Shackleton – Deano's World

Ok so I’m probably obsessing about the Southern half of the planet at this point but for some reason I googled what point of land, outside of Antarctica, was furthest south and got the answer South Georgia. At that point the world suddenly shrank dramatically. It turned out the only way to get to South Georgia is by sea and a few further google searches revealed that unless you want to go by cruise ship you pretty much need to sail there on a yacht from The Falkland Islands or the bottom of South America. As you can probably guess it is not like there are loads of yachts just waiting around for charter in Port Stanley but there was quite a lot of information readily available about the yachts that are based in that part of the world. One yacht, called Pelagic, immediately drew my attention and for all the right reasons.

Pelagic. Photo courtesy of Pelagic & Skip Novak

The reason I remembered a yacht called Pelagic is because an old friend, who I haven’t seen for almost fifteen years, was the skipper. Sure enough I soon found several articles about the yacht Pelagic and her long term skipper called Magnus Day. Magnus and I worked together delivering events for the likes of Ingenius, Concerto and VAK Design in the mid noughties and lost touch when he left to pursue his love of sailing. I tried his old contact details but figured they were probably long out of date. I did some digging and came across a few possible email addresses on the websites of some of the yacht charter firms he worked for. There was of course the fact there was a pretty decent chance he wouldn’t remember me anyway but I thought “why the hell not” and pinged off an email to all the email addresses I had found for him. I was not really expecting a response but figured I had nothing to lose. To my surprise less than 20 minutes later Mag replied by email, from where he was currently living in Ontario, while taking a break from shovelling snow off his drive. Swapping numbers I called him on WhatsApp and after a long overdue catch up I told him what I had in mind.

Having spoken to Magnus and talked through some of the disorganised ideas swirling around in my head things suddenly became much clearer. I followed it up with a conversation with my partner in crime Paul Jordan who, being used to my half baked ideas, always gives sound advice on what is, or is not, realistic. Jordy was very positive about the whole thing, apart from the distinct lack of wineries, and suggested a few elements that added to the story we could try and tell about yacht races, the vast southern ocean, unspoilt islands, snow capped mountains, shades of Shackleton on a fantastic adventure and bona fide challenge to boot: Out from Chile, The Cape Horn Monument, Elephant Island, South Georgia, Over the mountains to Grytviken, Shackleton’s grave, Falklands & Home

“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a gray mist on the sea’s face, and a gray dawn breaking.”
John Masefield

I’m not sure whether this would even work or if anyone else would be up for it but maybe with fair winds and following seas it’s a challenge for the future.

After returning from Everest, inevitably attention turned to the next challenge and fundraiser for Wooden Spoon. Understandably, there was a desire by some of the challengers to effectively “complete the set” by playing rugby at the South Pole: Wooden Spoon had previously undertaken challenges to play the most Northerly rugby match (North Pole) and the highest altitude rugby match (Everest). It is easy to see the allure of a challenge in the unspoilt wilderness of Antarctica inspired by the legacies of the likes of Ross, Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton, Bancroft, Fiennes & Stroud. For me, just the thought of the vast ice covered expanses and the clean air are enough to get my pulse racing and start looking at what exactly is realistic and feasible.

When you look at the idea in any detail however, the cracks start to appear. The problem with playing rugby at the South Pole, in my opinion, is that there is either a cost issue, time issue or story issue. What I mean by that is that you can either pay to fly to the South Pole itself for no other reason than to play the game and set a record which removes any element of challenge, reduces the number of challengers who can actually afford to go and decreases the appeal of sponsoring challengers. So you could walk in from the edge of Antarctica to play, which would be an astonishing challenge, but due to the time it would take to walk that far, recruiting enough challengers to play the match would be nigh on impossible. Lastly, the option to be dropped in at a realistic walkable distance feels scripted and doesn’t lend itself to authentic storytelling which is what inspires support and fundraising for the challengers and the charity. I also struggle with considering a charity challenge when potentially the cost of the expedition is going to be considerably more than the amount raised for the charity.

It may be that in the future, with increased exposure or funding, that the time and/or cost issues surrounding a game at the South Pole will be overcome and that the idea can be revisited and the set can finally be “completed”. But for now, in my mind at least, it is back to the drawing board to find a suitable challenge to undertake in 2023. I do feel however, that continuing to look Due South may well be the right approach and that a trip to the Southern reaches of this planet may well be on the cards in my not too distant future.