 12 years later, I’m to be part of more mainstream Antarctic history. When the Akademik Ioffe chartered by One Ocean Expeditions for the season sails from Ushuaia with 80 passengers plus staff and special guests it will be the last voyage of the Heroic Age of polar exploration.
The story begins almost 90 years ago, again on January 5 but in the year 1922, when Sir Ernest Shackleton died aboard the Quest in Grytviken Harbour at 2.50am. He was buried there and his grave is a place of pilgrimage. His beloved and very capable Second-in-Command was Frank Wild who ended up living, and dying, in South Africa. His wish was to be buried alongside the Boss but he died two weeks before the start of WW2. Not only was his wish not carried out but his cremated remains were lost (insofar as no one recalled where they were).
Enter Angie Butler, a British journalist and polar historian, whose long search for Wild’s ashes is recounted in The Quest for Frank Wild, released in the UK on 1 August 2011. She finally traced Wild’s remains in Johannesburg, the South Georgia government gave permission for Wild to be reburied in the Whalers’ Graveyard in Grytviken, and One Ocean agreed to carry them.
A funeral needs friends and family and we have quite a cast turning out for this one. Several of Wild’s grand and great-great nieces and nephews (who are Australian) are coming. Of course Angie Bulter will be there. And the Hon. Alexandra Shackleton (better known as Zaz) is representing her grandfather. Andrew Prossin, the owner of One Ocean, is the Expedition Leader and he asked me, his first non-owner EL to come along so we can achieve both the Wild goals and the goals of a regular voyage to the Falklands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula.
As I’ve been writing this my legs have started shaking with anticipation again. Excited? You bet.
David McGonigal’s Voyage Reports of this historic Antarctic trip will appear on www.antarcticguide.dev whenever ship communications allow. You can sign up on site to receive notification when each new one appears.
