Alone to Antarctica in Ice Bird

Extract

In 1974 Dr. David Lewis was awarded the Institute's Gold Medal for his work on indigenous navigation methods in the Pacific, and his many remarkable feats of practical navigation. The following account is of perhaps the most remarkable of his voyages which was an attempt to circumnavigate the Antarctic Continent on his own. The first part of the voyage, which culminated in January 1973, was mentioned in the formal citation for the award; the second part, which is every bit as remarkable, finished in Capetown in March 1974.

No one had ever sailed single-handed through the Southern Ocean to any part of the Antarctic continent, not even by way of Drake Passage from Tierra del Fuego, which involves a crossing of only about 400 miles of open sea. Since the sole practicable Antarctic landfall for a small vessel is the Antarctic Peninsula (formerly Graham Land) below Cape Horn, Australia, some 6000 miles to the west, was a far from ideal starting point. However, this was where I was working so that there was no alternative but to make Sydney the point of departure.