IN SHACK LETON'S STEPS

A FAMILY SAIL-SKI-CLIMB ADVENTURE FOR SKIP NOVAK REVEALS THE CHANGING NATURE OF THE SHACKLETON TRAVERSE

- Skip Novak

We hit the cold front square on. From light and variable in the centre of the low, bottoming out at 973mb, the wind took but an hour to ramp up to a point where we needed three reefs in the fore mainsail and only a staysail up front. Early in the day the Windy app was clear what lay in store: 40-plus knots of southerly while we were still two days out of Port Stanley on the return from South Georgia.

When the blizzard set in just before nightfall, off we went on deck fully kitted up. The sail plan pre-emptively set when the wind filled had been optimistic. Soon we were at storm sail configuration - the fourth reef put in was our trysail - and with the staysail deeply reefed on the furler, our de facto 'storm jib. Seas of 8m were predicted and it was clear we could not lay Stanley across the wind, but needed to put the wind and sea on the quarter.

For the next 36 hours things were 'on the edge' with the wind above 40, often gusting up to 55 knots. The on-watch had eyes glued to the radar, but were otherwise warm and cozy in the pilot house - a deprivation chamber of sorts against the howling storm. Snow squalls continually came and went, though luckily icing on deck and in the rigging was minimal, checked often with our deck spot lights.

I was hoping like hell the autopilot would not fail. I was pretty sure we'd not be able to hand steer in these conditions. Heaving-to was possibly on the cards and, although we had years ago tested a heave-to configuration in 30 knots, turning up into this seaway would be dramatic in this 75-tonne vessel. Luckily, we rode it out, sliding on top of the quarter sea doing 8 to 15 knots comfortably.