Blizzard Starts their Antarctic Experience

by Nancy Knudsen on 26 Nov 2007 On 1st October 2007, the Blizzard, a 20 metre, schooner rigged, aluminium expedition sailing yacht, set sail from Hobart across the Southern Ocean to Puerto Montt on the west coast of Chile. En route she called in at the remote and uninhabited New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands.

Blizzard is built to operate independently in the wild and remote regions of the world, and on board are paying participants. However, these are genuine expeditions, where participants are integral members of the team, living in close quarters and sharing responsibility for all aspects of sailing and logistics.

Blizzard's crew are David Pryce, an experienced Antarctic and Southern Ocean sailor and Hannah McKeand, a polar skier who has twice travelled the 690 miles to the South Pole and in 2006 set a new World Record for the journey.

The entire voyage will take approximately 45 days, and the Blizzard crew are sending back updates on their journey – they make great reading. Here's the latest one, sent this week:

Well, we've had a wonderfully relaxing week or so in Puerto Montt. We gave Blizzard a really good deep clean and serviced all her bits and pieces. We were very happy that after 6000 miles in the Southern Ocean the only breakages were a fiddle in the galley (Noodle!) and our alternator, for which thankfully we have a spare on board.

None of our super first leg crew are continuing south with us down the coast of Chile, so there were some very sad goodbyes this week. All the boys have been really brilliant and we hope to sail with them many more times in the future.

Luckily, we have now been joined by a new set of smashing characters. Tony Laurent has come over from his home in Airlie Beach. Tony is one of the legendary sailors of all time. He was one of the pioneers of big multihull racing and sailed with De Kersuerson in the original Jules Vernes challenges against the likes of Peter Blake. Tony has sailed with some of the greats in his time and is full of amazing stories. We've also been joined by a couple of old friends, Jamie and Digby. Jamie was one of Dave's watch leaders on the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and Digby was the chief camerman on the race. Diggers joins us fresh from filming the Americas Cup and the Mini TransAt.

The weather is absolutely glorious down here and we are reaching for the sunscreen more often than our thermals at the moment!

On the 21st Blizzard was completely reprovisioned and raring to go and by lunchtime we had collected our Zarpe (permit) from the local Armada and slipped lines.

There is a biggish bit of open water to cross straight out of PM, so we were delighted when the wind came in and were able to crank the big girl up under sail. We can generally sail a lot faster than we can motor, so we were soon eating up the miles. The view of the volcanoes in the north east was splendid, but we were itching to get down to the narrow channels to the south.

That night we anchored up in Bahia Pumalin with half a dozen little fishing boats, and were under way early the next morning. There was no wind for us this time, but it only took 6 hours to motor down to our next anchorage at Purto Juan Yates. This was a beautiful little spot tucked away in a hollow surrounded by a maze of hills and rocks. Half a dozen dolphins played round the boat as we dropped the anchor and tied the stern lines to a couple of rocks on the shore.

Jamie, Digby and I went for a big explore in the Zodiac. The dolphins came along too and we saw condors, Magellenic Penguins, an Oyster-catcher and the most splendid woodpecker with a bright red head. The shore line and woodland floors are covered with beautiful flowers including masses of native Fuchsias. We had a good supper and an early night in the lovely peaceful surroundings.

Today we were again forced to motor, but the route was spectacular as we entered the maze of waterways that will absorb us over the next few weeks.

Tonight we are anchored in Pozo Delphin, another sheltered cove surrounded by woods and little hills. Tony is cooking up a storm in the galley and all's right with the world.