There are three rules to remember when sailing the Southern Ocean,” said Brandon Kleyn, expedition leader on the Diana, as we prepared to depart Cape Town on the most unusual route heading to Antarctica this season.
“Rule one. Be flexible. Two, show flexibility. Three, remember rule one,” he said prophetically, as a sudden sea storm delayed the departure of our 20-day voyage – one that would ultimately fail to reach Antarctica at all and make global headlines.
Almost Shackleton-like in ambition, the plan was to cross the entire South Atlantic Ocean from Cape Town to Cape Horn on a 6,800-kilometre journey via Tristan da Cunha and South Georgia to the Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctica is more usually reached by cruise ships in just two days from Ushuaia in Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego.
So why on earth would you want to take so long to reach the frozen continent? Well, this was a repositioning cruise, which can offer some of the best value deals and most adventurous voyages on the high seas. Diana was being manoeuvred from the Arctic to commence its Antarctic season. This nine-deck ice-strengthened vessel was almost full, with 177 passengers from Europe, China, Russia and North America.
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“We booked it because it was way cheaper than other sailings to Antarctica and we wanted to see South Georgia, which is difficult and expensive to reach,” said travelling friends Diane Rainsford and Anne Kramer from Oregon. “I booked it late and they waived the single supplement,” added solo German traveller Conradin Weindl.
There was a buzz of excitement about sailing via Tristan da Cunha: a Shangri-La of remoteness visited by few ships of any kind. It would take five days sailing westwards to reach the island’s 237 British citizens.
Landing on Tristan was no certainty though, warned Brandon. “It has some of the angriest seas on Earth surrounding it,” he said. Only six of the 10 cruise ships that visited Tristan last year were able to get ashore, as landing requires a small boat tender. Sure enough, winds whipped up whitecaps in sight of the tin-roofed cottages of Tristan’s only settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, yet during a brief lull we motored over on zodiac inflatables to set foot on territory claimed by Britain in 1816.
With the appearance of a small British farming community, and cows and sheep grazing around the cottages, the settlement is dwarfed by a volcano that last erupted in 1961. Islander Stan Swain gave us a quick tour around. “I was 13 when the volcano erupted and was evacuated to Britain for several years. It was quite a shock encountering so many people after living here among a few hundred,” he recalled. He said the islanders were getting older and soon wouldn’t be able to harvest lobsters – Tristan’s main source of revenue.
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There was time for me to send a postcard from the post office, which the postmistress warned would take months to reach the UK, and pop into the Albatross Bar for a swift half where they’d cooked Tristan lobster tails to taste at £2.50 for two.
The next 1,450 nautical miles of horizonless Atlantic towards South Georgia reinforced the isolation. Lectures on board prepared us for an island best known for where Sir Ernest Shackleton escaped to in 1916 after Endurance sank in Antarctica. South Georgia receives around 16,000 travellers each year, but no other vessel approaches it from the mid-South Atlantic. During the 2023-24 Antarctic cruise season, avian influenza broke out and restricted landings on some of South Georgia’s key wildlife beaches harbouring more than two million penguins.
Thus, a few days before reaching South Georgia we started biosecurity preparations for the visit, scrubbing clean all outside gear and checking Velcro for seeds we might inadvertently introduce onto the island. It was around this time that Diana, a newish vessel, developed a slight juddering – although it seemed no great deal at the time.
We disembarked at Grytviken’s former whaling station, inhabited only by British Antarctic Survey scientists and South Georgia Heritage Trust staff who run another post office, museum, and shop. The main victims of the avian flu outbreak were not birds but elephant seals. These half-tonne colossi were not wiped out but have returned to the beaches, where we encountered them spreadeagled among Grytviken’s rusting whale-oil tanks and beached harpoon vessels. They snorted lazily when I passed them walking to the grave of Shackleton, who died here on board Quest in 1922. Decorum dictates you toast the “Boss” with a tot of whisky.
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Elsewhere, South Georgia’s wildlife abundance is as magnificent as Antarctica. A combination of whaling’s abandonment in the mid-1960s and the establishment of a marine protection zone 200 miles wide has ensured wildlife populations have exploded. Now it’s often referred to as the world’s only ecosystem in recovery. At St Andrews’ Bay, we marvelled at 150,000 breeding pairs of golden-necked king penguins.
After 10 sea days, the voyage’s preamble seemed over as Antarctica beckoned. We were two sailing days away, appetites whetted by behemoth tabular icebergs floating northwards from the frozen continent while snow petrels, the “Angels of Antarctica”, ghosted by like icy spirits.
Yet our skipper, Captain Strømnes, had bad news.
We’d slowed dramatically to seven knots, and the propellor shaft (one of two) was unfixable, he told us: “We have to cancel Antarctica and sail straight to Ushuaia for repairs. It isn’t safe to take the vessel south to Antarctica.”
Thus began a wounded limp west during a further seven days at sea. There was disappointment on board and passengers were offered compensation by the company, Swan Hellenic. Not enough in some eyes: three Russian passengers began a hunger strike for more money while other guests wore hastily drawn placards demanding a 100 per cent refund. Our voyage made international – and mostly over-the-top – headlines.
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“We’re disappointed not to make it to Antarctica, but we’ve seen wonderful things like Tristan and South Georgia,” said Diane and Anna. “You never know how things are going to turn out down here, it’s all part of the adventure.”
The final week moved slowly in time as we became the most infamous cruise ship on the seas. Seeking refuge from the hullaballoo, I spent hours on the aft deck absorbing the Atlantic’s rhythmic swell and delighting at the aerodynamism of albatross and distant whale blows, before we finally reached Ushuaia.
The epic achievement – Antarctic disappointment aside – of crossing the South Atlantic Ocean felt a little lost amid the protest and hype. This was a magnificently ambitious odyssey of unpredictability and exposure to nature’s elemental forces. And as countless great explorers have discovered, Antarctica, whether you make it or not, is a privilege – not a right.
How to do it
Swan Hellenic’s next 20-night semi-circumnavigation via Antarctica on board SH Diana sails from Ushuaia to Cape Town on 7 March 2025. Prices start from £6,380pp based on two sharing, including all meals and excursions; international flights cost extra. In reverse, next year’s Cape Town–Ushuaia repositioning departs on 15 November 2025.
Mark Stratton travelled as a guest of Swan Hellenic
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