TRIP : Antartica on a SUP GONG, the story !!!!!!!

Here is the story by Sophie : “We are French sailors , Didier – the captain, Sophie – 1st mate and cook, Cloe and Nino – deckhands. We are the owners of Sauvage, a 60 ft French design sailing boat with a centreboard, that we had built in Brazil. We wanted a sailing boat that could take us to every latitude including tropical and cold regions, remote and isolated places that are off the beaten track. Our passion is exploration, of beautiful wild landscapes far from the crowds which we can share with our passengers . We also organize expedition cruises and adventure cruises for individuals and/or mountaineering teams, documentary film makers, photographers, scientists and even surfers. Sauvage , is our home, lifestyle, job and our transportation around the world. Most recently we have had sailing charters in the Far North in the Bering Sea and the Far South in Antarctica. Last year we spent more time offshore and at sea, than at anchor near shore. We had an expedition in the Bering Sea from Aleutian Islands, Alaska (I could not put my SUP board in the water there due to high winds everyday) to Nome, the Gold rush city of the Great North. In Nome, gold is still to be found in the sand !!! People camp every Summer on the Alaskan beaches battered by the winds and the Bering sea waves with anticipation of finding gold. They live in primitive tents, like in the old times. We then sailed straight down to San Diego in California as we only had a short time to refit and paint the hull of Sauvage. During October and November we sailed non stop zigzaging through the Mexican hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean, direct to Gambier, French Polynesia. After we had prepared Sauvage for the Antarctica and Patagonia cruise season we sailed south east through the roaring 40’s to the entrance of The Straights of Magellan and on to Ushuaia in Argentina, arriving late November in time for our Antarctic cruises in December and January. We estimated that we had in total done more than 250 days of offshore sailing and crossings in the Pacific Ocean from North to South. We spent two consecutive summers, the Northern hemisphere summer followed by the austral summer in Ushuaia. At the Ushuaia dock, this long SUP board on Sauvage deck attracted lots of comments and questions from the inquisitive passersby .. I always told them that I planned to SUP in Antarctica. In saying that I realized, WOW!!! I may be the 1st woman SUPing in the Far South ….Ushuaia, is the departure port of every possible kind of challenge and expedition cruise to Antarctica. Lately it has been the trend to be the 1st to do something crazy and unusual; This destination attracts all the extreme adventure fans. Antarctica is a magical and fabulous place where you feel the “spirit of adventure” as soon as you arrive there . This last season proved exceptionally bad in many ways. On the last Antarctica cruise the weather was especially bad with a continual series of low pressures around the Cape Horn area. There was no break between the blows (wind). We were anchored in the last sheltered anchorage near Cape Horn waiting for a short good weather window to enable us to cross the Drake Passage. It takes three offshore sailing days in the long Pacific swell to reach the Antarctica Peninsula. When at last we could point our bow towards the Drake Passage and sail around Cape Horn, we just crossed the path of the 2nd competitor of the Vendee Globe Challenge. What an amazing coincidence and what timing…He was sailing full speed ahead with full sails, towards the Atlantic, even though we had two reefs in our mainsail to cross the Drake Passage. When we arrived in Antarctica three days later we realized that it was an extremely snowy season. The snow cover surrounding the anchorage was very deep with excellent conditions for snowboarding. It was a record snow fall for the austral summer. There were big snow flakes falling on the deck as we anchored. Of course a snow ball fight on the boat deck followed. The landscape was surreal and the guests were under the spell of Antarctica. It was all that they had dreamt about. We put on our rubber boots and went ashore for a walk in the fresh snow. Suddenly we were surrounded by penguins. One moment they were swimming in the water and suddenly they were near the shore and walking along with their funny rolling gait. They are able to walk long distances up to their nests which are sometimes perched high on a hill. They were sliding dowhill on their bellies, alongside us when we were snowboarding and testing our boots with their beaks. I could not put my SUP board in the water as it was too windy and there was too much brash (bits of ice) that day. Aboard Sauvage we carry all sorts of gliding “toys'”, this is providing the captain allows us to store them on the boat. We try to keep any extra weight to a minimum onboard, however, we can store cross country skis, downhill skis and boots, snowboards, sleds and even an expedition pulka given to us by a Chilean base in Antarctica. The snowboards, kayaks and SUP board are not the most recently available models. Nor do we have high tech equipment as we are not athletes or champions. We just want to have fun and share with our passengers our passion for everything connected with gliding sports and adventure without going to the extreme. Talking about “extreme activities “, Antarctica is THE playground for them. Athlete’s, sportsmen and mountaineers are attracted by the Far South for challenges. Many extreme exploits have been achieved including first ascents of the Antarctica peninsula mountain summits and extreme skiing on mountainsides. There was a first surfing session in the Shetland islands, divers under the ice filming leopard seals orcas and penguines for documentaries. There has also been a paraglider with an engine. A kitesurfer planned to come last summer but did not eventuate. An American swimmer did a long distance swim in Paradise Bay. Last summer Nino and I were the first to ride on an SUP board. I guess we can say that Nino is the first teenager in boardshorts SUPing in Antarctica, and I am the first woman SUPing in Antarctica. So, the next person who would like to do a “1st event ” will have to either SUP naked or SUP, and surf a carving glacier wave down there… hey ?! We can take you there Laird Hamilton aboard Sauvage !!! As we had a disturbed weather forecast in the peninsula this season with snow, wind and lots of ice it didn’t help to motivate me to put the SUP board in the water. I could only ride three times during this last 32 day expedition. I’m also the cook aboard Sauvage and so i was busy working in the galley. However, I was quick to put on the gear and have fun when the conditions were right. This perfect day occurred in Curverville anchorage with no wind, but big snow flakes and lots of icebergs beached around Sauvage. The penguin rookery as a backdrop and far away in the distance a humpback whale was breaching. I paddled as fast as I could but I still couldn’t catch up with the whale! The atmosphere was magical, I was paddling near icebergs that had crazy shapes and beautiful arches. The snow flakes added to the eerie atmosphere. In the clear water I could see the penguins swimming back and forth under the board. The seals were watching me from their resting place on a growler (small iceberg). Everything that you would wish was there for a perfect and beautiful experience. So beautiful I could endure the pain of my freezing feet even though I was wearing a thick neoprene suit and light neoprene boots (the model used in Californian waters). Brrrrr…the water was 2 deg. Then there was this extraordinary day when Sauvage was surrounded by killerwhales. When Didier switched off the engine the killerwhales immediately got closer and started to inspect Sauvage and its crew thoroughly. Two Orcas came close to the sugar scoop (stern platform). Nino and the passenger/photographers were getting ready for the picture of the century …when Nino could pat and touch the 2 orcas on their heads. The whales were watching us ..Such an incredible encounter in the wild. We were all under the spell and I totally forgot to put the SUP board in the water. I do not think I would have felt so confident paddling among the orcas. Talking about predators, the second biggest predator in Antarctica is the leopard seal which we see quite often resting on the drifting ice, playing with our lines or biting the zodiacs. They love to play and the icedivers tell stories of leopard seals playing with their flippers. Leopard seals are really big seals, with a reptilian head and large jurassic style teeth. I must confess I was checking more carefully around the water when I was paddling in Port Lockroy Bay, the English base. Especially after the British and the local divers told me that Port Lockroy was a favourite leaopard seal feeding ground. Nino and I were a bit worried about our feet while paddling but we did not see one leopard seal that day. It seemed so sunny and tropical that Nino decided to paddle barefoot and wearing only his boardshorts in front of the calving glacier and icebergs. I was less brave and more sensitive to cold so I wore my neoprene suit and boots but with a Tahitian touch ..flower necklaces. My Tahitian friends had asked me to take pictures of myself in the ice wearing a flower necklace. Even though the water was freezing cold Nino and the passengers swam in the shallow waters of the bay. We passed two charter sailing boats and two of their crew wanted to try out our SUP board. We rafted the three boats alongside each other and let the boats drift in the Bransfield Strait, surrounded by icebergs and the panoramic view of glaciers and mountains. Even though it was a beautiful sunny day the water was extremely cold. The boys must have fallen three times in the freezing water but they were pretty quick to climb back up on the board. Though not graceful they succeeded in maintaining their balance and we had a good laugh aboard the yachts as it was a good show. The boys told me later that it took a while for them to get warm again, so Antarctica is not really the best place to learn SUPing.” Sophie SUPer : Sophie Wattrelot and friends on a GONG SUP 12′ in Antarctica.