Spirit of Sydney

The Spirit of Sydney, or SOS, was first built as a racing yacht back in 1986. It is a very heavy-duty aluminum yacht, and was designed specifically for single-man, around the world races. In its first race it came in fourth place and has since raced two other times around the world, along with many other races.

We are told that it has quite a famous history in Australia, in racing, being owned by a famous music producer, and as the star in a Steve Irwin "Animal Planet" special.

The yacht is 18 metres (60 feet) in length, which seems pretty darn big, until day 5 or so, with nine people on board… it is then that you start seeing that it is a perfect size for a single-man… By Day 10, the one very small bathroom/shower is starting to get a little cramped.

The great thing is that the yacht has been customized for Antarctic adventures with satellite communication, a satellite weather system, heaters, and a fresh water maker. These are items that you would think would be mandatory, but you would be surprised with the number of large yachts down there with no heaters or having to haul fresh water every second day.

The SOS is also organized for “adventure tourism” in mind. They have kayaks, snowshoes, toboggans, glacier trekking equipment and skis all on board. This equipment would come in handy later in the trip to entertain us.

The other good news is that the SOS has a lot of storage space for all of the important items like food, wine and beer. Even better news is that we were all well stocked with those items...or so we thought.