Eight young New Zealanders will soon travel in the wake of great polar explorers, sailing from Argentina to Antarctica across the notorious Drake Passage on the historic tall ship Bark EUROPA.
The group of 18 to 30 year olds will set sail in January for a month-long voyage alongside record-breaking sailor Lisa Blair, as part of the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s inspiring explorers expedition.
Wellington global studies graduate Meleki Schulster, 21, said sailing, living and sleeping on a ship would be an entirely new experience.
“It looks like it’s out of the Pirates of the Carribean, it’s so cool. It feels like a crazy adventure and I’m always keen on an adventure,” he said.
“I honestly can’t wait to do it all. I still don’t know how I made it, but I’m so grateful, so honoured and feel so privileged to be in this spot.
“Our ancestors used to use the stars and used to go on voyages with even less crazy boats. It’s going to be a really cool experience to be able to tie it back to them and just inspire people to jump on board.”
The group would learn to sail the ship, with shifts of four hours on and eight hours off, before exploring the Antarctic Peninsula for just over a week.
The Drake Passage was known for its contrasting conditions – the Drake Lake or the Drake Shake.
Blair said the Drake Lake was a calm and quiet sea, while the Drake Shake saw storms thousands of nautical miles wide trying to funnel through the narrow passage.
“It’s luck of the draw. You could be there in a high-pressure system, which is no wind, calm seas, or you could be out there in 10-metre breaking seas. Everyone’s going to be seasick in those conditions. Cold, wet, maybe snowing, like brutal climate so we don’t know what will happen,” she said.
Blair said the Antarctic Heritage Trust aimed to inspire a spirit of adventure by providing opportunities for young people to follow in the footsteps of explorers who traversed the continent more than 100 years ago.
“Part of the inspiring explorers programme is that explorer’s mindset. So fostering their curiosity, their innovation, talking to teamwork, building their resilience and just really structuring their mind to go through challenges that they might face after this,” she said.
Blair holds eight world records, including being the fastest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around Antarctica in 2022.
However, sailing a tall ship would also be a new experience for her and she would have to remember the names of different ropes and 24 sails like everyone else.
Blair said she understood what the group would go through, given she did not start sailing until the age of 25.
“I still really remember my first experience with it and how I struggled in certain things, so just trying to bring that to them and make them feel supported,” she said.
“I really think there’s so much incredible value for us, as a global world, in making sure that the next generation of people coming through can have forged a connection with Antarctica because we don’t protect what we aren’t connected to.”
Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton journeyed to Antarctica on tall ships like the Bark EUROPA.
Bark EUROPA was built in 1911 in Germany as a floating lighthouse on the Elbe river before being converted into a fully-operational sailing ship.
As well as learning to sail the ship, the group would participate in Bark EUROPA’s collaboration with the Polar Citizen Science Collective to gather data such as microplastic sampling and log bird and whale sightings.
By Gwenaёlle Chollet, journalism student
Radio New Zealand, https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/580377/young-new-zealanders-sail-to-antarctica-in-the-wake-of-great-polar-explorers
