From island ferries to Antarctic adventure

A MAN has told how he sailed for three weeks in Antarctica without contact with the outside world.

Keith Greenfield, 63, has returned home to Shiplake after what he called an incredible experience on board a traditional tall ship built in 1911.

He was one of 31 paying sailors plus 19 permanent crew members on Europa, which is 50m long with three masts and is based at The Hague in the Netherlands. It belongs to Bark Europa, which organises different voyages.

Mr Greenfield, who is chief executive of Wightlink Ferries and an experienced sailor, said: “I particularly wanted to go to Antarctica because it’s totally wild and remote. It’s one of the stormiest seas in the world, although the weather was kind to us. I wanted to challenge myself.

“There were amazing sights and the landscape was so ridged with extreme mountains, glaciers and icebergs — it was like another planet.

“There was lots of wildlife to see as well and we spent lots of time exploring the peninsular.”

Mr Greenfield learned to sail with his father, who was a seaman, when he was a teenager and took it up again in his thirties. He has a boat in Portsmouth and regularly sails along the South Coast with his wife Sally and two children, whom he taught to sail when they were younger. He has also sailed across the Atlantic.

“I’m more of a coastal sailor,” said Mr Greenfield. “Sailing across oceans is a different ball game but a friend did the Antarctica sail seven or eight years ago so he planted the seed in my head. I thought it sounded great, although not easy to do.”

He had been planning the trip before the covid pandemic but it was inevitably delayed and he says it was in fact a “scramble” for Europa to be ready in time for the summer in Antarctica, when it is our winter, having been out of action for three years.

Mr Greenfield said: “Out of the people who paid, there were probably three or four with previous sailing experience. There were a few who didn’t have any but they were adventurous types.

“The crew teach you everything you need for the jobs you’ll be doing but three weeks on a sailing boat in rough seas is not everybody’s thing.”

The ship set sail from Ushuaia, the capital of the Tierra del Fuego province on the southern tip of Argentina.

Mr Greenfield, who arrived two days early after four flights to ensure he didn’t miss the ship, said: “I had a new set of base layers and really thick sweaters for the trip. I had to get the right boots and you need to have completely waterproof gear.

“I stayed in a little guest house in Ushuaia and there was a fabulous museum there.

“Then I joined the ship and my fellow crew members and we stayed one night in port to settle down and get the basic training like climbing the rigging. The next day, we were off.”

They went through the Beagle Channel to reach the Drake Passage, which connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean and the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean. It took about five days to reach Antarctica.

Mr Greenfield said: “The first night was quite rough and quite a lot of people were seasick. Then it calmed down and it was a relatively calm passage for the rest of the trip there. We were lucky with the weather.

“There was a watch system where every four hours 10 of us were on watch. We had to steer the ship, look out or help the crew with the sails. There was a lot of pulling on ropes. Then we’d have eight hours off and this system went all the way through the night so you could be working at any time.

“Since half the crew were seasick — I wasn’t as I was taking remedies — the rest of us were working twice as hard for those first 24 hours. I had been asked to be watch leader so I had to organise the work.”

The visitors spent a week exploring the South Shetland Islands. Mr Greenfield said: “As we approached, the mountains were very dramatic. They were really jagged and others were big snow-covered hills. We pulled into the bay and the next day we went ashore and started to meet wildlife. On Greenwich Island we met elephant seals, fur seals and gentoo penguins.”

There were gale force winds as the ship sailed to Deception Island, a natural harbour above an active volcano, with a narrow entrance.

Mr Greenfield said: “We went in through a break in the cliffs. It was very windy but the water wasn’t too choppy. Then we had 50-plus knots, which is severe so it was too windy to anchor and we just had to go back and forth inside the volcano. It was a surreal experience.

“In the early evening, it was safe to go ashore. We had zodiac boats to reach the shore and explored an abandoned whaling station. We also found graves of people who used to live there. To think that people lived and died in such a remote place.

“Whaling was banned by the Sixties but it had all stopped [on the island] by the Forties. We came across lots of whale bones.”

The ship cruised around the mainland, stopping at various bays during which Mr Greenfield learned a lot about the local wildlife, environment and history.

“The colours of the ice were amazing,” he said. “Bodies of ice were formed over thousands of years, compressed and crushed, which generates different types of ice.

“When chunks break off from the glaciers you see the reflections from the different layers of ice which are contrasting colours because of the different densities.

“You can find out a lot from the glaciers. Every year there’s a new layer of ice and when a volcano erupts, the ash is buried in the glacier so you can tell how long ago it erupted.

“We did some climbs up small mountains. It was quite icy so it was quite slow going.

“We saw some chinstrap penguins. We had signed an agreement about preserving the wildlife so we had to stay a minimum of 5m away and we had to disinfect and scrub our boots every time we went back to the ship or onshore to ensure we did not take any non-native seeds or diseases to other islands.

“They were particularly worried about bird flu, which was going round in South America. They take it extremely seriously.

“Moss was the only plant life there and it takes hundreds of years to grow. It’s such a precious environment so they’re protective of it.

“We also saw quite a lot of humpback whales and minkes.

“The penguins were still nesting because there’s not as much snow as there used to be and they don’t realise it’s winter. It means a lot of the chicks won’t survive because their fur coats won’t fall off in time to reveal their waterproof coats. They spend winter feeding in the ocean.

“The penguins were comical walking around everywhere but did not seem to be achieving anything. You could watch them for hours. They swim in little groups, which is quite sweet.

“There were these tracks followed by all the penguins. They are a pinkish colour because of their poo.”

The group came across abandoned radio stations from the Forties and Fifties looking just as they did at the time with the old equipment.

On Winter Island, Mr Greenfield saw Wordie House, a British scientific base named after James Wordie, chief scientist on Ernest Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-17.

On Goudier Island, he saw Port Lockroy, which was a whaling station before becoming the first permanent British base to be established on the Antarctic
Peninsula.

It closed in 1962 but in 2006 it became the world’s most southern post office and each summer, a team spends four months manning it. The current team is four British women who boarded the ship to talk about the work they do.

The final stop was Andvord Bay where Mr Greenfield went for a dip in the harbour with some other members of the crew.

“It had to be done,” he said. “It was a very cold but sunny day and very calm so there was no wind chill.”

On the way back to Argentina, the sailors experienced more strong winds but it was blowing from behind so the ship became a day ahead of schedule which enabled an extra stop in Estancia Harberton in the Beagle
Channel.

On the other side of the channel was Cape Horn, which Mr Greenfield wasn’t expecting to see because there are usually clouds and storms but it was a calm evening.

Estancia Harberton is part of Ushuaia and has the Tierra del Fuego province’s first ever farm settlement, which was founded by Thomas Bridges, a British Anglican missionary. The fifth generation of his family still lives there.

Mr Greenfield said: “It’s a really interesting place.”

To end their trip, the sailors had a final barbecue on board the ship. The food had been “excellent” throughout the trip.

Mr Greenfield said: “The cook, a Dutch guy, is the longest-serving member of the crew. He cooked with a woman and it was really healthy with lots of choices.

“They baked bread every night so it was fresh every morning. There were lots of salads.”

Mr Greenfield said he had made friends for life during their expedition.

He said: “There were crew members from their late twenties through to a couple in their seventies. About a third were female and about half were couples. There were eight guys on their own and a couple of women on their own.

“In the crew, it was about 50/50 male and female. They were from all over the world. There were five Brits, a few from the Netherlands, Germany and Austria, six Canadians and some from the States, Brazil and Australia.

“It was really nice and as a result of living and working with these people, we’re friends for life. We’re all keeping in touch. I’ve had lots of invites from other people and I’ve invited people to visit us when they’re in England.”

The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Mr Greenfield which has motivated him to explore other areas.

He said: “It has given me the appetite to go to North Greenland and Spitsbergen. I have friends who have been there. There are historic ships and big islands which have lots of wildlife and glaciers. The wildlife is different to Antarctica — polar bears, for example.

“I wouldn’t have to go to Argentina, I’d go to Norway, which is a lot nearer.

“I’ll hopefully get my wife to come with me. She likes wildlife — she just didn’t want to do the long sailing passages.”

Being without the internet or phone signal for three weeks made Mr Greenfield appreciate what he has. He said: “I’m happy to be home. The ship is small compared to home and you’re constantly sharing with other people.

“There was only an emergency method of contact through a satellite phone. You could only send a short written message, like a telegram.

“You are really cut off, which felt scary. It makes you realise how life is so digital. Everything you do — banking, bills to pay, people you keep in touch with — means constant digital contact. But after a few days you get used to it and you forget about it — you live in a bubble. I did think about home a bit. I only used the satellite once to send a birthday message to my wife. She was able to reply so at least I knew that nothing had gone badly wrong at home.

“Once you get to land, the phones just start pinging and you just think, ‘What’s in store?’. There were absolutely loads of emails — where do you start? — it was quite daunting. Over there, life was quite simple and you take every day as it comes — eating, sailing and sleeping. Then all of a sudden, life gets a lot more complicated when you connect to the world again, which was a little bit scary.

“I decided not to look at emails for 24 hours and just talk to my wife on the phone just so she could tell me anything I should know. I then started to message people gradually.

“She had been away on a walking trip in Cyprus, where she was born, so when I got home it was nice to debrief on our adventures.”