Do you know, it was just one hundred years ago that Ernest Shackleton and his men were down in Antarctica, trying to cross the White Continent? Well it was. And the centenary of the event is being celebrated not only in Britain but also in Chile, because this country became inadvertently involved in the undertaking. Shackleton’s first adventures in Antarctica were as part of Robert Falcon Scott’s team. Whereas Scott began his career, at the age of just thirteen, as…
A few weeks ago we published an article about Puerto Williams, and on the following day we heard from Clare Allcard, wife of the centenarian Edward Allcard. Allcard was the first person to sail single-handed both to and fro across the Atlantic – or at least, he would have been if a young Azorean girl hadn’t stowed away in his forepeak on the last leg of that return voyage… The year was 1950, and at that time a young Portuguese…
Oosh-why-a – that’s how you pronounce it; and just the name is enough to excite curiosity. Amongst Argentinians, Ushuaia has connotations of extreme travel and grand adventure. They come here to ski and snowboard, but more than anything they come here to stand at the End of the World. Still, if it were called Martinsville or Buenas Nieves I doubt if this place would be so popular. Even before we came south, I was already eager to visit Ushuaia; but…
Speaking of global warming… (and everyone should be speaking about it, constantly): What a difference 10 degrees makes! This time last year Tierra del Fuego was buried under a foot of snow. Last winter, in June, we set off to sail from Puerto Williams to Wulaia; and before we went, we had to spend more than an hour unfreezing the mooring lines. Each knot in each line was cast as if in iron. You could pick up a warp and…
